By Sanya Bery’17, Feature Editor

The controversy over leggings is not specific to Newark Academy, but rather, present in schools all over America. A quick Google search shows articles filled with a multitude of examples of girls in middle and high school that have been punished (ranging from the occasional detention to suspension in the severest cases) for wearing leggings to school. The frequent excuse “that leggings are distracting” has received major backlash from faculty, parents, and students. Many believes this demonstrates the ways that society blames victims of sexual assault. Calling girls’ clothing “distracting” echoes the same victim-blaming attitudes that often surround sexual violence. The connection between small-scale examples, like dress codes, and more severe instances, like rape, is encompassed in the idea of “rape culture.”

Pingry, a private school located in Basking Ridge, has a much stricter dress code than Newark Academy. Recently, leggings were prohibited from the monthly casual day, resulting in an outburst from the student body and a boycott in which the majority of the female students wore leggings to protest the recent rule. All the students who participated received detentions and the rule still has not changed. Captions on various social media sites, such as Instagram and Facebook (shown by the example below)

reveal that the student body seemed to be more upset that the rule was perpetuating rape culture rather than barring them from wearing leggings. The hashtag “i am more than a distraction” is protesting the idea that leggings ‘distract’ students from doing their work.

This same slogan was adopted on one of the social justice days during Revolution Week at Newark Academy. Some students, mostly females, wore stickers that said “I am not a distraction” while others wore stickers that said “I am not distracted.” “Girls should not be subjected to the backlash of bad action from guys. And, guys should be held at a higher standard, meaning they should be trusted to concentrate on school rather than be distracted by females,” says Danny Lifson ’18. The unity of students, regardless of gender, to participate in the fight for leggings emphasizes how rape culture is harmful for both males and females, as summarized by Danny.

The large complaint against leggings is that they are unprofessional. While this is valid to an extent, and there is a way to wear leggings that is not appropriate for the Newark Academy hallways, more often than not girls choose to wear them as a comfortable alternative to the pants they already wear. The current policy in Newark Academy’s dress code is that leggings are allowed as long as when you are not wearing them you are still in dress code – meaning that leggings can be worn under a dress or a skirt, but not by themselves. The leggings that are being discussed in this rule are of much thinner material, and play the role of tights. However, as the fashion industry has progressed, leggings are much more accessible in a thicker material, equivalent to those of pants. For this reason, nowadays, leggings and pants are practically indistinguishable. Erin Mooney ’16, argues that to “to say that leggings are somehow less professional or acceptable because of their tightness is to say that the female body is inherently unprofessional as well.”

The battle for leggings is far from finished. A few months ago, through a voice proposal, three students suggested to the Newark Academy administration that leggings be permitted into the dress code, arguing that if leggings were allowed in the dress code with the rule that the shirt or sweater must be of wrist length, there would be no visible difference between leggings and the pants that are currently permitted. We are hopeful as we await results – generally speaking, there is a lack of gender bias at Newark Academy. Overall, we have equal opportunities for both males and females, and recently, we have even made strides on the dress code in particular. Two years ago, a dress code committee revised the rules to make the dress code gender-fluid. Banning leggings seems to be a thing of the past that is not compatible with Newark Academy’s ideas of progress. It’s time for the school to listen to its students and find a point of compromise when it comes to leggings.