With the warm weather upon us, and the first signs of
spring emerging, freedom from the icy conditions we experienced only a few
short weeks ago has brought up the common debate about freedom of dress; indeed, Chilliwack has been
making national news for its contentious discussion over the public school
dress code. Currently, each school determines their own clothing
standards, but most run along the lines of forbidding students to wear anything
that is deemed “overly revealing”, with the CSS-SD33 website describing this in
detail as meaning “bare midriffs, spaghetti straps, and low necklines.”
(Student Dress Code, 2018)
Consequently, in early March, an SD33 board member− claiming
that the current codes unfairly target girls− proposed a district-wide policy
that would be less restrictive, and would allow for usually prohibited clothing
items (such as those previously mentioned) to be accepted. (Hennig, 2019). What
followed was what can only be described as an argument between the seven school
district trustees during a meeting to discuss the issue, with one even
admitting, “I lost my cool.” (Peters, 2019).
Problems suggested with the motion ranged between some
who claimed that implementing a district-wide policy was a form of
“micro-managing” that supported “immodesty”, while others contended that what a
student wears should be determined by their family, and not their school, and
that they shouldn’t have to worry about being “dress-coded”. More
controversially, a male trustee and former teacher even admitted that he finds
revealing clothing on female students to be, “distracting”, and “made him
nervous as a teacher” (Lehn, 2019) while another insisted that “girls who dress
certain ways are looking for ‘the wrong kind of attention’.” (Peters, 2019)
However, after following the news and giving this
debate much thought, I am surprised that a more simple solution has not been
recognized or offered. Though I will admit that as a mother of two daughters
currently in the school district, I am less objective on this issue than is
ideal; however my children are still in kindergarten and have many years before
they’ll face some of these dress code concerns that are more prevalent amongst
middle and high-schoolers. And I do believe that my solution will be so
effective that it negates any biases I might have- undoubtedly, it has the
potential to not only bring peace to the issue, but it will also create jobs
and allow Chilliwack’s local economy and businesses to grow as well.
For I must say, I understand and sympathize with the concerns
proposed by certain trustees about distraction and immodesty. Simply put, a
woman’s body is a difficult dilemma for the male population, and, as it has
been deemed fact by our community, we know that men are unable to restrain
their desires (or their hands) when around innocent, underaged girls. Indeed,
even a former Sardis Secondary student who describes herself as from a family
of “strong Christian believers who raised [her] to value modesty”, she still
experienced unwanted sexual touching and attention, even though she, “did
everything right, and tried hard to ensure that no one ‘got the wrong idea’
about [her]”. (Modest Dress Codes Don’t Protect, 2019)
Clearly, casual modesty is not the solution to this
problem. And in the same way that you would not expect a hungry dog to ignore a
juicy steak dripping on the floor in front of it, we cannot expect men and boys
to control their appetites towards their female students and peers.
Because it is not only a woman’s body that is
upsetting, but also the way it moves− when she strides determinedly down the
hallway towards her next class, or sits in the front row making copious notes,
or perhaps when she swings unconcernedly on the monkey bars with friends. Even
her very breathing, which makes her chest rise and fall, is an attack on her
poor male peers who simply wish to teach or learn without being exposed to the
scandal that is her physical existence. Men and boys are under constant assault,
and can we really, in good faith, expect them to be perpetually vigilant in a
school environment, always checking their own behaviour and feeling guilt and
shame for any momentary slip? For if we punish and humiliate boys for their
unwelcomed sexual contact towards their female peers, we risk exposing them to
a life burdened by uncertainty and blame− one where they constantly feel responsible
for the way they treat others. And this is deeply unjust, as we all know that
it is the female form that truly carries the blame for men’s− and wider
society’s− actions.
Therefore, my proposal is for a different
district-wide policy, one that implements a garment known as a chadri or burqa to become the school
uniform for all females who wish to attend co-ed institutions. Of course this
might seem shocking at first, as the burqa has been an item of intense controversy
in the West and has even been banned in Quebec, but I believe it is an
important, untapped resource that our community could be greatly aided by.
