Murdoch did not have a compulsory shower rule, and stories from students who had been at other schools led me to conclude that this was an exception. The young women who had attended schools with compulsory showers explained that to avoid showering they would wet their towels so that the teacher would think they had showered. This was not always possible, as in some schools the teacher would stand at the doors to the showers and check off the young women as they went by. In such a situation, Sarah explains, not only was it uncomfortable to have the teacher monitor showering, the walk to the showers in a tiny locker room was also very difficult: “When you went to the shower you had to walk by all these girls and my locker was way, way, way at the end. So with this tiny little towel that doesn't cover anything you had to walk through all these people saying excuse me, excuse me. Then they would all turn to see you, so you had to stand there waiting for everyone to move, it was the worst.”

Sometimes showering became too much for Sarah to deal with and she would just get dressed and wait for the bell. She explains what would often happen next: "It would be like two minutes before the bell and my teacher would come and grab me by the arm and take me back into the locker room and band me a towel and say 'OK, now take a shower.' Then she would stand there and yell at me." Chandler (1980) accurately concludes, “some girls surfer a great deal from adults who do not understand that their bodies are private and precious to them” (p.50). Sarah suffered terribly.

Showers: nowhere to hide.

Uniforms

Murdoch, like other schools in the district, required a compulsory physical education uniform for students in grades 9 and 10. During my second day at the school I watched and listened as a class of grade 10 girls begged their teacher to allow them to bring their own shirts and shorts to the next class as they would be going outside to play tennis. They did not want “everyone” to see them in their uniforms. When the class was outside the teacher remarked to me that she didn't realize how “exposed” (her words) they were. The young women seemed to be distracted by every car and every person who passed by the courts. Chandler (1980) states, “To have to clothe their body in an unbecoming PE kit which exposes parts for them they prefer to keep covered is for them a matter of real suffering” (p.51). The issue of wearing a physical education uniform was raised by every group of young women with whom I spoke.

Of the few who favored wearing a uniform, many were in grade 11 and 12. This was surprising because not having to wear a uniform was often cited as one of the positive things about grade 11 and 12 physical education. It was almost as though the uniform was a rite of passage; they had had to wear it so others should have to wear it too. However, they did think that the shorts were too short. Grade 9 and 10 girls who supported the uniform gave reasons which centered around the benefits of everyone looking the same: “Because there is a uniform you don't have to worry that someone has nicer shorts than you or really nice sweats. I look to phased as a chance to get away from all the stuff about clothes”; “Wearing a uniform is better because then you are not judged by what you wear.”

The majority of the young women who disliked the uniform did so because of the shorts. “Those shorts made you really self conscious like I think it is the way you think about yourself and when you are wearing those shorts it is hard to think many good things about yourself.” When I asked if they were permitted to wear sweats, the young women told me that they could only wear them if they were going to be outside.