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THE NARRATIVE ARC
Gender Skirmishes: I Was a Third Grade Fashion Rebel
Playground assaults and the mutual respect that followed
Emancipation was not a word I knew yet. But my adult self looks back with certainty that this was the indescribable sensation. The day went down in my little history as the day I liberated myself from the restraints of a school girl’s conventional uniform: a dress. Let us remember that Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for wearing men’s clothing so this was a big stand-up moment for a third grader.
Due to a new policy girls were now allowed to wear pants. This wasn’t a religious school that required uniforms. This was a run-of-the-mill public elementary school in Southern California. Why the rule was changed escapes me. But much thought was given ahead of time regarding my fashion choices for my coming out. I settled on a smart, orange and white striped, short-sleeved sweatshirt, khaki flat-front pants, and navy blue Van’s tennis shoes. Freedom enveloped me.
And from that day forward I staunchly rejected dresses at school, and anywhere I could get away with it.
The playgrounds of the early 1970s hosted behaviors between girls and boys that, by today’s standards, would prompt expulsions, parental uproar, and possibly a spot on the…