Uniformed Uniform Enforcement
Posted by Stuart at 03:22 PM on October 01, 2003Is it really October already? I'm actually glad to see it because it means that I have a big semester break coming soon. It also means that I am one month closer to my trip to the States for Christmas. I can hardly wait!
But before all of that happens, I first have to finish exam week. I'm still amusing myself during the exams by counting the number of girls in computer classes (55% of the students in the COBOL exam were girls. That's right. COBOL) and being shocked when a "girl" has a student ID with a boy's picture on it (we have to check all student's ID's during the test).
Speaking of the boys in skirts, a troubling event occured in of my recent tests. Half-way through the exam I saw the teacher in charge of administering the test walk over to a boy who was dressed in a proper girl's uniform. She took his test and gave him a slip of paper. Having never seen this before, I asked her what she was doing. Apparently, the teacher decided that since the student was not in the proper uniform, the student would have to fill out a form and lose 15 minutes on the exam. I was shocked. I then became a little angry when I looked around and saw how many students had uniform infractions: wrong shoes, skirts that were too short, no university belt buckle, etc.
Now, this is not a discussion of whether or not students should be forced to wear uniforms to school. Nor is it a matter of whether or not to enforce the rules. Or even a matter of whether or not boys should be allowed to wear dresses to school. It is a matter of enforcing the rules fairly. If you are going to make one student miss 15 minutes of an exam for a uniform infraction, then you should punish all students who are breaking the rules.
In any case, I felt bad for the student who was called out. Luckily he (she) finished his (her) test early and the punishment didn't affect his (her) grade. But such is life in Thailand. On the surface, the society seems open and tolerant, but for those who live outside of the heterogenous norm, life is often full of obstacles.
Life is full of obstacles regardless of whether one lives in or outside of the heterogenous norm, for there are even smaller subsets of abnormality in a seemingly normal/abnormal subset of a normal/abnormal world, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous.
Was the student treated fairly? No he (she) was not.
I wonder .... is this a matter of a truly he/she persona? In other words, did this boy (or any other of the transgendered students) actually assume the sterotypical/gender-related role of a girl because he feels more feminine than masculine? Or is it to wear the girl's uniform as a form of rebellion, not sexual identity? (As I am sure there is a mixture of both). And is it more common in boys or girls?
Anyone with any circumstance at any given time, who chooses to go against the grain, no matter how impactful or forceful, or not, or with what degree of determination, or lack thereof, will always experience the imperfect conditions of humanity to some degree or another.
And I can hardly wait to see you!!!!
Love you!!!
Beth, you ask a lot of interesting, difficult questions that I, quite frankly, do not have the answers for.
These are my observations though: In Thailand, it is not uncommon for boys to gender-identify with women. They live their lives 100% as a woman -- female hairstyles, female dress, female behavior. I see a few girls who dress like boys as well, but as in most countries, that is not such a big deal. Or at least it is not such an obvious statement of gender-switching, it's more about power and gaining respect.
For the males who identify as female, I don't think that it is a rebelious act. It seems to me to be an honest case of "I want my outside to match how I feel on the inside".
From what little I know about this issue, it is not a matter of sexual identity, it is a matter of gender identity. In other words, who they are attracted to sexually doesn't matter. I don't think they are saying, "I am a boy who is sexually attracted to other boys so I will dress like a girl." I think that it is more of a case of (as I said earlier), "I feel like a woman and so I want to live my life as a woman."
In any case, it's just another example of having my own pre-conceived notions of right and wrong (or truth and fiction) challenged during my stay in Thailand.
yeah! u r absolutely right!