ON THE COVER

PICTURING PICTURING PROFESSIONALISM PROFESSIONALISM

With the new dress code changes, more students and faculty are reimagining how they perceive tattoos and bold hair colors.

BY WEB EDITOR AVA ALBRACHT & PRINT MANAGING EDITOR ELLA ROGGE

Sitting in a conference room with coworkers and smiling faces, you wait for the meeting to begin. The company has invited an expert in their field to come lecture. While chatting with Stacy from teacher Dr. Emily Grover said. But items like that are more than counterculture rebellion these days. Today, self-expression is the name of the game, and various differing opinions have human resources and your department coworker, Chad, a petite woman with an edgy neon pink pixie haircut and a nose ring walks through the door with a laptop and approaches the head of the table. Reaching for the presentation clicker with an arm covered in tattoos, she smiles and says, “Welcome, everyone.”

Professionalism is often thought to be determined by physical appearance. According to an article by the Society for Human Research Management titled “Title VII Changed the Face of the Workplace,” prior to the implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, advertisements for jobs would often classify which gender and races could apply. Title VII most greatly influenced women in the workforce - in 1967, women made up 29% and grew to nearly 47% in 2013 as Title VII’s impact strengthened over decades. This open discrimination has since been replaced with unconscious bias, where managers unknowingly operate on a “like me” bias, favoring workers who remind them of themselves. Workplace perspectives typically correlate professionalism with dissociating from visible tattoos, eccentric piercings, and unnaturally colored hair.

“It used to be that you were professional if you were formal,” performing arts teacher Elizabeth Mulkey said. “Formal in the way that you addressed people, formal in the way that you physically dressed and formal in your looks.”

Tattoos became linked to counterculture socially in the 70’s, which was the first time they were embraced outside of veteran and sailor communities, according to a Grey Journal article titled “The Evolution of Tattooing in America.” During this time, tattoos were used as a way to prove a commitment to beliefs. Although this is the first time that tattoos were socially displayed, throughout history tattoos have served a multitude of different purposes. Soldiers during the Civil War got tattoos as a way to make sure their bodies were identifiable. In the 1930’s, following the Social Security Act, it became common for people to get their social security numbers tattooed in fear of forgetting it.

“I think there’s definitely, especially for some of the older generations, a connotation that counterculture, all anti-establishment, and rebellion are things like extreme hair and tattoos,” English expanded the definition of professionalism. Being authentic, emphasizing respect not just to authority figures but also to peers, showing strong character and remaining appropriate in one’s apparel are more in tune with professional standards today. According to the Ipsos article “More Americans within the professional world Have Tattoos Today than Seven Years Ago,” three in ten Americans have tattoos, which is an increase from the 21% of Americans in 2012. Individuals under the age of 55 are twice as likely to have at least one tattoo. However, while some industries showcase all forms of self selfexpression in the workplace, many other occupations continue to hold onto a traditional approach to professionalism. “I think that younger professionals tend to care about other aspects than their particular appearance, and it’s more of an expression of who they are, rather than a big show of how competent they might be at their job,” Humphrey said. Prior to the start of this school year, administration modified dress code policy, allowing faculty and students to have artificially colored hair, though tattoos must remain not visible. According to recently retired Dean of Students Fran Koehler, the policy regarding hair color has always been a little hazy. The original rule required students not to dye hair at all; students had to keep their own natural hair colors. However, this meant that black students could not technically lighten or darken their hair to match braids or extensions, as any dye was considered against regulation. Koehler saw challenges in implementing this policy because if she made an exception for one student, then she would have to for everyone. This is how we came to the previous rule, which is that students could dye their hair colors on the spectrum that might be considered “natural.” As of this year, however, the new handbook omits the “extreme hairstyle” requirement under Uniform Information and Guidelines. Teachers like Mulkey believe this change creates an opportunity for students to display personality through appearance. “Some people are going to look at it and say it’s ‘unprofessional’ or that it doesn’t look good for a private school and then others will say ‘it’s how we express ourselves,’” senior Mia Eakins said. “It just depends on the person.”

Would your parents allow you to get tattoos, dye your hair, or get piercings?

Yes

No

No, but I plan to anyway

Do you plan on getting a tattoo at some point in your life?

Maybe

No

Yes

(From poll of 126 students)

Following COVID-19 and quarantines, working from home quickly caused professionals to go from formal wear every day to sweatpants. As occupations shift back into in-person, former dress code policies in some fields are being redrafted according to the iNews article “Workplace Dress Codes: Bosses are Ripping up Pre-COVID Rules,” offering employees an opportunity to dress in more comfortable, casual apparel. Even so, many industries still adhere to past expectations of professionalism, and new graduates seeking jobs should alyways be wary that they may be turned down opportunities due to their self expression choices. For example, nurses, physicians and many health industry careers require natural hair, no perfume, and even clean, unpolished nails. Teenagers might be best suited to stick to hair color changes - something easily reversable down the road.

“In a school where you have a common uniform, there’s not a ton of places where you can have that unique self expression,” Grover said. “So having those other forms of self expression could further showcase the diversity that we have.”

Grover had her own experience with rebelling against strict dress code policy while teaching at Brigham Young University. She hoped that by wearing a bow tie or having a pixie cut she could show her students that although they attended a more conservative college that her class was a safe space for diversity and to be creative even if the rest of the school did not appreciate those qualities as much. While interviewing for her position at Sion, Grover was unsure

within the sion community

of the school’s policy about colored hair and did not find out until she was hired that she would be able to keep her hair dyed.

“So if they hired me even with my hair maybe that would show me that this is where I was meant to be,” Grover said.

Besides rebellion by hair and dress, self expression through tattoos are often a simple reminder of a time in someone’s life. This is the case for Mulkey. Her first tattoo, a music note, is a memento from her time studying abroad in London. Later in life, Mulkey chose to get a more meaningful tattoo of a dove with an olive branch that turns into a music note.

“So you know the saying ‘peace, love, and happiness, my saying has always been peace, love, and music, so that’s why I got that,” Mulkey said.

Similar to Mulkey, Diaz has several tattoos with varying amounts of meaning. One of which is a little mushroom on her wrist that she just thought would be fun to get to match with her best friend. Her second matching tattoo is a wave that her mom also got to remind them of Diaz’s childhood playing at the beach. Her third and final tattoo is “enough.” tattooed on her forearm to remind herself that she is enough.

“I feel like [my tattoos] tell you that I have maybe had a hard time believing in who I am,” Diaz said. “So many people have complimented the “enough” [tattoo], even some of my teachers have told me, ‘that’s so special, you are enough.’”

Rituals and routines are very important to Eakins, one of her most beloved rituals is when she sees the time 11:11 she kisses her phone and makes a wish for good luck. This tradition helps Eakins to have a positive mindset because 11:11 is considered to be an angel number that signifies good coming to the person who sees these numbers, which is why Eakins chose the tattoo.

“My 11:11 tattoo helps me stay true to myself,” Eakins said. “I think that it shows other people something about myself, my habits and my attitude about life.”

The four years that students spend in high school can be some of the most formative. A person’s worldview can be shaped by how they were or were not able to express themselves in adolescence. Sometimes the inability to present oneself in an authentic form can lead to either shame or rebellion. Sion alumna and teacher Humphrey believes that if students had been allowed to change their hair color while she was a student, more girls would have been able to reflect how they feel on the inside to show to the rest of the world.

“No matter what they look like, “ Humphrey said. “I hope that it allows teenagers who have to figure out so much in such a little amount of time to have a chance to explore who they are and what they want to do to express themselves before they get to a point where it’s too overwhelming to think about.”