Fury at elite school’s ‘body shaming’ dress code

An elite Melbourne school has been accused of body-shaming primary school girls after issuing a dress code ban that infuriated parents.

Parents want the school to apologise to female students over the dress code. Picture: Mark Stewart

A leading coeducational private school has been accused of body-shaming female students by asking year sixers to have “covered shoulders” for the end-of-year disco.

Parents from St Michael’s Grammar, who are paying $31,836 a year in fees, want the school to apologise to girls and change the dress code for the year six dance.

The invitation for the event, which is due to take place on November 19, also asks students to wear closed-toe shoes.

But it’s the stipulation of covered shoulders that has upset some, who argue that it only applies to girls.

Mums are exchanging memes suggesting the school’s is treating girls like students in the movie Footloose or like modestly-dressed Amish women.

Parents say the exposed shoulder ban is like something from Footloose.

“They should change the date of the invitation to 1901,” one mother told the Herald Sun. “How can it be co-ed when they treat the girls differently? We are all so angry. We want them to change their mind and apologise to the girls.”

A spokeswoman for the school said the dress code for the event was in line with the school’s SunSmart policy.

“All students have been asked to wear closed-toe shoes, appropriate for active dancing, and cover their shoulders, which is in keeping with our SunSmart protocols and risk assessment strategy,” she said.

She said the event was held on the oval in the afternoon and was very hot last year.

The spokeswoman said this would be communicated to parents who had expressed concerns that only girls had been singled out.

This meme, shared by parents, includes the caption ‘St Michael’s dance attire for girls’.

The dress code comes as schools are coming under increasing pressure to have non-gendered uniforms allowing girls to wear pants and shorts and ensure they do treat boys and girls differently.

However, many schools continue to have references to the length of girls’ skirts in their dress codes, prompting accusations of body shaming. For example, Marymede Catholic College and Trinity Lutheran College uniform rules state that girls’ dresses or skirts must be knee length but there is no stipulation for shorts.

Greensborough Secondary College’s uniform policy states dresses and skirts must “sit on the knee when standing” and at Geelong North Secondary College says skirts must be “no shorter than 8 cm above the knee”. The length of shorts is not mentioned.

Some schools have a gender-neutral approach such as Nossal High School which stipulates that “summer dress/shorts must be worn at a length of at most one visualised horizontal hand above the knee”.

Education Department policy states that schools have authority to develop dress codes for their students which must “meet human rights and anti-discrimination requirements”.