i really wanna get more piercings.
a short brain dump on my thoughts on school uniform policies in the Philippines.
I really want to get more piercings. I see family and friends, even people online that have them. I would love to get some myself, but there’s one, small problem. If I do, my school would most definitely tank my deportment grades for not following their “one piercing only for girls” policy. It annoys me sometimes, that I and so many other students can’t express themselves to the fullest. How we can’t dye our hair, how boys have to have a specific haircut, how we can’t experiment with make-up. It almost feels like they are all trying to make us look the same, almost like being different is wrong. Is this really what they want, though?
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The common reasoning that I think schools adopt for this is that they want to promote a form of discipline, or maybe a sense of uniformity so as to properly represent their school. Perhaps they want the students to look like “the average Filipino”? But I think that this mindset kind of promotes a lack of diversity. If your school can be a home to all kinds of students, then you should be able to see the uniqueness of each and every student, promoting a kind of freedom for them, making the school feel like a safe space. But if student has to hide their true self and conform to their policies, is it truly a safe space for them?
While I think that enforcing a sense of discipline can certainly be a good thing, I don’t think it is okay when it turns into a form of suppression of a persons expression. I think that if schools adopted a more lenient mindset towards things like piercings, make-up, and hair styles, they can promote a more positive environment for their students.
