School uniform, boys in skirts and Marcuse's 'repressive tolerance'

For years, just as the coming of the Christmas season is marked by the appearance of the first disappointing 'Santa's Magic Xmas Wonderland, so the arrival of High Summer has been marked by a news story about boys being banned from wearing shorts to school in hot weather and, after a careful reading of their school's uniform regulations, turning up in skirts as a protest.

There is an inferior story of this sort in the Manchester Evening News. A father has protested because his son was almost banned from taking a mock exam because he turned up for it wearing shorts:

"She told me it isn't a policy for girls or boys, it's just a uniform policy," said Chris, a contracts manager. "I asked if I'd sent him in a skirt would he be allowed to sit his mocks and was told 'yes'. I said 'do you understand how stupid that sounds'. When I asked 'what's the difference between him wearing shorts or a skirt' she said that's our rules."

This tolerance of boys in skirts appears admirable – "we understand that some students want to experiment with their gender identity and we're cool with that" – but in reality the school is still enforcing petty uniform regulations. Today's teachers are the spiritual great grandchildren of the teachers who made small boys wear shorts in the snow.

And the school's apparent tolerance reduces the possibility of disagreement with its rules. For the power of such protests lies in the notion that the boys have been driven to do something ridiculous, but how can boys wearing skirts appear ridiculous in such an understanding school?

The story says the school has backed down, as schools generally do when confronted about such unreasonable rules, but I think for the first time I understand Marcuse's concept of "repressive tolerance".