The sunlight filters through the leaves, casting an intricate web of dancing shadows on the ground. She stands at the wrought iron gates of her college, and takes a tentative step on to its premises. Somewhere, deep within the passageways of the administrative block, the authorities spontaneously combust at the sight of a bare leg.
On June 28, 2015 (yes, we are speaking of the current century) Kolkata’s Scottish Church College issued a notice prescribing a rigid dress code to its students, banning short skirts and messages on t-shirts, amongst several other items.
This is not the first instance of its kind, nor is it likely to be the last. Although the college has revoked this specific ban, it speaks to the larger issue of institutions – academic or otherwise – and their deeply entrenched need for control.
Of Bans on Skirts and Knobbly Knees
The seemingly widespread ban on skirts that are not “well below knee length” is one that has always confounded me. Does a glimpse of my calves, sculpted by years of eating fried potatoes, send you into a sexually charged frenzy? Or is it my wonderfully knobbly knees (in dire need of a scrubbing, according to my mother) that do it for you?
As a second year student in Delhi University, this is a concern that is close to home. It makes me realise how easily this is a situation I could have been placed in, which in turn makes me want to sit up and do something about the restriction which will someday turn into repression. It also makes me angry – angry that there is a double standard that exists for boys and girls; angry about the sexualisation of the female form; angry that authorities feel like they possess the power to place these bans.
Female Sexuality and the Culture of Control
I’ve always known that girls are subjected to more stringent limitations, regardless of the context – there are elite Delhi schools that do not allow girls as young as those in class nine to wear churidars on social work trips because they are too form fitting. Self proclaimed ‘liberal’ institutions are no exception to the totalising rule of suppressing women and constraining something as fundamental as free will.
If young girls are told what they can or cannot do with their bodies, and how much or how little of it to display, they will begin to believe that their body is not their own and that it is somehow a ‘bad’ thing. This idea will then slowly solidify in their minds, chaining them to a lifetime of self doubt and fear of asserting themselves. If we, as young women, are unable to vocalise dissent because the all-consuming narrative we have internalised only suppresses us, it will impede any little progress we have made as a society.
My Life, I Choose
The freedom to be who you really are is paramount, and clothing is only a single avenue of expression. It is visible and effective, and that is possibly why it is feared by so many. I refuse to restrict myself to “properly worn” salwar kameezes or wear an overcoat at all times – as a Kerala college has mandated.
I will wear t-shirts with loud combative messages (daringly low cut, of course) and tight trousers some days, and others, modest outfits that authorities would be proud of.
But only if I feel like it.
( Anushka Baruah is a second year student at Ramjas College, Delhi University )
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