"School Uniforms in Bangladesh: The Cage over Diversification"

 

I don't think I was completely comfortable wearing my school uniform growing up. There were so many times where I wished it was different. I always felt like it's somewhat limited and it did not fulfil the purpose it meant to, to begin with. 

"Shirt Vs Skirt"

In our country, uniform pretty much means shirts for boys and skirt or kameez and a piece of veil tucked in with a belt around the waist. This it self is an example of one of the points I'm trying to talk about —how school uniforms sometimes limit us in terms of gender centred preferences. To some extents, it might also fall under the radar of the "pink & blue" issue. It's like how kids are fed the idea that girls and boys should wear the colours pink and blue in respective order, the difference in this case is, it is skirts and shirts. 

Even if we keep the gender topic aside for a second, the question of comfort always arises. 

For instance, the veil in question, was supposed to cover the particular body part with the intention of "protecting" the girl, but it ended up highlighting it. Now, if you ask for my opinion as a former school girl, the thought of having shirts as an option was in fact intriguing in a sense that it less highlighted my body structure. 

Which tingles another highly sensitive area; body dysmorphia.

Bangladeshi clothing structure of school uniforms often fail to accommodate the diverse range of body shapes and sizes among students. This can lead to feelings of self consciousness and dissatisfaction with one's body. Uniforms expose students to constant comparisons with their peers, heightening feelings of dissatisfaction with their own bodies according to societal beauty standards. I saw a big example of this in my school during the transition period of puberty. We had this rule, where we'd have to shift from skirts to kameez between fourth to sixth grade- which was considered the time period of entering puberty. This caused a lot of dilemma because for obvious reasons, we clearly lacked body positivity education. Each individual has their own pace of growth, but they are expected to obey the same fixed rules at a set time. But it had become more like the shifting through one uniform to the other was a punishment for adulting. And in environments where appearance is heavily scrutinised, I remember this being almost as unspoken as a taboo. And then, it inevitably turned into a spicy subject for bullying someone. 

The thing is, I've always felt like school uniforms do not fulfil the purpose they intended to in the first place. The whole point of everyone having a general uniform is every kid feeling equal. But do two different kid living in two different body structures really feel equal to one another wearing the same structural clothes? The answer is clearly no and eventually uniforms are ending up doing just the opposite of what they wanted to do. Everybody owns different body shapes, everybody can have their own choices of clothing lengths and shapes that they feel the most comfortable in. 

Now, I'm not saying letting every kid dress casually is the better option. The whole point of school uniforms are unity of a constitution. 

All I am trying to bring up is, school uniforms being such a vital part of our lives, should cover a broader responsibility of shaping minds than it's doing right now. Maybe authorities can offer a little more diversity such as letting the kid choose the shape or length of the dress they want to, making uniforms as a symbol or body positivity rather than putting negative spotlights on insecurities and things that are yet not learnt. Maybe just by changing the patterns of uniform there can be much bigger changes achieved. 

Anyway, since I never got to hear much opinions about this, I would love to hear from you —were there any moments throughout your school life where you wish your uniform was slightly different structured? Or did your uniforms ever have impact on stereotyping your thoughts that you had to unlearn after growing up? Or maybe anyone you knew struggled because of it? If so, then does any suggestion cross your mind that can help changing the current practices? Please feel free to share your views and tips with me!