Dressed Down

An academic paper out of Canada argues that teenage girls suffer all kinds of negative consequences thanks to their uniforms:

The school uniform, sold to parents and students as a way of simplifying student life and making all students equal, actually complicates the lives of teenage girls, according to a Montreal researcher.

Wearing a uniform to school opens up girls to unwanted sexual attention by men turned on by a "schoolgirl look" and harassment by those who view them as being rich, says a new study, which details the reactions of teenage girls to uniform wearing.

However, what was more revealing was the new academic field of, I kid you not, "dress studies."

The study fits into a relatively new academic focus, dress studies, which examines dress as a way of explaining culture and behaviour.

The school uniform paper was presented alongside papers on the prom dress, the influence of Britney Spears and "little girls in sexy clothes," and the pedagogy of shoes at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Halifax.

Our higher education dollars at work.