Teens Are Wearing Yellow Squares To ‘Combat Sexist Dress Codes’

Dress codes should be egalitarian, no ifs, ands, or butts. Image by iStock

By Jenny Singer April 11, 2018

No spaghetti straps. No shorts above the mid-thigh. No leggings without sweaters that cover the butt. Bras are required.

Teenage girls at Joseph-François-Perrault High School seem to be channeling Nazi-era yellow stars of David on the eve of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in protest of their school’s dress code, which leaders of the student movement call “archaic,” members of “Les Carrés Jaunes” (the yellow squares) have started pinning small yellow felt squares to their clothing. We reached out to the students to ask if the connection is intentional, but have not yet received a response. (To be fair, the young activists are probably in class.)

The group is demanding that changes be made to their school’s dress code in the name of “egalitarian feminism.” Proposed changes include the right to wear leggings without a long top, as well as the right to dress without a bra, to wear tops with thin straps, and to wear shorter shorts. On the Facebook page for “Les Carrés Jaunes,” where these demands are listed, the group writes that these demands are within reason — they do not ask for the right to expose deep cleavage or underwear, or wear extremely short shorts. “We are entitled to regain possession of our body,” the teens write. “To understand that we belong only to ourselves.”

As “Les Carrés Jaunes” has gained traction, with student leaders interviewed by Radio Canada and other major Canadian publications, the group has also faced criticism. In response, the students have apologized for their lack of clarity and released three objectives. According to their Facebook page, they hope to: “Adapt the dress code so that it is applied in the same way for boys, girls and all people, to combat the culture of rape and hyper-sexualization, [and to] establish sex education in secondary schools.”

So is this appropriation, reclamation, or simply unrelated to the yellow stars and similar accouterments Jews have been forced to wear at various times in our history? The young women who created this movement are certainly dealing with issues of human rights and discrimination. Perhaps rather than police errant polyester straps and strips of flesh, we should be inspired by the young people’s reminder: “We belong only to ourselves.”

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO