Decoding the Dress Code

 



The image above comes from a Collegian article published earlier this school year about the Lowry Center’s dress code. It depicts a television screen with a dark blue background calling attention to the time and date in the upper left corner, the week’s weather and high temperatures on the right, and a series of graphics in the center. The top of the screen introduces students to the Patterson Fitness Center and the Dress Code that inhabits the center of the television. Split into two, the screen creates two distinct groups, headed by the green and capitalized word “YES” and the alternative, a red and capitalized “NO,” both appearing as the largest text anywhere on the television. Below each respective word are a variety of light gray silhouettes of attire options. Under the “YES” category, a t-shirt and various tank tops are lined up side-by-side. Below that sit two pairs of shorts and two pairs of sweatpants, as well as sneakers. The “NO” side of the screen consists of a cropped t-shirt, a sports bra, and a tank top with a lower neckline. Other clothing options in this category are a pair of boxer briefs, jeans shorts, and jean pants. Tiny shoe symbols representing Crocs, boots, cleats, slides, socks without shoes, and bare feet appear under the “NO” as well. Between the two groups is a vertical graphic of a few different shapes of assorted shades of purple overlaid just above a logo for the Lowry Center along with Kenyon’s purple owl mascot.


In Purity and Danger, Douglas argues that the rules a population curates around how a body should be treated in public rituals and spaces designate that population’s conception of what is considered pure or impure concerning the body. These classifications of pure and impure thus code expectations within that population that reflect how said population conceptualizes itself. The body acts as a symbol for society. Classifications of pure and impure also demonstrate a population’s social structure and upon analysis, the organization of particular groups in a population can be observed. How a population treats the impure, or what Douglas refers to as “dirt,” can highlight that population’s inner workings, as rituals revolving around the body ultimately expose a population’s social anxiety (1966:2).


Kenyon College exists as a total institution, one in which students travel between the social spheres of the classroom and the gym within the Lowry Center. For the Lowry Center to have a designated and exhibited dress code demonstrates a need for separation between these spheres. Thus, the public ritual of visiting the gym to work out is colored with expectations for bodily presentation with the introduction of a dress code. The two categories defined on the television within the image lay out Douglas’ categories of “purity” vs “impurity” or “dirt” (1996:3). What is then considered pure or impure bodily presentation within the Lowry Center, a place dedicated to bodily recreation and enhancement, represents broader ideas of what is considered pure or dirty for the Kenyon College population. Kenyon’s conceptions of pure bodily representation fall under the “YES” category, quite literally green-lighted by the text; sneakers, sweatpants, and tank tops with high necklines are all considered pure. Alternatively, impure bodily representation consists of cropped clothing items, materials made of denim, and shoes other than sneakers. Many of the symbols representing impure attire options are coded by society as more casual (jeans, shorts), femme-presenting clothing (cropped items, shorter shorts), or revealing items (low neckline tank top, sports bra, boxer briefs). Despite the benefits that these clothing options may offer in terms of better movement or comfort when working out, they are considered to be dirty and impure. Using Douglas’ assertions that rules regarding bodily rituals expose a population’s conception and hierarchy, it is thus clear that those indicators previously mentioned–casual, femme-presenting, and revealing–are all thus considered inappropriate bodily representations by our college’s population. This indicates a need for our population, especially femme-presenting and -identifying gym-goers to monitor their bodily representations while working out, an illustration of a larger demand within our society for women to monitor the way they represent their bodies through clothing in public spaces.

Deprospo, Liz. 2023. From The Kenyon Collegian. Retrieved April 4, 2024 (https://kenyoncollegian.com/news/2023/09/lowry-center-dress-code-education-efforts-spark-criticism/).

Douglas, Mary. 1966. “External Boundaries.” Pp. 141-159. Purity and Danger. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.

Douglas, Mary. 1966. “Introduction.” Pp. 1-7. Purity and Danger. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.