Dressing Down Dress Codes

An Evaluation of Dress Codes from a Youth Perspective

Ubiquitous with school are rules. Many times, adults create rules with the expressed intention of keeping the student population “safe and orderly”, but often, in reality, those rules are a mandated effort imposing the rule-maker’s perspective of what is “right” or “appropriate”, which can be heavily influenced by cultural and racial bias¹ ². Perhaps where we see this show up the most is in the enforcement of dress codes³. Across regions and schools, there is widespread evidence that Black and Hispanic students, both girls and boys, have a higher risk of being coded (reprimanded for having violated a dress code), as well as a higher risk of receiving official suspensions due to a dress code violation⁴. Existing studies suggest that these disparities are likely due to two reasons⁵. One is due to the unrealistic and rigid design of dress codes, which does not take account of cultural and religious practices, such as different body types, hairstyles, or the desire to have a head covering. Another reason is due to school faculty being more likely to target Black and Hispanic students than white students for the same kind of infraction.

Even well-researched studies containing well-meaning recommendations on dress code disparities seem to be focusing entirely on what policymakers and code enforcers should be doing. They (rightfully) ask the adults involved at State, District, and School levels to systematically collect data on dress code violations and suspensions by gender and race, to make policies on dress codes more equitable, and to interrogate their own perceptions of what is considered distracting, appropriate, or professional. Some go as far as suggesting students and their families ought to advocate for better policies⁶. However, none of them seem to be considering the possibility of creating structures within the school that actively solicit input from those most affected by these dress codes; the students. How exactly can we evaluate the impact of dress codes or design better policies unless we ask those impacted?

Considering this question, we asked our Liberation Leader Fellows to share their insights on dress codes from a youth perspective and to provide us with their analysis of what it’s like to grapple with these rules in their everyday life. The Liberation Leader Fellowship is a 12-month intensive fellowship aimed at providing youth with the platform and skills to spark transformative conversations with adults from across the nation, and we often turn to our youth for insight and guidance. Our Fellows highlighted two ways in which dress codes are perpetuating inequities and restrict self-expression among youth in their school environments. One involves restricting the range and type of clothing they are able to wear in a way that targets one specific group of youth more than others and severely limits the ways they can show up in school and feel comfortable. The second issue is related to creating obligatory expectations for wearing specific items of clothing, such as uniforms or shoes, without taking genuine account of the impact these expectations have on the financial burdens of families and staff.

Issue 1: Restricting range and type of clothing in a way that targets one group more than others.

Christiana: For as long as I can remember, every school I have gone to prohibited the wearing of tank tops, short dresses and shorts, everything off the shoulder, and anything that shows a collarbone because it can be “distracting”. Even though the dress code policy books never explicitly mention that girls cannot wear those types of clothing, it is clearly implied, and teachers tend to only target young girls.

Kayla: Young girls, especially African American ones with larger chests, were condemned for wearing tank-tops, deemed “too-revealing and distracting for others”, and forced to cover up with a school-issued sweater. However, this rule did not apply to individuals with smaller chests wearing the same types of tank tops or cropped sweaters. Unfortunately, this only perpetuated the issue of the adultification of young Black girls, where implicit racial bias deems African American children as growing “too-fast” or “sluts”. The worst of the issue, however, is the way the sexualization of children turned the blame on the kids themselves. They made young Black girls feel ashamed and self-conscious of their growing bodies because male administrators felt distracted by them- it only cultivated long-standing issues surrounding the notion that girls must dress in a way that makes other people comfortable and not themselves.

Marriyamu: Another problem I had was the body-shaming. We were initially allowed to wear any type of black pants, but when a new principal came in, he didn’t allow the girls to wear ripped jeans. My friend wore ripped jeans with leggings underneath, so you couldn’t really see any skin, and they still gave her a warning. I just feel that dress codes are really unfair and if we are being truthful the only people who are actually distracted are the adults.

Issue 2: Implementing obligatory clothing items without considering the costs for students, their families, and also staff

Marriyamu: I went to a uniform school but in order to get the uniform you had to pay for it. I feel that schools shouldn’t make you pay for something that you are required to wear especially since going to school isn’t a choice.

Caleb: They ask that we have a certain kind of dance shoe for next week, which may not be accessible to everyone, especially in a week. I think this form of perpetuating inequities by assuming access and/or privilege of employees or students can be just as harmful as the kind traditionally thought of when thinking of restrictive dress codes.

How can schools address and amend inequitable dress code policies?

Christiana: With these dress code policies, schools are perpetuating the dangerous rhetoric that girls are responsible for how guys behave if they wear a certain outfit. I wish school administrators and teachers would stop promoting such a disturbing and misogynistic mindset. Female students are not responsible whatsoever if male students lose focus or are inattentive. Guys should be taught to pay attention in school instead of teaching girls to cover up.

