In this presentation, I consider decades-old legal battles over school and workplace dress codes in the dual contexts of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and today’s culture wars. Between 1965 and 1975, dozens of cases were brought before judges at the state level or above, including eleven that were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court but denied certiorari. Most of these legal cases concerned white boys and men with long hair. The British Invasion in popular music deserves much of the credit for the early trend toward longer hair for men. As schools responded to this fad with suspensions and threats of expulsion, students and their adult allies — parents and the ACLU — challenged these actions in court, claiming that dress codes violated their civil rights. The cases and arguments became more complex, growing to include regulations against girls and women wearing pants, natural hair on African American men and women, and men’s facial hair. Resistance to dress codes also expanded from schools into the workplace and the military.
I apply rhetorical analysis to the testimony, arguments, decisions, and dissenting opinions from these cases. For example, young men daring to wear their hair long were accused of everything from anarchy to homosexuality, which suggests just how disruptive it seemed to their parents, teachers and bosses. With every case, the opposing sides hardened in their positions. For liberals, dress codes elevate conformity above individual expressions; conservatives associate nonconformity with dangerous moral and political decline. Because the Supreme Court declined to rule on dress codes, none of the issues they raise is yet settled in terms of policy or popular culture. The presentation closes with recent examples that represent the unfinished business of dress codes.
About the presenterJo B Paoletti
Jo Paoletti is an Associate Professor in the American Studies Department at the University of Maryland. With degrees in apparel design and textiles from Syracuse University, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Maryland, she has concentrated most of her research on two main questions:
How does consumer culture shape identity?
How does “identity work” influence consumer culture?
This work began with her 1980 dissertation, Changes in the masculine image in the United States, 1880-1910, and continues through her 2012 book, Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America, and her forthcoming sequel, Sex and Unisex: Fashion, Feminism, and the Sexual Revolution (2014). Paoletti’s work incorporates consumer studies, cultural studies and material culture, drawing on primary sources ranging from cartoons and paper dolls to vintage clothing and baby books.