In an interview, Carrie Firestone discusses dress coding and how it is rooted in misogyny, lookism and racism.
By SUSAN DUNNETHOSE ENTERING a particular government building in Malaysia need to adhere to this dress code(photo credit: OLIVIA HARRIS/ REUTERS)
Carrie Firestone of Avon has two daughters, ages 16 and 14. Like most moms, she got in the habit of tuning out their conversations to focus on her own thoughts. Then one day she heard a bit of conversation that drew her in.“She was sharing her friend’s story. She was saying, ‘Why is that guy always looking at her chest? Why is he always complaining about what they were wearing?’” Firestone said. “I remembered conversations I heard in the minivan and thought, I should have been listening more.”Out of that conversation, followed by extensive research, Firestone has written Dress Coded (GP Putnam & Sons., 303 pp., $17.99). The middle-grade novel is out now.Dress Coded is about a subject teen girls know by heart: School dress codes are harshly enforced against girls and rarely if ever against boys.Girls’ self-esteem and school performance are affected and family budgets strained. The practice promotes body shaming, slut shaming, period shaming and even racism, Firestone said, and plants the seeds of rape culture, in which girls are blamed for boys’ reactions to their clothes.The book tells the story of Molly Frost, whose friend starts her period in a pair of white pants. The girl ties her sweatshirt around her waist to hide the stain, exposing her tank top. Their middle school’s dress-code enforcer, a man, embarrasses the girl by telling her the tank top is inappropriate and orders her to put her sweatshirt back on. The girl refuses and is punished. Molly sets out to defend her friend and expose other instances of humiliating dress-coding in her school.In researching her book, Firestone asked friends on Facebook to share stories of unfair dress-coding. She got an earful, leading to many other stories.“The more I interviewed teens, the more horrified I was,” Firestone said. “Up until then, I was always complaining about what my girls were wearing. The parent default mode is, ‘You really need to be more thoughtful about what you wear.’ Since then I had a complete transformation about that comment. I really had to think about why we’re all sort of conditioned to say these things.”Firestone wants her book to start a conversation and be a blueprint for activism.In an interview, Firestone discusses dress coding and how it is rooted in misogyny, lookism and racism.Girls are targeted more than boys, but are certain kind of girls targeted more than others?Yes. People who self-identify as female are targeted. Black girls were disproportionately targeted. It’s not just their clothes, it’s their hair. The Crown Act is a law that some states are trying to pass that prohibits hair discrimination. One of the characters in the book is targeted because of the size of her hair. That’s actually a big problem.How does a family’s income affect dress coding?Girls who are 12 or 13 may have grown three inches in one month and their parents don’t always have the budget to head to the mall to buy them a whole new wardrobe. There’s a definite element of social class to it.How are dress coding and body shaming related issues?Some girls develop at an earlier age. Middle school is where this is the biggest problem. One of the girls I spoke to said a girl who hadn’t developed in seventh grade wore an outfit to school. Her friend who was developed wore the same outfit. Her friend was dress coded and she was not. Also, girls with long legs who can’t find shorts that fall below the fingertips. Girls who are more developed are more sexualized by school staff. It seems strange that an adult needs to police 12- and 13-year-old girls just at that moment of physical growth and development. That’s really disturbing to me.How does dress coding hurt girls’ self-esteem?Girls are already self-conscious at that age. They feel the need when they to go to school to hide or cover themselves because they’re freaked out by people policing their bodies. It’s very hard for girls to just be themselves. That’s why there’s the hashtag, #DressInPeace. Also the humiliation erodes girls’ feeling of self-worth and makes them feel self-conscious all the time. Nobody in middle school wants to be called out in front of their peers.What about academic performance?Dress coding is an exercise of power and control. One young woman, a top student, an honor student, who takes school very seriously, for her to be removed from class and sent to change in the middle of class was terrible. She is now missing class. For top students, that would cause a lot of anxiety.Can dress coding lead to slut shaming?The very nature of dress coding is slut shaming. Somebody reached out to me recently who had read an early copy of the book. When her daughter was in high school, a teacher said to her friend, “You look like a prostitute in that outfit.” This is the undercurrent. “Your bra straps are showing, therefore you are somehow looking like a slut.”Would boys want to read this book?Yes. I really hope parents of boys read this book with their boys. I shared the advance copy with a friend’s son. She told me it changed the way he thought about things. He stepped out to defend a 12-year-old classmate who was reprimanded because her bra strap was showing.Does dress coding contribute to rape culture?The message dress coding gives to girls is, “You are responsible for the way boys think and behave.” It gives the message to boys, “You’re not responsible for your own thoughts and actions and behaviors.” It sets up a toxic and scary culture of “what was she wearing” in rape situations. You can connect the dots.How is the dress code policy in Avon schools?I have to say this so it is very clear. The Avon school district has been fantastic, proactively assessing and changing their dress code policy. I reached out to ask them and they said, “Oh yes, we are in the middle of amending that. And it is now a very solid policy.”(The Hartford Courant/TNS)Carrie Firestone’s website iscarriefirestoneauthor.com.DRESS CODEDBy Carrie FirestoneG.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers320 pages; $17.99
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