Caleb: I think that to avoid inequities, and sexism/sexualization of minors, there should be a dress guide where anyone can order free clothes off of the catalog. An important caveat is not making it a requirement, so as not to stifle the inherent creative expression that we have. Especially when it comes to institutions where leadership roles are predominantly made up of older white people, this creative expression may not be so easily understood or shared across generational and/or cultural boundaries.

Students’ concerns are more than a desire to disobey rules.

Dress codes are often presented by schools as ways to ensure social cohesion within the school community or as attempts to maintain the focus of students on learning, but the implications of them are usually far more complicated. There is evidence that educators are more likely to rely on traditional power dynamics when they feel incapable of maintaining control of student behaviors⁷ ⁸ ⁹. So in order to ensure these desired outcomes, educators revert to risk-averse approaches that seek to prioritize compliance to a set of predetermined restrictive rules, often resulting in arbitrary enforcement of things like a dress code.

What these rulebooks seem to be missing is that the desired outcomes (better behavior management, class attentiveness, consistent attendance, etc.) are more likely to be achieved using a different approach. Developmental psychology offers some useful insight into the role of autonomy in adolescent development. Instead of framing a desire for agency as rebellious independence, which can easily be misunderstood as a complete lack of behavioral expectations, this literature frames this desire for autonomy as a process of governance transfer¹⁰ ¹¹. Creating student-led educational spaces that incorporate the voice of those they are meant to “govern” is likely to play a positive role in developing self-regulating healthy behaviors among youth who can effectively identify contextual constraints as well as advocate for their change when those constraints do not fulfill their intended purpose. Ultimately, many dress code violations result in lost learning time, which is counterintuitive to what schools are here to do — educate.

None of the youth we spoke with advocate for the elimination of dress codes. The concerns they bring to the forefront are related to the lack of opportunity to shape or contribute to those expectations; expectations determined by people whose priorities, perceptions, and understanding are not representative of youth behaviors and needs. The details and nuances mentioned among our youth leaders are tapping into many social tensions surrounding gender roles and socioeconomic inequities that fall beyond the scope of this blog. Ultimately, each student and family faces different circumstances which vary widely from place to place and from school to school. What our Liberation Leaders are advocating for is a genuine opportunity to have their voices heard so these frameworks can do a better job of achieving their (self-professed) intended goals; a healthy, safe, and inclusive school community.

Through our work at DT, we understand that youth are fully capable of weighing into the rules and regulations that govern a school with thought and nuance, and they deserve the right to do so, particularly in the case of dress codes. No leader can have a full view of the gender, class, race, and religious implications that those policies have without first consulting with the students themselves. One of the many ways our Liberation Leader Fellowship enacts this shared leadership is by designating specific times within workshops, meetings, and other community spaces where youth develop norms and expectations together based on everyone’s input. As a result, youth who complete our fellowship report statistically significant increases in sense of belonging, confidence, empowerment, and self-esteem. It is our recommendation that school environments model this approach by allowing students to weigh into dress code policies to make them more inclusive, equitable, and subsequently more successful in achieving their intended purpose.

Sources

1. Krischer, H. (2018, April 17). Is your body appropriate to wear to school? New York Times.
2. Parsons, S. (2017). Not a distraction: An advocacy guide for policy change around school dress code. n.p.: Author. http://bit.ly/ParsonsNotaDistraction
3. Barret, K. (2018). When School Dress Codes Discriminate. NEA News. n.p.https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/when-school-dress-codes-discriminate
4. Pavlakis, A. & Roegman, R. (2018). How dress codes criminalize males and sexualize females of color. Phi Delta Kappan. n.p. https://kappanonline.org/pavlakis-roegman-dress-codes-gender-race-discrimination/
5. National Women’s Law Center (2018). DRESS CODED: Black Girls, Bodies, and Bias in D.C. Schools. https://nwlc.org/resources/dresscoded/
6. Latham Sikes C. (2020). Racial and Gender Disparities in Dress Code Discipline Point to Need for New Approaches in Schools. Intercultural Development Research Association. https://www.idra.org/resource-center/racial-and-gender-disparities-in-dress-code-discipline-point-to-need-for-new-approaches-in-schools/
7. Aloe, A.M., Amo, L.C. & Shanahan, M.E. Classroom Management Self-Efficacy and Burnout: A Multivariate Meta-analysis. Educ Psychol Rev 26, 101–126 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-013-9244-0
8. Glackin, Melissa. (2017). ‘Control must be maintained’: exploring teachers’ pedagogical practice outside the classroom. British Journal of Sociology of Education. 39. 10.1080/01425692.2017.1304204.
9. Butler, K. (2021). Decentering the White Gaze in Education: The Relationship Between Cultural Competence and Culturally Responsive Practices
10. Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., & Van Petegem, S. (2017). Autonomy in Adolescent Development: Towards Conceptual Clarity (1st ed.). Psychology Press.
11. Scorgie, K. and Forlin, C. (2019), “Social Inclusion and Belonging: Affirming Validation, Agency and Voice”, Promoting Social Inclusion (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Vol. 13), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-363620190000013001