We examine how the appearance of students in an inner-city US high school is articulated and contested by staff and students. Implemented to battle distractions of student culture that are thought to interfere with the school’s mission of developing the inner and more abstract aspects of character and competency, school dress codes ironically sustain a collective focus on the outermost, material layer of the self. Provoking and responding to the attention given to their dress, body adornment and hairstyle, the students elaborate their appearance into a living flesh of the self.
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