Sexist Principal Mandates “Pants For Boys, Dresses For Girls!”
Posted by: Carrie Wasterlain
Filed in:
news
10:15AM, Wednesday June 3rd 2009
Chelsea Sarvis, a senior at South Carolina’s Chapin High School, wants to wear pants to her graduation. But according to Principal Mike Satterfield (surprise, surprise, it’s a male), unless she wears a dress, she won’t be attending. That’s right—if she doesn’t conform to what I thought were antiquated stereotypes and flaunt a “feminine” frock, she won’t be able to go to her own graduation.
“If girls are uncomfortable with their bodies like I am […] I just don’t see why [they] have to wear dresses,” said the senior. Well, Chelsea, I don’t either. Comfortable with your bod or not, you have the right to wear—and rock—some slacks.
But Satterfield tries (and in my eyes, fails,) to argue otherwise. “It’s certainly appropriate to ask young ladies to wear a dress [...] and young men to wear slacks, a shirt, and a tie,” he said. “If a young man showed up in flip-flops and shorts, and said I want to walk, we’d say, no you can’t.”
Excuse me, Mr. Satterfield, but please don’t equate my coveted BCBG dress pants with flip-flops and shorts. Women’s trousers can be just as crisp—and appropriate—as men’s. This poor girl isn’t asking to dress in beach-wear, she’s just asking to be comfortable (and still classy) at her own graduation. I don’t think that’s too much to ask!
TheFrisky.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network
dudette
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 10:22 am: [report]
At my high school graduation we had the same dress code. No one really argued against it and those hideous gowns look better showing what little leg you can anyway. I really don’t understand the problem with wearing a dress anyway. No one saw my dress until my graduation party, where I could have easily changed before anyone arrived anyway.
Rose
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 10:25 am: [report]
I wonder if I boy would be allowed to wear a nice, masculine kilt….
Jessica
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 10:32 am: [report]
I guess it all comes down to what you believe about dress codes.
Probably the most PC way to institute a dress code would be to require “formal dress” and to let kids interpret that their own way.
Perceptible
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 10:39 am: [report]
Doesn’t this violate some constitutional right of some kind? They can’t possibly be “allowed” to mandate such a ridiculous “rule.” Can they? For real? How disappointing.
writergirl
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 10:46 am: [report]
As long as it isn’t jeans and flip-flops, who cares? I can name about three female professors I had between college and grad school who wore slacks under their gowns….
fallonthecity
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 11:12 am: [report]
Several girls wore white or black slacks to my high school graduation. Every year plenty of women wear slacks under their gowns at the commencement ceremonies at my university. What’s the big deal? This principal is making a big deal over nothing.
Annika
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 11:35 am: [report]
My high school required all its students, all girls, to wear a white dress or slip under the white graduation gown because another color would show through. From what I can tell, the Chapin High School is private, so they can mandate anything they want.
EastCoastMale
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 11:54 am: [report]
what a load of BS.. just another great example of how the U.S. education system concentrates too much on the wrong issues and messages to be sending to children. Let them wear what they want within reason.
Erin G
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 12:13 pm: [report]
The girl wore a TUX to prom! For goddsake, let the girl wear some slacks!
J.D. Bauchery
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 12:42 pm: [report]
I can’t possibly understand what wearing a dress has to do with graduating from High School. Yes, I understand there is a dress code, but just because an archaic rule is in place, it doesn’t mean it’s not to be questioned. That’s how change comes along. Remember when they didn’t even let women into schools?
And what about identity politics? There are plenty of women that don’t fit into the dress code’s definition of what a woman is because they don’t wear dresses. Why should a woman who is more comfortable in pants be made to make herself uncomfortable just to be able to graduate with her class?
As a dyke that knows a ton of women that would rather stay home than wear a dress, I think it’s incredibly discriminatory to tell someone how they have to identify and how they should express themselves.
This girl seems like a model student and is making a totally valid and reasonable arguement. It’s a shame that her high school is sending her into the world with a bitter taste in her mouth. So sad.
Ginger
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 12:51 pm: [report]
We had the same dress code at my high school and no one really argued.
Until the day of graduation, when the weather was heinous. It was thirty degrees outside with really high winds and no sun. All of the boys were cold in their slacks, but all of us girls ended up freezing and couldn’t feel our hands, feet, or faces by the end of the ceremony.
On a day like that, I really would have liked to have had pants on. Or at least the option to wear warmer clothes (our dress code said that there were no coats allowed under the robes. Because the Pacific Northwest is just known for beautiful weather).
Backliteyes
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 03:19 pm: [report]
There’s an easy way to fix this: Don’t do to a private school. They do have the right to tell you to do many many things that wouldn’t fly at a public school.
Lynn
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 03:33 pm: [report]
Woah. I think people are making a big deal out of something that is nothing.
There are dress codes when you attend or participate in certain events. That’s the way the world works. My graduation had a very strict dress code and no one bitched about it. No one cared whether or not we liked it. We just did it. And no one died from it.
alpikann
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 09:09 pm: [report]
personally i think it’s kind of ridiculous to have a dress code for what to wear under those hideous gowns at all. they are shapeless unflattering things that will cover everything except your shoes, why should it matter what you wear underneath?
belongsomewhere
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 09:30 pm: [report]
I looked the school up, and it’s public, just FYI.
I went to an all-girls’ school and we didn’t wear caps and gowns—we all wore white dresses, knee-length or longer. Our brother school (the all-boys’ school across the street) didn’t wear caps and gowns, either—they were all required to wear navy blue suits, light blue and dark blue striped ties, and white dress shirts.
I have a feeling this may change soon, though, at least on the part of the girls’ school—prep schools are always extremely concerned about image. While they’d like to retain traditions, they don’t want to look stuffy, and, most of all, they want to be politically correct at all times. If they’re told that it wouldn’t be PC for them to make a girl like Chelsea, who would uncomfortable wearing a dress, follow the dress code, they would probably let her wear white pants and a white blouse or something to that effect. Public schools can deal with law suits and bad publicity, private schools (non-parochial ones, at least) can’t. So it’s quite inaccurate, at least in my experience, to say that private schools will make students do things that public schools wouldn’t get away with, because, while it is true that they certainly could, they tend to be super paranoid about making everything fair and keeping people happy. If you’re paying a pretty penny for a prep school education, the school better do as the parents and students damn well please, right?
assilem
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 10:05 pm: [report]
My high school was pretty lax. Girls were asked but not required to wear something light colored under the white gowns. We were told capris were okay, but I just wore white shorts with a white polo and wasn’t inspected or anything before I walked. I think they just asked no flip flops.
I really don’t like wearing dresses, and wear them rather rarely. If this is a public school, and equal protection claim could definitely be brought.
Girls Schools
wrote on July 9 2009 @ 12:38 am: [report]
The girls schools provides variety of professional courses such as computer training, nursing, medical billing, interior design, fashion deign and many more. There are many certified professional to teach their students, these are the <a >education institutes for girls</a> every parents should enters their girls in these schools
http://www.girlschools.net/