<p>Morehouse men-time to bring out your kilts! </p>
<p>Morehouse can proscribe whatever outfits they see fit, but I would hope enlightened administrators would decide that university time and attention could be better spent on other more important campus issues.</p>
<p>^^
They may consider this to be an important campus issue, because they may see it as “letting the camel’s nose under the tent,” and therefore, what’s next? Sometimes, you have to “nip it in the bud” before it grows into something that is not stoppable.</p>
<p>I live in an upscale neighborhood in Northern Alabama. The homes in my subdivision are all over 4000 square feet - beautiful traditional brick homes. It is a neighborhood of highly paid high-tech employees and high-ranking military officers (I have 2 generals on my street.) My subdivision (of about 75 homes) is also about 1/4 - 1/3 black. These are some of the families that want their sons at Morehouse. They want the structure and standards that Morehouse demands. </p>
<p>Please, don’t “put down” Morehouse for setting standards.</p>
<p>I think the problem here is not that they set dress code standards (Morehouse is far from the only college to do this) but that they set this particular standard is clearly aimed at an already marginalized community on campus. It would be fine by me if the administration wanted to say, “no cross dressing allowed”, but by specifically stating that this policy was aimed at people in the “gay lifestyle” on campus, puts out the message that it’s perfectly okay to treat this group as undesirable and substandard, as somehow less than true Morehouse men. And I think it’s inappropriate for the administration to be putting their imprimatur on that message, it only encourages students to ostracize and treat badly the gay community on campus, becuase they know the administration will probably not stand up for the picked on students.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>First of all, the gay community is not a group of cross-dressers. Many gay men do not exhibit anything (dress, mannerisms, etc) that suggests that they are gay to others. I don’t believe this policy marginalizes gay men at all. Besides, this is a school that prepares men for the corporate world. It is very hard for any male (gay or straight) to make it in the Fortune 500 crowd, if they take on dressing styles that do not conform to the norm.</p>
<p>The school probably (I dont’ know for sure -I’ll ask my neighbors) discourages/forbids visible body piercings other than perhaps an earring in each ear. </p>
<p>The comment about Tyler Perry does not work. Tyler Perry doesn’t work for a Fortune 500 company. He’s a comedian, actor, writer, etc. That’s a whole other ball of wax.</p>
<p>I thought that it was more than mere cross dressing - it dealt with grills in the teeth, pants hanging down below the hips, etc. If I understand correctly, this was meant as a means of the kids understanding that this school is preparing them for the world. And they need to shed some fo the teen things they were into before entering their esteemed institution. Not only will it affect the campus atmosphere and culture but also show them appropriate dress and behavior for success.</p>
<p>“The policy also bans wearing hats in buildings, pajamas in public, do-rags, sagging pants, sunglasses in class and walking barefoot on campus.”</p>
<p>In thinking about what Morehouse is doing, it makes sense to me. Many students there are first generation college, and grew up in communities in which grills, sagging pants, etc. are widely worn. Such students and don’t know what’s appropriate attire for professional settings. Consequently, it’s appropriate for Morehouse to teach the students about professional attire and behavior.</p>
<p>While my kids wouldn’t have chosen to attend a college with such restrictive dress codes (Younger S stopped considering one college when he learned that once a week, students in the honors program were required to wear suits), my kids also wouldn’t have chosen to attend a college in which students wearing grills, sagging pants, etc. were rampant.</p>
<p>Indeed, once younger S and I were driving through such a campus, and when I asked S if he’d consider applying there, he gestured at a student who was walking around with his pants belted below his butt, and S said, “No way!”</p>
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<p>Wow…where is that??? My kids’ honors programs requires suits for presentations. Of course that is kind of a southern thing…here…the frat boys wear blazers/suits to football games.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids ; My dad’s family is from Northern Alabama. They have been there a VERY long time, and my Uncle left only once, for “The War”. He lives in a fairly upscale neighborhood… where he raises goats! I often wonder what the neighbors think. He would not tolerate baggy pants!</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Maybe he’s one of my neighbors??? Actually, I don’t think any of my neighbors raises goats…only kids… LOL</p>
<p>Although, I must say, there must be a lot of people in Northern Alabama that have farm animals. I’m a Southern California native, and we didn’t have that many animal hospitals in the city limits…just a few for dogs, cats, pets… But, here, very differerent. When I took my dog to one of the HUNDRED!! animal hospitals here, there were pigs, goats, and other farm animals there, too. Shocked me!!! A vet on every corner here!!</p>
<p>My father, a Tuskegee grad, esteems Morehouse and probably secretly wishes my brother had gone there rather than Howard. I wonder what he’d think of this.
I think I’ve heard from one of my cousins who went to Morehouse that there is a rather active and accepted gay community in Morehouse. Atlanta, I know, is pretty accepting of different sexualities. Morehouse is just very into a certain appearance, I think. As soon as my cousin graduated he started growing long dreadlocks that wouldn’t have been acceptable at either the elite DC private schools he attended throughout his childhood or Morehouse.</p>
<p>momof2 – I’m fully aware that the gay community is not a “bunch of cross dressers”. But in the statement from the college official quoted by the OP he specifically states that this policy against cross dressing is aimed at 5 individual living the “gay lifestyle” (whatever that means, since being gay is not a “lifestyle”). That’s where I have a problem with this policy decision. </p>
<p>I don’t care if Morehouse requires there students to dress in what they consider to be an appropriate manner, but it’s unneccessary in the statement to specifically single out members of the campus’ gay community as the focus of the censure. It sends a message to students that the administration is okay with singling out a particular section of the population for ridicule. It would have been easy for the college to say that cross dressing was not allowed, without adding that this policy was being aimed at members of the gay community at Morehouse.</p>
<p>I do not know much about Morehouse, but if the college is trying to prepare men for success in the broader business world, then teaching the male students not to wear do-rags, baggy pants, hats in class and dresses seems to have some merit. </p>
<p>VMI has a dress code too, I understand. Anybody have a beef with that?</p>
<p>It would seem to me that if we are all going to celebrate tolerance, then we should be open to tolerating schools such as Moorhouse, VMI, BYU, Wellesley and Brown.</p>
<p>Is there an epidemic of college graduates showing up in do-rags after they are hired? If that is the case, and the student body really doesn’t know what’s appropriate in a corporate setting, wouldn’t it be sufficient to just… tell them? It doesn’t take four years under a dress code to teach an adult what to wear.</p>
<p>I agree with the tolerance comment but I would like to ask: Which college is NOT trying to prepare men for success in the broader business world? I am not sure if Harvard or Wharton has explicit dress codes forbidding men from wearing dresses, and these schools seem to have no problem preparing men for success in the business world.</p>
<p>Some of the comments on this thread seem to imply that black men in particular need a dress code.</p>
<p>The official dress code at Google (easily a Fortune 500 company) is: You must wear clothes.</p>
<p>I also agree with Smithie’s point that the ‘gay lifestyle’ part of the Morehouse statement is gratuitous and betrays a homophobic intent.</p>
<p>It appears that the Morehouse administration has demonstrated a rather pronounced discomfort with gays in recent years (perhaps beforehand, Morehouse gays just kept in the closet during their four years to avoid daily hassles). I recall that the Morehouse president caught much flak for his placid response to an extremely violent gay bashing incident in the dorms a few years ago.</p>