“Instructive exchanges… but stormy!” This is how Myriam Menez, delegate of parents of students from Val-de-Marne, describes the long debates that took place in her child’s high school in the spring. At the heart of the discussions: the famous crop-top. This “cut” top which reveals part of the belly of teenage girls had sparked a lively controversy in September 2020. “Everyone can understand that we come to school dressed in a republican way”, reacted Jean-Michel Blanquer, then Minister of National Education, in reaction to the rebellion led by college and high school students in various places in the territory. Two years later, a deaf war is still being waged behind the walls of the establishments. “In the spring, several students arrived with mini-bras that almost looked like bras. In other words, it was not at all suitable!” says Myriam Menez, member of the National Union of Autonomous Associations of Parents. In June, this subject is then invited to the board of directors which brings together the teaching staff, parents and students. On the one hand, young girls who claim the right to dress as they see fit and qualify any ban as “sexist”. On the other, adults recalling that high school is a place of learning with rules to follow.
At first glance futile, these skirmishes around this famous short T-shirt say a lot about issues as important as equality between girls and boys, the role of school, taking into account the point of view of parents, arbitration between our individual and collective freedoms… Aware of its explosive nature, the heads of establishments questioned on the subject are groping their way. “It’s very delicate because what I’m going to tell you could be misinterpreted,” they worry. Many were counting on the exhaustion of this fashion and on the outdatedness of the crop top (which Quebecers translate as “bellied sweater”). Missed ! The successive heat waves of recent months have amplified the phenomenon. In the teenage departments of ready-to-wear stores, the racks are overflowing with crop tops. And at the end of August, on tik tok, they won the prize for the best back-to-school outfit, according to the slew of photos posted. “I accepted that my daughter, enrolled in 4eme, wear one from the first day. Last year, I would have opposed a categorical no. Maybe my eyes got used to it, it shocks me less” , says Sophie. And this Parisian mother added: “The arguments put forward by my teenager also quite upset my certainties, I who have always put forward my feminist convictions. After all, what harm is there in revealing a navel end?”
Like her, many parents seem to have let go of the ballast in the past two years. Sometimes too much? “What strikes me is the number of younger girls who, from CM1 or CM2, insist on wearing a crop top, influenced by the images they are fed on social networks, warns psychologist Béatrice Copper- Royer*. However, the fact that they are in imitation of the greatest makes them adopt behaviors which correspond neither to their age nor to their maturity.” From college, a firm ban on parents would be less justified, and could even prove to be counterproductive. “For a teenager, adopting the dress codes of the moment helps to establish her self-confidence. When you are too offbeat, it unfortunately happens that you are looked at askance by your classmates”, specifies Béatrice Copper-Royer. Green light therefore for the specialist… provided that the outfit remains within the limits of decency and is in line with the rules set up by the school. However, depending on the location, crop tops are accepted, tolerated or clearly prohibited.
“The regulations are often very vague”
To the chagrin of the Federation of Parents’ Councils, which led a campaign in its favor on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, March 8. A visual depicted a group of young people, including a boy in shorts and, in the center, a girl wearing a green top stopping below the chest and showing bra straps. “In a crop top or shorts I manage to learn my math lessons, because I think with my brain”, mentioned the caption. For the co-president Carla Dugault, a long work remains to be carried out even if the episode of 2020 will have, according to her, made it possible to free the word. “A lot of parents have written to us to tell us about various incidents such as hurtful remarks made by a teacher in the middle of class to their daughter on the pretext that her outfit did not suit. Or the refusal to enter the establishment without another form of explanation,” she explains. On September 12, Pap Ndiaye, the Minister of National Education, recognized that in terms of clothing “the pressures were much more on girls than on boys”. And a few days earlier, a literature teacher, mother of a schoolgirl, wondered on Twitter about “the reception time devoted to the condemnation of the crop top and ripped jeans, which targets girls, targeting I quote ‘the vulgarity’ of these outfits”. Message highly relayed and commented.
