While many of us can remember times when we were in school and bristled at our school’s dress codes, it was rare that their rules got so out of hand that we actually protested over it.
However, as students become more aware of and galvanized by the fact that these codes are often enforced inconsistently along gendered lines, such protests are becoming an increasingly common sight.
Sometimes, they walk out entirely over these matters. In other cases , students will make a point of wearing clothes that tend to get the opposite sex dress coded with even teachers sometimes taking part.
And in one recent example, a group of boys discovered that the school’s administration ended up proving the point they were trying to make.
At the start of December, a group of 15 male students at College Heights Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada decided to show up to school in crop tops and ripped shirts.
As the protest’s organizer Mason Boudreau (not pictured) told the Daily Dot, “Girls at my high school just got dress coded for the dumbest reasons like ripped jeans or a rip too high or wearing leggings.”
So he reached out to his peers on Snapchat and the final group agreed to spend a day in “scandalous clothing” to see if they faced the same punishments as their female counterparts.
But while the video in which Boudreau documented this demonstration has since been made private, it remains on TikTok thanks to a duet by another user who goes by Solvej Wren.
In the full video, we can see that she is very supportive of their actions, saying, “This is what I’m talking about when I tell people that Gen Z is creating a world that I will be comfortable birthing a daughter into or a son into.”
So while we’ve often heard a lot of sarcasm in people’s voice when they say, “Thanks guys, your moms are really proud of you,” it’s clear she really means it.
According to Boudreau (pictured), many girls and some other students at their school also appreciated their efforts to draw attention to the way their school enforces their dress code.
And while he didn’t name names, he also said that one of the teachers approached him privately to tell him what a great idea she thought this was.
When all was said and done, the boys found that the school’s administration ended up proving their point as none of them were sent home for what would normally be considered inappropriate clothing.
At worst, one of them may have been written up for having spaghetti straps.
As Boudreau put it, “And we walked past the principals and they wouldn’t really do much. It was really weird to see.”
And it seems school officials continued this policy of silence in the wake of the protest, as they haven’t revised any policies or acknowledged it in any way.
And while no further protests have been planned, Boudreau said the group is open to doing it another time “if it gets bad again.”
In Boundreau’s words, “It’s crazy to me, When people comment, like, ‘I hope my son grows up to be like you guys.’ That’s nuts to me. Never thought I’d have that sort of impact on someone.”
h/t: The Daily Dot
