Morehouse bans cross dressing on campus, could result in suspension

[CocoaPuss Zine]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/17/college.dress.code/index.html

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An all-male college in Atlanta, Georgia, has banned the wearing of women's clothes, makeup, high heels and purses as part of a new crackdown on what the institution calls inappropriate attire.


William Bynum says he discussed the new dress-wearing ban policy with Morehouse's campus gay organization.

No dress-wearing is part of a larger dress code launched this week that Morehouse College is calling its "Appropriate Attire Policy."

The policy also bans wearing hats in buildings, pajamas in public, do-rags, sagging pants, sunglasses in class and walking barefoot on campus.

However, it is the ban on cross-dressing that has brought national attention to the small historically African-American college.

The dress-wearing ban is aimed at a small part of the private college's 2,700-member student body, said Dr. William Bynum, vice president for Student Services.

"We are talking about five students who are living a gay lifestyle that is leading them to dress a way we do not expect in Morehouse men," he said.

Before the school released the policy, Bynum said, he met with Morehouse Safe Space, the campus' gay organization.

"We talked about it and then they took a vote," he said. "Of the 27 people in the room, only three were against it."

There has been a positive response along with some criticism throughout the campus, he said.

Senior Devon Watson said he disagrees with parts of the new policy, especially those that tell students what they should wear in free time outside of the classroom.

"I feel that there will be a lot of resentment and backlash," Watson said. "It infringes on the student's freedom of expression. I matriculated successfully for three-and-half years dressing so how is this a problem?"

Senior Tyrone McGowan said he has mixed feelings about parts of the policy.

"But I have been inspired by the conversation it has created," he said. "We have to find a way to create diverse leaders from this college. I don't want this to place all of us in one box."

Those breaking the policy will not be allowed to go to class unless they change. Chronic dress-code offenders could be suspended from the college.

Bynum said the policy comes from the vision of the college's president, who wants the institution to create leaders like notable graduates Martin Luther King Jr., actor Samuel Jackson and film director Spike Lee.

Senior Cameron Titus applauds the change.

"The policy is just saying that you have to show more respect in how you dress and there are things that are just not acceptable at Morehouse," Titus said. "We have a legacy that we are trying to uphold."

[Rage_Proletaire]

(O)ld (N)igga (S)yndrome.

"The policy is just saying that you have to show more respect in how you dress..."

Which means: "We can't have White America thinking Morehouse is encouraging and cranking out corporate faggots."

So I take it they'll not only determine your sex, but your gender as well, during the admission process...?

[CaliforniaAfrican]

This is a serious exercise in homophobia, as well as a lack of an understanding of transgender people. My goodness. Just because a man dresses in women's clothing does not mean that he is no longer a man. Obviously, some Morehouse men have dressed in women's attire. So! I guess I won't be sending my sun to Morehouse. Discrimination is discrimination. Some men dress as women. It doesn't rub off! (Just like Black don't rub off!) PoorHouse wants to impose its idea of what manhouse should be. I would expect more from so-called Black intellectuals. I'm appalled.

[CaliforniaAfrican]

*manhood

[kifaru]

I am really suprised. I will say this if the men are wearing revealing attire I would have an issue but if they are wearing womens attire appropriate for the envoronment, what's the big deal?

[Rage_Proletaire]

DJ Random Brotha said:

They're just with old school values college, this shoudln't discourage people from the reputation of this scool
(even through this might)

^_^

I think it's understandable why they would enforce their dress code, but the reasoning behind it is so threadbare: "We are talking about five students who are living a gay lifestyle that is leading them to dress a way we do not expect in Morehouse men." Clearly, Morehouse is not up to reevaluating their expectations of "Morehouse men" (not that they should feel any need to, either). Appearances matter for much in America, especially in corporate settings. In the back of my head, though, I just hear one black man scolding another for smiling in public, not towing the company line (as if we've all made a pact to have total control over our public image as black men/males, and anyone who dares to disregard gets a shaking finger).