To clarify, a burqa is not to be mistaken with a niqab, which is simply a veil for the
face; the burqa is for the entire body, and will successfully coat a woman from
head to toe in a sort of black invisibility cloak. In this way, she will be
prevented from unnecessarily and maliciously distracting her male
contemporaries, and these students and male teachers will finally be able to
attain peace and success in their education without the fear of an unwitting
attack by so many uncovered female bodies. And in fact, the burqas do not have
to be black− they could be adorned
with images of famous football players, or fast cars, or even US presidents so
as to serve as an item of pleasure to the male gaze.
Of course, there is one problem with the burqa that I
obviously recognize, and that’s the fact that it doesn’t properly cover the
eyes; often simply a layer of mesh or a screen is used, but this doesn’t
entirely remedy the issue. And it is without question that if a girl can look for the wrong kind of attention
with her body, she can certainly do
it with her pupils! However, I believe that if we as a society work quickly to
teach our school-aged daughters to keep their focus on the ground (which they
will have to do anyway to avoid tripping over the heavy folds of fabric in front
of them) then we can circumvent the potential difficulties of seductive,
immodest eye contact that they might initiate.
I did mention that my solution would help with
Chilliwack’s local economy, and this can be demonstrated by the way that our
little city is widely recognized for its handmade, homemade goods− given this,
all burqas could be made locally by many of the quilting guilds, craftswomen, boutique
shops, and practically anyone who owns a sewing machine in town. Spring and summer farmer’s markets, which often
showcase locally handmade dresses or purses, could instead hang these female
body-bags from their stalls− and if it was a required uniform, they’d be
guaranteed to sell out. The burqas could be made individually for families, or
produced and ordered en masse to be distributed by our local churches during
Sunday service to the school-aged female population. Even for stay-at-home
mothers and wives (who often find themselves with more rest and free time than
they know what to do with) would benefit from this opportunity. Once they’d
mastered the art of sewing− which naturally is a skill all women should possess
anyway− they could finally keep their idle hands busy stitching seasonal burqas
for their daughters.
If the steak is not before it, the dog will not
salivate. For the first time in a long time, schools will be safe spaces for
men again− grades and class averages will undoubtedly rise, as men will be able
to attend, teach, and focus without the terrible distraction of noticing a body
and face that differs from their own. No longer will they be diverted by a
prepubescent female adjusting to a changing figure, or be made to feel
physically uncomfortable by a woman who is herself physically at ease. And for
parents, they finally won’t have to worry about their daughters being
perceived as wanting “the wrong kind of attention” or being immoral− the burqa
will protect her from being perceived in any way at all.
Works Cited
Hennig,
C. (2019, March 12). School dress codes unfairly single-out girls, trustee
says. CBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/chilliwack-school-trustee-dress-code-1.5052881
Lehn,
D. (2019, March 17). More controversial remarks from Chilliwack School Trustee
Darrell Ferguson. Fraser Valley News
Network. Retrieved from: http://fraservalleynewsnetwork.com/2019/03/17/more-controversial-remarks-from-chilliwack-school-trustee-darrell-ferguson-video/
Peters,
J. (2019, March 13). Trustee admits to ‘losing her cool’ during Chilliwack
dress code discussion. The Chilliwack
Progress. Retrieved from: https://www.theprogress.com/news/trustee-admits-to-losing-her-cool-during-chilliwack-dress-code-discussion/
Chilliwack
grad says modest dress codes don’t protect students from assault. [Letter to
the editor]. The Abbotsford News. 2019,
March 18. Retrieved from: https://www.abbynews.com/letters/letter-chilliwack-grad-says-modesty-doesnt-protect-girls-from-assault/
Chilliwack Secondary School. 2018. Student Dress Code. Retrieved from: https://css.sd33.bc.ca/announcement/student-dress-code
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