The Look

May 13, 2015
2 min read

Today was my first day venturing out into a public place in my school uniform. Honestly I was a little worried that my intervention would fall flat and nobody would actually respond to my uniform. Oh was I wrong! I went to the V&A Waterfront just after lunch; a time when most students are still at school. I went about my usual browsing and shopping.

I found I got two types of looks. The first was from women, many of whom looked to be the 'soccer-mom' type. These women had no problem staring at me and giving me the 'up-down'. The questions on their faces read- 'Why aren't you at school?' 'What are you doing here?'. The second type of look I got was from men, middle aged men mainly. I found that men would look and then very quickly look away and break eye contact. The uniform implied I was young and this seemed to register in their minds in a split second. They would bow their head down after taking a quick look as though they had committed a sin by just looking at me. This is not something I feel happens when I'm in ordinary clothes that imply I am of age and therefore gazing at me is more acceptable.

Even though I did not feel uncomfortable wearing the uniform out in public, the looks I received made me feel very uncomfortable. What I found even more interesting was how uncomfortable the people who gave me the looks were, in particular the men. They did not know whether or not it was acceptable to look at me.

I had thought that you can't pull on a persona like you pull on a jersey but getting back into school uniform like I did today, reminded me that you can. To the public I am a high school student.

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