Dress codes contentious

CHATHAM, Ont. — When Karen Green sends her two daughters, aged nine and 12, back to school in September, she knows she’ll have to contend with their school’s dress code.

The rules prohibit tops with straps narrower than the width of three fingers; skirts, shorts or dresses shorter than the length of extended fingertips when a student's arms are extended down the sides of their body; and abdomen, back and shoulder-baring tops, among other things.

Green believes the dress code unfairly targets girls in a certain age group — those in Grades 6 through 9, who are likely going through puberty.

“It’s not my child’s issue to make sure that nobody knows she’s wearing a bra. It’s everybody else’s issue to accept what a growing girl's body looks like, and to not be distracted by it," says Green, whose children attend a school in Chatham.

The message such dress-code rules send, she argues, is that as soon as girls start to develop, their bodies must be policed.

“Boys are basically represented as prisoners of their hormones. (They) just can’t help it and it’s not their fault. Girls, on the other hand, are seen as the gatekeepers of morality,” says Shauna Pomerantz, a Brock University child and youth studies associate professor and author of “Girls, Style and School Identities: Dressing the Part.”

Canadian schools have used dress codes to “control” students, she added.

“In many people’s minds, how you look equates to how you act.”

The Toronto District School Board also said their dress code policy is developed through “a conversation with the whole school community.”

Toronto District School Board spokesperson Shari SchwartzMaltz acknowledged, however, that some schools haven’t updated their dress code in many years.

However, for many parents, dress codes help create an environment where everyone can be comfortable.