Today some
students at a high school in this province were sent home for dress code
violations. Reports indicate that one such violation included visible bra
straps. I am not aware that any nipple, cleavage, or “underboob” was spied, but
I am certain that bra straps were spotted.
And bra straps indicate the presence and existence of bras.
Now, I
understand that bras are mysterious garments and may be a little scary to the
un-indoctrinated so I’ll defer to the great Frank Costanza for help explaining:
Frank: “You know about the cup sizes
and all? …They have different cups.”
George: “Yeah, I know about the
cups.”
Frank:
“You got the A, B, C … the D. That's the biggest.”
I’m not going to
get into details about the high school or the news stories or speculating about
what exactly transpired or whether or not there were other elements of these
students’ outfits that were inappropriate or too revealing, if there is, or can
be, such a barometer (the revealing clothing barometer!) That’s not as
important to me as the conversation it should provoke about how girls’ and
women’s bodies, and breasts particularly, are monitored, and the kind of
messages young women receive about the appropriateness of the bodies they
cannot help having.
I will note that
of the approximately 30 students sent home, two were males who violated the code
in different ways, so it wasn’t exclusively girls.
This is just
the latest publicized example of young adults, particularly young women, having
their bodies policed. There are many stories online about similar situations.
And just today, Scout Willis went topless in NYC to protest Instagram’s ban on (female) nipples in photographs while using the hashtag #FreeTheNipple. The female breast is excessively sexualized, and certainly disproportionately to male chests and nipples.
So let us
interrogate all the hoopla about breasts.
First of all, I sympathize with the task at hand for educators and school administrators. I respect that they want to foster and maintain an environment conducive for learning. I recognize that students do, indeed, need to put clothing on their bodies to attend high school. Even as a resister of excessive regulation of clothing, I recognize that there have to be some limits and parameters, as difficult as they are to define. Our current social acceptability model in North America says women’s nipples shalt never be seen and men’s are OK sometimes, but no nipples shall be seen in the classroom. That’s a norm I can accept. I’m not advocating for the complete abandonment of dress codes or norms for attire in different environments.
This post isn’t calling for the utter removal of dress codes, but I think it’s important that all people, especially people working with young adults such as in a school environment, defamiliarize themselves from the long accepted and unchallenged notion of women’s bodies as needing to be hidden.
But the fact
that, according to students, the school’s reasoning to the dress
code-infringing girls included that their attire was distracting to male
students and male teachers is deeply disturbing. Not only for its
heteronormativity (which isn’t all that surprising), but for the mere
suggestion that people, male or female – being distracted or aroused by a girl
or woman’s body is her fault and her
problem.
Rather than
spend some time talking to students and young people about being comfortable
with their bodies and also respecting other bodies by not ogling, let’s just
remove the temptation – make it easier. It sure doesn’t give high school boys
(again, heteronormative) much credit. And I don’t even know what to say about
how it reflects on male teachers.
As a breast-having
person, it’s not my responsibility to control whether or not you look.
This is my take
on bras, broken down logically:
- I did not
choose these breasts. I was born biologically female, continue to identify with
that gender identity, and I have breasts. In fact, I’ve had them, in some
noticeable form, since about Grade 5. And yes, I found it humiliating at the
time. Because at that age, even if boys like the girls with boobs you still
feel hypervisible and hyper-embarrassed about your body.
- High school
girls are young women. Many of them may also have breasts.
- Women often
wear bras to support these breasts. But bra-wearing is not just for support and
(for many) comfort – they’re also about concealing. Bras conceal the size and
shape of breasts and ensure the nipples are less or not visible through
clothing.
- Bras require
straps to work.
- Bra straps may
become visible in the course of clothes-wearing (consider yourself warned).
- If bra straps,
in and of themselves, are inappropriate, then are bras inappropriate? Should
students – and women generally – forego bras?
Bras are not
fashion, not an accessory – they are utilitarian garments that are useful and
have purpose. If, ostensibly, going bra-less would also violate dress codes and
social norms, then shouldn’t the wearing of bras be supported? Shouldn’t young
women not be given the message that “your breasts as OK, but keep them a
secret.”
Try juggling bras. Try it. |
I also think it
is important that written, easily available dress codes exist so that
organizations have the difficult task of actually articulating what they
envision as good and bad and why. Students at least deserve to know what’s
expected before their bodies and appearances are policed. To their credit, this school does have
a well documented and accessible dress code.
I’ve never read a nuanced and thoughtfully written dress code that actually
states why any given item isn’t considered acceptable. I want to see dress
codes that aren’t vague and euphemistic but will take the time to describe
which areas of the body are off limits. “Revealing” isn’t descriptive enough to
cut it for me. Revealing what? Some people find feet extremely sexy – should
open toe sandals be banned too?
I realize that
some body parts have a long legacy of sexualization but high schools – safe,
supportive, learning environments – are not the place that girls should be sent
the message that their simply having breasts is deviant or embarrassing.
It seems to me, that it’s OK for
girls and women to have breasts and mandatory
that they physically support and contain them in clothing, but NOT OK that you
catch a glimpse of the apparatus through which that support and concealment is
made possible.