I'll bet Bill Cosby's on the horn right now, just dying to get over there and lecture and nag and lecture and nag with his dum-dum bullets and old-man/old-guard songs.

[Rage_Proletaire]

Cool beans DURKA DURKA!! said:

there is always the rick of a man being mistaken for a women and raped, so I understand where Morehouse is coming from.

Great point!

I heard some schools are implementing these devices into their dress code(s):

You're supposed to wear it on your coattails ('cause guys can get pretty rowdy when they get together).

[PolarVibez]

This is typical of a lot of HBCU's. The values of the schools are always antiquated in a way that is not congruent with the Black America of today. They still draw from the principals of Booker T. Washington types. In these places you can develop a more radical or individual outlook but rarely does if come without a fight.

[NpyHedBlkChld]

well i look at it like this. If a person wants to cross dress or express their trans-gendered lifestyle thats fine but this is an all Male school. It seems contradictory to me to express yourself as a woman physically emotionally mentally but use your biological status as a man when its convenient.

but then again im not trans-gendered and thus my logic is limited by that. i would love to hear someone's input on that.

i dont think wearing hats in buildings, pjs in public, do rags, and sagging pants, and sunglasses being banned in class are necessarily bad. going to class like that doesn't necessarily make you a bad student but if you gonna be in a corporate world where presentation counts and it needs to be taught. but the implementation irks me.

[Rage_Proletaire]

NpyHedBlkChld said:

well i look at it like this. If a person wants to cross dress or express their trans-gendered lifestyle thats fine but this is an all Male school.

*sigh* At the risk of sounding like an overly-invested ass...

"All male" means all parties present have penises. What they do or don't do with those penises is what determines their gender (i.e., man or woman), per societal standards. Seems to me like a matter of gender. It can't be disputed that their student body is made up of males; Morehouse's problem seems to be that those males are disrupting the perceived quality of "men" nurtured and endorsed by the Morehouse name. And who knows? Those males may or may not identify themselves as women (I don't want to presume that gay automatically means that those students intend to be perceived as "women" of our society)...

I guess it's no different from a school or any organization banning flip-flops or "t-shirts with slogans". Policy is what it is, and I understand Morehouse's investment, as far as public relations are concerned, being jeopardized in the context of being one of the most (or few?) "respectable" HBCUs, in the eyes of the public at large. They probably would lose credibility if they embraced the leanings and inclinations of all their students without comment. hence the prefab image that students are expected to adopt upon entry. And I'd go on a limb and say that "Black America", collectively speaking, would consider those crossdressing students to be an embarrassment, detrimental to progress or whatever. I understand why conservatism was accepted in favor of other "extreme" attitudes during the civil rights eta.

It just sucks, though. "Morehouse men" is such a loaded presumption, maybe even antiquated in some ways

[Mlle d. Sade]

This. Doesn't surprise me. ....but don't they know that 3/4ths of anyone who was anyone during the Harlem Renaissance was "queer"?

PolarVibez said:

This is typical of a lot of HBCU's. The values of the schools are always antiquated in a way that is not congruent with the Black America of today. They still draw from the principals of Booker T. Washington types. In these places you can develop a more radical or individual outlook but rarely does if come without a fight.

[PolarVibez]

They know but they'd rather not speak on it. Most if not all of these schools are about assimilation. So they'd rather uphold some bastion of a idealized conservative African American ideology that really never was. Even MLK was a radical in a way.

[CocoaPuss Zine]

wow really? i didn't know that.

Mlle d. Sade said:

This. Doesn't surprise me. ....but don't they know that 3/4ths of anyone who was anyone during the Harlem Renaissance was "queer"?

PolarVibez said:

This is typical of a lot of HBCU's. The values of the schools are always antiquated in a way that is not congruent with the Black America of today. They still draw from the principals of Booker T. Washington types. In these places you can develop a more radical or individual outlook but rarely does if come without a fight.