ago I was having a conversation about the pressure for rigid conformity in the '50's and into the '60's. I touched on the topic of short skirts in school when I was a kid. Short was defined in our school area as follows: The girl was made to kneel on the floor and if her skirt did not touch the floor it was too short and she would either have to lower it or be sent home. This check of her clothing was usually done by the male principal or vice-principal taking her out into the hallway and performing the "check" in full view of her classmates. In my school most girls were sent home with a letter from the school. The school administration/school board attitude was that they weren't going to have "that kind of girl" in their school. Most of the girls I ever saw sent home "failed the test" by way less than an inch or so. But never did they question the daughters of the mayor, police chief or other big shots.
As you said this was common stuff. Take the girl out and humiliate her in front of her classmates. Conformity in America. I remember an episode where two lesbian students (honestly we hadn't even heard the word or had any idea of things except to call boys "queer" in a taunting way) during lunch hour had gone into a secluded area. The vice-principal spotted them and came and got 3 boys to go with him but didn't tell the boys what it was about. So he took them by surprise with their male classmates standing there gawking at them. The girls were marched out into the school lobby for all to see while the cops were called and two squad cars took the girls home. They never returned to school. Conformity and pressure.
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