Tanisha Ford Lecture

The current girls uniform of the Cambridge School of Dallas is white socks, black and white saddle oxford shoes, red and black plaid skirt, white long-sleeve button down shirt, and a black blazer with the school crest. From the neck down, all of the females looked the same. The only personal autonomy allowed was how one wore one’s hair. The administration decided that strict uniformity would allow all of the females to be put on an equal playing field regarding expression of fashion. For the four years that I wore this uniform, I felt no freedom when it came to fashion. I had to wear the same exact thing every day and hated it at times. I wanted to be able to wear whatever I wanted based on my mood. I did not want to wear an ugly blazer over a long sleeved shirt in the lingering days of summer in Texas. Every person uses fashion to express themselves and the way that they are feeling. If you do not understand this, there is a wonderful clip from the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, where Meryl Streep explains how fashion is related to everyone’s life.

During Tanisha Ford’s lecture, she made an interesting point about the way that women dress. She said, “The way you dress matters”. African American women stopped straightening their hair everyday and wore it naturally. Some called their new hairstyles a “freedom fro”. Instead of wearing their Sunday best to a march, women started wearing denim. The change in dress called attention to the way that women in college were dressing themselves. The national magazine, Essence, started to write articles that focused on college women's dress. Women were wearing more comfortable clothes for the hours that they would be marching. They would not choose to ruin their Sunday best anymore during protests. Media interest grew exponentially after the black coed magazine, Essence, released articles that connected fashion expression and freedom of African American women on predominantly white campuses. African American women felt an obligation to assert themselves as a soul sister.

The way you dress matters because it leads people to think about their ideas of freedom. If someone feels stifled by the way that society expects them to dress, then they will not feel completely comfortable in that environment. African American women took an opportunity during the Civil Rights Movement to recreate their identity. Instead of being the woman that society was telling them to be, they created their own norms and implemented them into society. It seems silly to spend this much time talking about clothes but clothes are one of the simplest ways that people express themselves. If someone does not feel comfortable conforming to society's standards, then the standards need to be reevaluated to be more practical and inclusive.