Abstract

This research involved thorough interviews of ten female junior high and high school teachers. They are divided into three generations according to their work experiences in order to discuss the norm of female teachers’ costume. How and by whom the norm is disciplined, and how the female teachers thought of the costume norm. And how does the patriarchal system disciplined female teacher’s body consciousness with exterior clothing is the main point of this research.

In the social systems, the restrictions on female teachers exist from generation to generation. Senior female teachers are internalized the discipline to female body, which is cultivated by society and the normal education. The dignified and conservative clothes with collars and sleeves are not only the standard external looks but also the exhibition of tamed body. Senior teachers marked the looks, which conform to the discipline they approved, as “teacher’s feather” or “dressed like a teacher”. Selected and monitored by teacher education institute, practical training, selection of school teachers, and campus ethics, female teachers’ bodies have molded as a standard appearance though it is defended and obeyed by women themselves.

Senior women agree to be the defender and enforcer of the norm, which imprisons women bodies. However, they are absolutely not voluntary. It is because of the control of the patriarchal system. Only the one who submit themselves to the norm can she gain the social superiority’s identification. Once female teachers are scantily clad, dressing too fancy, or their behavior beyond propriety, the viewers (especially male viewers), colleagues, students’ parents, even students will disrespect them, thinking that they are not fit in with the model of virtue. In the meantime, the patriarchal system dominates female body in a more veiled way, forcing women to discipline other women; however, the real oppressor is pulling the strings behind the scene.

It is undeniable that social superiority value, conventional household and the teacher cultivating system have a standardized body discipline and dress code to the female teachers. However, the female teachers come from a new generation start to think about the way to deal with this discipline. Their awakenings change the dress code, which was inherited through generations. Restricted by the norm, they still try to make some differences. They dress in their own way to show the taste and style of themselves. Moreover, the female teachers understand that the society’s expectations to their careers. They know they are being watched. When they are practicing their behaviors and speaking their words to meet the mass expectations, they are just following the rule of the society instead of completely internalizing the social discipline and accepting this rule.

When they are extracted from the role of teacher, unlike the dominated people seen on the surface, they are still independent and free individuals. The taming of the young female teachers is just a performance in costume. This performance is performed under their free senses of choices. It is not restricted by the stereotype of gender. They are a group of independent actors, swaying within the chink of the norm, waiting for a new group of female teachers who possess the gender consciousness to break students’ stereotype of gender by education, and accomplish a society of real gender equality.