Some parents are even considering taking action in the field. “It happens to me indeed to be seized by families on these questions of clothing. It must be recognized that the regulations are often very vague and can give rise to abuse on the part of the institution”, explains Valérie Piau , a lawyer specializing in education law. Precisely, what do the texts say? The one that governs the general operation of public schools does not prohibit any clothing, except for signs or clothing ostensibly showing religious affiliation. It is therefore up to each establishment to define what is acceptable and what is not within its walls by means of internal regulations voted on by the board of directors. Most of the time, the simple mention “proper attire required” appears. “Leaving the field a certain freedom seems to me much more productive than establishing the same rule everywhere. Because the nature of the establishment, the history, the habits are different according to the places”, explains Florence Delannoy, headmaster and member of the SNPDEN, the management staff union. In her high school in Lille, the crop top has the right of citizenship. “Our rules are deliberately quite broad. The only condition? To have an ‘adapted’ outfit”, continues Florence Delannoy.
Many of his colleagues believe that listing all potentially prohibited clothing (crop tops, caps, flip-flops, etc.) would be a bad idea. “We wouldn’t get out of this!” they exclaim in unison. In a college in the suburbs of Poitiers, the proliferation of these very short bras has however prompted the teaching team to reflect, too, on a modification of the internal regulations. At the very beginning of the school year, during their pre-school meeting, all the staff agreed to add the mention “hidden navel obligatory”. “The idea being to protect certain teachers who say they are embarrassed or even shocked by certain outfits. For my part, I had never noticed myself but I consider it important to respect everyone’s modesty”, explains this history and geography teacher. Being able to take refuge behind a precise text also constitutes protection against the legalization of parent-teacher relations. “The situation can very quickly escape us”, sighs this other teacher installed near Bordeaux. Before launching: “There is no question for me of taking the initiative to reframe a young girl who would come to class in an outfit that is too bare. I could be accused of having dared to look at her stomach or of having sexist behavior.”
Within the Janson-de-Sailly school complex, located in the very chic 16th arrondissement of Paris, the prohibition of the crop top is not clearly mentioned in the texts. But, in fact, college girls are forced to leave them in the locker room, unlike high school girls who benefit from a certain tolerance. “We are not going to ask them to change because the age is not the same. Which does not prevent us, sometimes, from sending them messages”, explains the headmaster Patrick Fournié. “When there is a remark to make, I systematically ask a woman to take care of it to avoid any problem”, he specifies. Management staff walk on eggshells, fearing the snowball effect. “If you punish or ask a high school girl to change her outfit, you run the risk of seeing around fifteen classmates arrive the next day dressed in the same way, then the day after around thirty, and so on…”, confides the ‘One. Two. Symptomatic of the Me Too generation concerned about making its voice heard and quick to denounce gender inequalities.
“We don’t come to high school like we go to the beach”
However, many headteachers denounce a “misunderstanding” and refute the idea that the clothing bans only concern girls. Flip-flops, flip-flops, tracksuits, also worn by boys, or even jeans worn very low and revealing male underwear are just as much subject to discussion in middle and high schools. “The debate should not be focused on the crop top. The real question is: what do we expect from a student’s outfit?” insists Carole Zerbib, deputy principal of the Lycée Voltaire, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. And the young woman recalls the school’s mission: to enroll students in an educational process, and give them the codes that will help them enter later into professional life. “We have to make them understand that wearing outrageous make-up or jogging during a job interview is unacceptable, she says. On the other hand, it is obvious that we do not come to high school as we goes to the beach. The outfit must adapt to the context in which you find yourself. A bit like the language, which will be familiar or more sustained depending on the situation.” Many also refer to the need to maintain a “working atmosphere” within establishments.
The absolute key to avoiding conflict? The dialog. “Not just banning but taking the time to clearly explain to a student the reasons why we might find his outfit ‘a bit borderline’ can demine many situations”, assures Florence Delannoy. Same observation for Myriam Menez, for whom the long debates between pupils, parents and teachers will have made it possible to put all the disagreements on the table and to approach this return to school more calmly. “This will have allowed us to settle the matter once and for all,” she hopes. “School is a place where an effort to dress is expected of all, by prohibiting excessively exposed or torn outfits, for girls as for boys”, now stipulates the internal regulations of the school where she exercises the mission of parent of student. With the drop in temperatures, the crop top will soon join the suitcase of summer business, just like flip-flops, tap shoes, high-cut tank tops. What to silence the controversy … until next spring?
* Author, with Marie Guyot, of “Adolescentes sur le fil”, Marabout editions (2021).