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Last week, a cross-dressing Houston senior was sent home because his wig violated the school's dress code rule that a boy's hair may not be "longer than the bottom of a regular shirt collar." In October, officials at a high school in Cobb County, Ga., sent home a boy who favored wigs, makeup and skinny jeans. In August, a Mississippi student's senior portrait was barred from her yearbook because she had posed in a tuxedo.Dress code conflicts often reflect a generational divide, with students coming of age in a culture that is more accepting of ambiguity and difference than that of the adults who make the rules.
Other schools are more accepting of unconventional gender expression. In September, a freshman girl at Rincon High School in Tucson who identifies as male was nominated for homecoming prince. Last May, a gay male student at a Los Angeles high school was crowned prom queen.
It is obviously ridiculous to compare the experiences of the trans community, as well as their need to present, with this week's new fad. Of course, I would present the administration with the age old argument "Do you really think these students would withstand the pain, abuse, and torture they receive in regards to their gender expression if it were just a fad?"
In addition, this school's dress code policies (which are incredibly rigid anyway) are so ridiculously gendered that just the wording is discriminatory. When you only allow male students to have hair to the bottom of their collar, with no limitations on female hair (whatever "male" and "female" means), you've created a privilege division between the students. Where is this line drawn? How do students who don't identify with one of these two options get put into a group for these restrictions? Simply based on their biology? Well, that's gender discrimination too, now isn't it?
But in reality, being trans does have quite a bit to do with fashion. (Don't turn red in the face just yet... let me finish.) Gender in all is about fashion. Whether we identify how we were assigned, outside of the binary, or whatever, our views and positions on gender are shown through our appearance. For example, I was assigned female, identify as female, and tend to dress in traditionally masculine ways. I continue to identify with my female identity because I believe that I can be a woman and be whatever I want to be. But when people see me, they understand my views on gender based on how I look. (It's a bit irrelevant to the actual issue, but it's something to chew on.)
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