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Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA
I agree that the dress code, while probably legal since the college is private, is ethically wrong. As I sit here in my pants and turtleneck, I am wearing what was considered "cross-dressing" attire not too many years ago. Women went through quite a struggle in the West to be able to wear clothing, such as pants, that was once considered male attire but is now considered appropriate for both genders. After this long struggle, how sad to see men being forbidden from wearing "women's clothing."
Apparently those who made the dress code have learned nothing from history about equal rights. I feel the college is showing a gross misunderstanding of what I feel Martin Luther King's message is: a person's worth goes beyond appearances! The dress code is blatantly sexist and is damaging the very legacy it professes to uphold. How sad that leaders at Morehouse feel it is important to "look" a certain way rather than treat others respectfully. Telling someone what to wear because of your own personal issues is a misuse of power and is disrespectful in the extreme, I feel.
Also, aside from the "cross-dressing" issue, I see nothing wrong with wearing pajamas all day and out in public. It is efficient: you wear the pajamas to bed, you get up, you wear them all day. Voila! *And* pajamas are comfortable, which I feel should be of paramount importance for clothing. Nice and soft and stretchy. At least mine are. The world would probably be a much nicer place if people walked around in pajamas instead of stuffing themselves in constrictive suits and ties. What is wrong with wearing sweat pants? Or thin cotton pants with a drawstring and penguins all over?
I recall a student ball at Harvard where my friend's date wore a gunny sack (which of course I thought was beautiful). If a burlap sack was good enough for a black tie affair at Harvard, surely Morehouse can be a little less defensive about what its students wear! There is no reason that a suit and coat should be considered the epitome of "formal dress," and in fact accepting them as such shows that a person is making himself subservient to a European-centric model of "respectability," which was spread by the West through much of the world through generations of unethical colonization and extraction of resources...hardly a history worth extolling.
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While I agree with you, I do think I understand what Morehouse's point of view is.
I think they want to put out a more positive image of black students so this is probably more about banning "gangsta" attire than crossdressing. Also, I could understand banning crossdressing just because it can lead to violence caused out of intolerance.
But, that would be like banning black people from a college just to avoid racial violence.