For me, coming to college meant I was not only embarking on a brand new life experience, but I could finally wear shorts and a tank-top during Louisiana’s sticky, hot months. It was freedom at last, as I imagine is the case with most college students.
The way we dress is a reflection of who we are or who we want people to think we are. More simply, what we wear is what makes us feel comfortable.
Middle and high schools across the country could apparently care less about what their students feel comfortable wearing. Left and right, schools and even entire parishes are banning everything from saggy pants to leggings.
All for various racist and sexist reasons.
A recent ordinance in Iberville Parish is seeking to outlaw saggy pants, short skirts and shorts. Supporters of this ordinance seem to want to travel all the way back to the 1950s and take everyone in the parish with them.
The stigma attached to saggy pants is almost entirely a result of the negative perceptions and stereotypes associated with the people who originated the style — African-Americans.
Saggy pants, to conservative old white people, are equated with being a thug or being up to no good. I’m not surprised this institutionalized racism is being perpetuated by a southern state’s local government.
After many started to don hoodies in protest of the murder of Trayvon Martin, Ebony magazine writer R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy said, “Much of the commentary on sagging pants is rooted in the ‘politics of respectability.’ … This emphasis on respectability often meant conforming to white middle class norms and being refined in one’s dress, speech and behavior.”
While white people have appropriated this style in recent years, this ordinance is making it clear that to be considered respectable law-abiding citizens, African-Americans have to dress the way the white government wants them to dress.
Opponents of the ordinance dislike the ban because it lets citizens and policymakers know that, if something bothers you personally, it’s totally acceptable to try to ban it altogether.
At my high school, the administration forbade girls to wear shorts that were deemed too short because we shouldn’t give our male teachers “a preview.” Disgustingly enough, the term “preview” implies that there will be more revealed later. I wasn’t wearing shorts to please my chemistry teacher; I was wearing them because it was 95 degrees outside.
In a similar case at Haven Middle School in Evanston, Ill., school administration banned girls from wearing leggings because they were apparently distracting male students.
These young women are now forbidden from wearing a very comfortable item of clothing because boys can’t control themselves. Instead of teaching these 13-year-old boys some decency not to ogle their peers, the girls of the school must suffer.
This is sexism.
This is the type of behavior that lets young boys know nothing is ever their fault. It is the girls who must change their actions, not the boys. Thoughts like these lead to even bigger issues like rape culture and domestic violence.
Even in settings where certain types of clothing are usually acceptable, establishments around the country are trying to control what their customers wear.
In California, a Planet Fitness gym told a woman the crop top she was wearing was too “intimidating” to the other customers. Now women can’t even go to the gym in clothes they feel comfortable in.
If I see someone around LSU’s campus whose outfit I disagree with, should I go to Student Government and try to have that kind of clothing banned?
The labeling of clothing items as “intimidating” and “distracting” avoids the problem completely.
People who wear crop tops, short-shorts and saggy pants are no different from people who wear long sleeves and floor-length skirts.
Regardless of the clothes you wear, you deserve respect and consideration.
SidneyRose Reynen is an 18-year-old film and art history freshman from New Orleans.