High School Fashion Police on the Beat

If you have a moment, go to the link below and read the story about a young woman, a lesbian, who wanted to wear pants to her prom but was told that she had to wear a dress or be banned from the event.

http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/03/13/lesbian-fights-for-her-right-to-wear-pants-to-the-prom/

I wonder if any of my friends - or anyone who reads this post - can tell me how it hurts anyone for a young woman to wear an outfit that nearly every female member of Congress and most corporate types wear every day (and evening). More to the point, is the school doing so well delivering a high quality education that it has the extra time to indulge in this sort of distraction - one that has nothing whatsoever to do with educating kids (except perhaps teaching intolerance).

I can imagine some of the arguments in favor of the ban: 1) that it mocks the entire event and ruins it for all the young women who want to wear a formal gown; 2) that it is inappropriate to politicize what should otherwise be a fun evening for 17 and 18 year olds who don't have many opportunities to look mature and glamorous. I, for one, trust that 17 and 18 year olds understand personal expression and don't care very much if a female classmate wants to wear a pant suit. Whatever political statement is being made became political when the school decided to ban it, not when the young woman went to buy her outfit.

In my lifetime, most female teachers were not permitted to wear pant suits until the early 1970s. Those rules were clearly rooted in a desire to promote a particular view of how women should dress as role models for female students. The problem is that high schools are perhaps the least qualified institutions on the planet to determine how women should dress.

If they looked around them, they would see that many successful adult women almost always wear pant suits. If schools want their graduates to have the opportunity to fully participate in the adult world, they need to help them develop a broader view of the world. The country's largest corporations and some of the best paid professions are not only comfortable with diversity but demand that their employees respect each other despite cultural differences in all sorts of arenas, including fashion choices. If we teach intolerance now, we will limit young women's opportunities for success in the real world. In short, bigots will be ostracized and will miss out on some really good places to work.

I count myself among many people who believe that our schools are overburdened and are asked to do things that parents and other caregivers should be doing at home. In this case, if the young woman does nothing lewd, the decision on attire ought to be made by students and their parents.