Dress regulations have always been capable of producing arguments.
Every generation of adults appears to believe that the younger generation has finally gone too far.
Hemlines rise.
Hair grows longer.
Make-up becomes more noticeable.
Boys discover fashions their fathers consider ridiculous, while girls discover clothes their mothers insist they would never have been allowed to wear.
Usually, after a few years, yesterday’s scandal becomes tomorrow’s perfectly ordinary fashion.
At Oxford High School, however, the regulations surrounding dress were remarkably detailed.
The rules discussed after the prom included restrictions on revealing necklines and backs, transparent material, exposed midriffs and the height of slits in dresses. Strapless and sleeveless gowns were permitted, but considerable attention was given to precisely how much of the body might remain uncovered.
Even ordinary school dress regulations could be measured surprisingly precisely. One version of the school rules reportedly used the length of a credit card as a convenient means of deciding whether skirts were too short.
To British eyes this could appear rather extraordinary.
Yet it is worth remembering that schools have always attempted to regulate appearance.
British schools once argued endlessly about skirt lengths, ties, hairstyles, jewellery, shoes and whether boys’ hair was touching their collars. Pupils who believed themselves to be making a perfectly reasonable fashion choice could suddenly discover that a teacher regarded the same thing as an act of rebellion.
The difference in Alabama was the punishment available when those rules were broken.
That transformed an ordinary argument about clothing into national news.
