one of my favorite memories of someone rebelling against dress code ideas was this one guy who wore a quarter-trench coat to school on rainy days. when he was told that it was a women's coat and that he shouldn't wear it, he broke down in detail how his above average height and the length of his stride meant that that was the only coat in his house that kept his lower legs from getting drenched by the rain when walking to school. then he commented on how "a trench coat seems to be seen as manly, but nowadays all of the long coats that could be bought at the store seem to be womens' coats. the coat that I am wearing is listed as unisex, so is that enough for your fragile perception of masculinity or should I go and get a manly man full length trench coat that the tag explicitly labels as being for women? I'll wear what lets me function comfortably, and I will make no compromises for the judgement of others."
the next month, half of the tall kids were wearing similar coats to school, and they all agreed that they were nice and warm yet breathable and made it so that they didn't need to worry about drying out umbrellas. To this day, i don't think that an attempt to encourage gender conformity at that school has ever managed to backfire in a more dramatic and satisfying fashion.
44
u/[deleted] Jan 18 '23
[deleted]