Be Real Straight For Me, Part I

via The Beautiful Struggler - Me, Myself and Eye

Oh, it's quite a week for HBCU's, isn't it? Hampton crowned a White pageant queen and now Morehouse is setting the interwebs ablaze with a controversy of it's own. I can only imagine what foolery my own alma mater, Howard "Damn right it's better than your" University has brewing. Please, Bison, let's keep our names out the shame game this homecoming season.

Just stay home. Please?

Morehouse College President Dr. Robert Michael Franklin has announced a new student dress code for his boys and not everyone is feeling it:

"It is our expectation that students who select Morehouse do so because of the College’s outstanding legacy of producing leaders. On the campus and at College-sponsored events and activities, students at Morehouse College will be expected to dress neatly and appropriately at all times.

Students who choose not to abide by this policy will be denied admission into class and various functions and services of the College if their manner of attire is inappropriate. Examples of inappropriate attire and/or appearance include but are not limited to:

1. No caps, do-rags and/or hoods in classrooms, the cafeteria, or other indoor venues. This policy item does not apply to headgear considered as a part of religious or cultural dress.

2. Sun glasses or "shades" are not to be worn in class or at formal programs, unless medical documentation is provided to support use.

3. Decorative orthodontic appliances (e.g. "grillz") be they permanent or removable, shall not be worn on the campus or at College-sponsored events.

4. Jeans at major programs such as, Opening Convocation, Commencement, Founder’s Day or other programs dictating professional, business casual attire, semi-formal or formal attire.

5. Clothing with derogatory, offense and/or lewd messages either in words or pictures.

6. Top and bottom coverings should be work at all times. No bare feet in public venues.

7. No sagging–the wearing of one’s pants or shorts low enough to reveal undergarments or secondary layers of clothing.

8. Pajamas, shall not be worn while in public or in common areas of the College.

9. No wearing of clothing associated with women’s garb (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at College-sponsored events.

10. Additional dress regulations may be imposed upon students participating in certain extracurricular activities that are sponsored or organized by the College (e.g. athletic teams, the band, Glee Club, etc).

11. The college reserves the right to modify this policy as deemed appropriate.

*All administrative, faculty, students and support staff members are asked to assist in enforcing this policy and may report disregard or violations to the Office of Student Conduct."
(Jacked from The Root)

I have some mixed feelings here. For one, I am not 100% on board with some of the more conservative mandates that tend to be commonplace at HBCUs, including Howard. While my friends at White schools had co-ed dorms and unlimited visiting hours even from freshman year, HBCU kids had curfews and gendered housing. College is such a great period of self-discovery and to lose those last few years of being somewhat uninhibited with fashion kind of sucks. But on the flip side, I am enamoured with the idea of getting college-aged brothers to lose the grills and butt-crack imprint showing low-rider jeans. Plus, the boys can still wear comfortable, fashion conscious clothes to class. They aren't being totally restricted but, rather, asked to respect the academic environment with their clothing choices.

Oh, unless they enjoy wearing women's clothes, that is.

*Le sigh*

Ironically, this is coming only a few weeks after President Franklin fired a female staff member who used Morehouse email to poke fund at a gay wedding. Perhaps it seemed that he had enough pro-gay capital stocked up to lose some to the inevitable critiques that would surround this list. By banning all traditionally female clothing for it's students, Morehouse seems to be implying that adhering to the heteronormative standard of male dress is the only way in which a male can look professional. I'd like to remove transgender students from the equation for a moment and focus on the males who choose to wear "women's" clothing and accessories. It seems like Franklin went a little too far by banning ALL traditionally female accoutrement on campus.

I would imagine that there would be some sort of happier medium: perhaps requiring suits for formal events, but allowing heels and purses to be worn at all times. Perhaps the president could've met with Gay rights leaders and scholars to design a dress code that holds all students to some grooming standards without being oppressive on the basis of sexual orientation.

This is a hetronormative society populated largely by people who believe skirt=woman, pants=man. So the sight of a man in a dress and heels would be considered radical by some, especially in a more conservative environment like Morehouse. However, in the professional world, Morehouse boys will find they are surrounded by potentially distracting things: women, differently abled persons, flaming homosexuals among them. If these kids can't handle sitting next to a boy in a purse and heels, then the "real" world is going to be a further disturbance to their sense of peace.

Some folks feel that the boys who would otherwise wear "women's" attire are protected by rules like this as it lessens their likelihood of being targted out for hate crimes. This is a common sort of pre-emptive victim blaming, akin to telling a woman that showing too much skin makes her a rape candidate. A manchild in a pair of skinny jeans and pumps is not responsible for getting pummelled by a homophobic jerk. The assailant is and while we should best prepare the likely targets of hatred, it is more important that we work to dismantle the attitudes that create the hate in the first place.

As far as transgendered students, which Morehouse has not seen many of in it's history, I think a case could be made that someone who identifies as a woman is not a candidate for enrollment at a men's college. What to say of a young man making his transition while at Morehouse? I'm not sure how to handle that, but my first reaction is to say perhaps he should attend a co-ed school.

Questions of gender normative and appropriate behavior are not easily answered, not even by loud and screaming feminist warriors like myself. However, I do feel that Morehouse went all about this the wrong way. As Sir Fab pointed out, someone in heels is more likely to be dressed up than down. So to put them on the same plane as sagging jeans and grills isn't quite fair. If I'd written the list, I would have made the rules similar to what I would've required from women: no tube tops, micro minis or booty shorts. If you want to though on some heels and a bag, no sweat. If you want to rock a Baby Phat one-piece denim monstrosity to an official College event that calls for nicer attire, problem.

Part II: "I don't have a problem with gay men, I just have a problem with flamers". Heard that before? See it destroyed tommorrow. Same Toldja time, same Toldja channel.

Dismantling the evil empire daily,
Sister Toldja

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