Close X
Thursday, January 16, 2025
ADVT 
National

Experts Say Teens' Push Against Dress Codes Could Be A Sign Of Social Change

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 29 May, 2015 10:36 AM
    TORONTO — Students may have been rebelling against school-imposed dress codes for decades, but observers say the fact that those protests are now making national headlines suggests a fundamental shift in social attitudes.
     
    Social media has allowed students both to share their own experiences with a wider audience and read about similar occurrences from further afield.
     
    The result, experts say, is that individual incidents become part of an ongoing, global conversation about complex issues such as freedom of expression, cultural identity and sexual consent.
     
    All of these topics can be tied back to dress codes according to Rebecca Raby, a sociologist in Brock University's department of Child and Youth Studies.
     
    According to her research, which specifically explored the impact of clothing rules in secondary schools, placing limits on people's attire sends subtle messages about what's acceptable in society.
     
    "There's lots going on when you have a dress code," Raby said in a telephone interview. "Dress is very subjective, ...and when schools try to regulate it, they're trying to regulate dress of really diverse populations, including diverse ages, who have different kinds of norms. And they're trying to enforce one norm."
     
    Two recent Canadian controversies around students' dress codes made social media waves that eventually washed over the off-line world.
     
    Earlier this month, Lauren Wiggins made a splash on Facebook by posting a picture of a floor-length halter dress that got her briefly suspended from her Moncton, N.B., high school on grounds that it posed a "sexual distraction." Earlier this week, Alexi Halket made headlines by organizing a protest against perceived fashion rules at her Toronto-area arts school.
     
    After being told the crop top she wore was too short and looked too much like a sports bra, Halket took to social media and mobilized dozens of fellow students to don similar garments the next day.
     
    Halket's principal, Rob MacKinnon, acknowledged that dress codes can be a complex issue. Schools usually develop their own sartorial standards that reflect the community they serve, he said, adding that what might raise eyebrows in one region may elicit a shrug in another.
     
    But MacKinnon said schools are also responsible for teaching some basic standards of behaviour.
     
    "Our (school) is a workplace, it's not a public street," MacKinnon said. "I think, like all work places, there is an understanding that we don't come to school in our underwear."
     
    Raby praised MacKinnon for openly discussing the issue with his students, but cautioned that tying a dress code to social standards isn't always innocuous.
     
    "Just saying something like, 'the school is a place of business,' or 'you should come to school as if you're going to work' assumes a certain kind of workplace in these people's futures," she said.
     
    "There's this underlying story, and it fits with this sort of rape culture idea that girls are responsible, through what they wear, for managing boys, which is also quite often negatively framed that guys can't control themselves."
     
    Raby said it's not unusual for teens to push back against rules imposed at school, but sometimes vocal resistance becomes a harbinger of social change.
     
    In the 1960s, for instance, Raby said widespread rebellion against regulations banning long hair or short skirts signalled a fundamental change in social attitudes.
     
    She senses another shift in the offing as teens find new ways to get their voices heard.
     
    Gender analyst Steph Guthrie agreed, saying social media allows people feeling marginalized to express themselves while learning about others in the same situation.
     
    She said girls would have had opportunities to read about everything from the disgraced CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi scandal to in-depth discussions of rape culture on university campuses.
     
    That information provides a context for dress code dustups that ultimately help fuel a global conversation, she said.
     
    "We are better able to map these incidents and see these are all different, but they all share some common themes," she said. "I think it's helping to map a movement."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Woman Suspected Of Shoplifting Critically Hurt While Trying To Run Across Highway 1 In Coquitlam

    Woman Suspected Of Shoplifting Critically Hurt While Trying To Run Across Highway 1 In Coquitlam
    A woman has life-threatening injuries after police say she ran away from a store she was suspected of shoplifting from and was struck by a vehicle in Coquitlam

    Woman Suspected Of Shoplifting Critically Hurt While Trying To Run Across Highway 1 In Coquitlam

    Hydro One Fires Shawn Simoes, After Vulgar ‘FHRITP’ Rant Involving CityNews Reporter Shauna Hunt

    Hydro One Fires Shawn Simoes, After Vulgar ‘FHRITP’ Rant Involving CityNews Reporter Shauna Hunt
    Shawn Simoes, a assistant network management engineer with Hydro One — was fired by the company for violating its code of conduct.

    Hydro One Fires Shawn Simoes, After Vulgar ‘FHRITP’ Rant Involving CityNews Reporter Shauna Hunt

    Accused Retired Kamloops Teacher Contradicts Neighbour Who Found CDs Of Child Porn

    Accused Retired Kamloops Teacher Contradicts Neighbour Who Found CDs Of Child Porn
    Jerry Waselenkoff, 66, took the stand in his own defence Tuesday on a single count at his trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.

    Accused Retired Kamloops Teacher Contradicts Neighbour Who Found CDs Of Child Porn

    Omar Khadr: Youth Or Adult? Question Goes To Canada's Top Court Thursday

    TORONTO — The case of former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr returns to Canada's top court for a third time on Thursday, as the federal government fights to have him declared an adult offender for crimes he committed as a 15-year-old.

    Omar Khadr: Youth Or Adult? Question Goes To Canada's Top Court Thursday

    Canadian Air Task Force In Iraq Gets Female Commander, Former Sea King Pilot

    Canadian Air Task Force In Iraq Gets Female Commander, Former Sea King Pilot
      Brig.-Gen. Lise Bourgon, has taken over responsibility for the country's air task force in a ceremony at the air base where Canadian aircraft conducting strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant are based.

    Canadian Air Task Force In Iraq Gets Female Commander, Former Sea King Pilot

    Canadians Join Campaigners Calling For End To UN Peacekeeper Sex Abuse

    Canadians Join Campaigners Calling For End To UN Peacekeeper Sex Abuse
    The coalition, which calls itself Code Blue, wants UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon to lift the diplomatic immunity that protects UN employees from being held to account when abuse complaints arise.

    Canadians Join Campaigners Calling For End To UN Peacekeeper Sex Abuse