One of our ideas was to push the limits of unspoken dress codes. The way we decided to go about this was to play off the "walk of shame" idea, by one of us dressing like were going out, only wearing that outfit to go to a class instead. So on Tuesday, I put on high heels, a black flippy skirt, and a tight shirt, and wandered into my theatre class a bit late. (Pictures and video to come) The reactions I got were actually pretty vocal. One side of the room stayed fairly quiet, while the side I sat on started cheering and telling me how fabulous I looked, almost immediately. Below are some quotes of things I heard:
"DAMN girl, look at you!"
"You look so pretty!"
"Who are YOU going out with after class?" which was followed by my friend, "Oh, girl, you know I'm her date, don't mess."
So once I got into my seat and things quieted, my teacher (who knew what was going on) started class but gave me the chance to speak. I told the class I'd used them as a social experiment (which got me a lot of dropped jaws and "Oh, shit!"s) and asked them what they were thinking as I walked in the room, but that they didn't say.
One of the girls said:
"You turned my head, but just because I thought you looked good! I didn't consider it inappropriate."
Then I was asked to stand up so they could see my outfit better.
"I just looked for a sec because you never dress like that! I noticed the difference."
"Well I didn't think anything of it because you can wear ANYTHING girl, so I was like 'Hey, she wants to look all cute and feel good about herself' so rock it."
The most specific response came from my teacher though:
"I saw you come in, and I didn't want to acknowledge the way you were dressed, but then I felt like I was ignoring it, which made me feel awkward, but I don't want to be that pervy teacher who says something, so as I teacher I had this awkward 'look up at you, look down at the desk, look up at you, look down at the desk... Oh he- hey Sydney'."
I expected more people to tell me that they were surprised that I had chosen to dress like that for class, but mostly what I got was just a reaction to how I looked in the outfit- with the exception of my teacher.
Do you suppose this is because there's a "norm" for "Sydney"? Do other women in your class dress in a fashion similar to this? I think that might establish a precedent that makes it more acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you talked with the class to get their impressions and to let them know what you were up to :) Way to be responsible!