College bans cross dressing

[Flyndaran]

Cross dressing is a game for some, sexual for others, but for still others it is their identity. It's the last group that is being discriminated against.
Many cannot simply wear "dude's" clothing. It would be as uncomfortable as I wearing a little Bo Peep outfit in public.
What if they suffer severe anxiety when not in "woman's" clothing? That would make it a medical necessity, wouldn't it?

[DrFaroohk]

Dress codes are fine, but they need to be standardized and enforced across the board. That means NO MEN can wear dresses. Even Professor Mickeleberg's son. And even if Professor Lukas thinks that Jimmy looks oh so tantalizingly hot in that dress, sorry. It also should mean that women can't wear men's clothes. That means Lisa can't lie around in her boyfriend's long sleeve shirt and boxers. They either need to enforce it 100% or not at all. Of course the real world doesn't work that way, which is why it sucks.

[DesignFox]

DrF, I think the point was made that at this institution, there are a) no women allowed and b) the rule DOES apply across the board. No one may cross dress, or wear do rags, or have saggy jeans...etc.

[Rapscallion]

When I hear of things like this, I generally wonder what cross-dressers would do if everyone wore the same sort of clothing.

Rapscallion

[Greenday]

Here we go again. Clothing rules are not forms of discrimination. My boss is not discriminating against me when he tells me to come in uniform or not come to work at all. It wasn't discrimination back when I was in Catholic school and had to go to school in the "girl's" uniform of a skirt and button down blouse or else I'd be sent home (to hell with the fact that I was a tomboy and much preferred to wear pants).

It's a damn dress code. There is nothing wrong with having a dress code. No one told those men they couldn't come to school. No one singled them out. The school set a standard of dress. They are expected to follow that standard or they can seek their education elsewhere.

Uniforms are not discrimination. Telling men that it's ok if they want to dress like a stereotypical male, but not ok if they want to dress like a transvestite.

It's clear discrimination of sexual preference, but hey, that's ok in this world apparently.

[Pedersen]

It's clear discrimination of sexual preference, but hey, that's ok in this world apparently.

I don't know about you, but when I have sex, my clothing comes off (well, the vast majority of the time, anyway). I suspect it's the same for most people. As such, unless you're saying that transvestitism is actually a preference for wearing the clothing that would normally be worn by the opposite gender while having sex, I'm not at all seeing how you can claim it to be a sexual preference.

[Greenday]

I don't know about you, but when I have sex, my clothing comes off (well, the vast majority of the time, anyway). I suspect it's the same for most people. As such, unless you're saying that transvestitism is actually a preference for wearing the clothing that would normally be worn by the opposite gender while having sex, I'm not at all seeing how you can claim it to be a sexual preference.

So you're saying sexual preference is only part of who you are while actually having sex? Because I'm pretty sure my sexual preference applies to who I am 100% of the time, regardless of what I'm doing.

[Flyndaran]

So you're saying sexual preference is only part of who you are while actually having sex? Because I'm pretty sure my sexual preference applies to who I am 100% of the time, regardless of what I'm doing.

I see clothing as a part of identity for some people.
Sexual preference has to do with the bodies of other people, not specifically what they wear. That would be a paraphilia rather than hetero/hom-osexuality.

[DesignFox]

I don't see how the clothing you wear affects what your preferences are in the bedroom...

[Lace Neil Singer]

And, once again, if you don't like it; then leave and go elsewhere. Jeez. It's like the whole world is now composed of people endlessly bitching and whining about discrimination, when it is not discrimination at all. When a college decides to force transvestites to leave at gunpoint unless they agree to conform, then we'll talk.

[DesignFox]

And the college isn't saying that transvestites can't wear dresses...NO ONE can wear dresses...or do rags...or baggy pants...

[AdminAssistant]

I just see this as the college saying, "You can be who you are, just be who you are someplace else." And I find that attitude intolerant and hateful.

[DesignFox]

I just see this as the college saying, "You can be who you are, just be who you are someplace else." And I find that attitude intolerant and hateful.

I disagree. If that were the case, they'd have asked the students to leave. It's an all men's college. They were asked not to wear dresses on campus. Since they could go the opposite extreme and just make uniforms mandatory, I really think this was a good middle ground, personally...

I honestly think people just have this victim complex. I don't get it!

[Boozy]

Transvestism is not the same thing as being transgendered, and neither is considered a sexual preference.

Transvestites wear clothes that are normally worn by the opposite sex. They may be gay or straight. Most do it recreationally, which is to say that they are expressing their sexuality, but can wear something else without feeling like they are losing a part of themselves.

Transgendered individuals are biological women who identify as men, or vice versa. It is exceedingly unlikely that a woman who was born male would choose to attend an all-male college such as Morehouse. Women want to attend schools that welcome women.

The cross-dressers in question were almost certainly transvestites and not transgendered, and can therefore be fairly asked to adhere to dress code. I'll even go further and say this: If any of them actually identified as a woman, I think the school would be within their rights to ask them to leave; it is an all-male school, after all.

[Greenday]

First off, I'd like to thank this thread for helping me with my Love & Marriage class. I would have gotten the question wrong about what people are called when like to cross-dress.

Second, I think this is going to have to be one of those agree to disagree. Some of you see this as applying to all people when some of us think this was done to target a specific group but made to seem like it's just for everyone. I feel that it's discriminatory, but the school has played their political cards so well that people don't realize that.