Obstruction and concealment of the female body: Long skirts (1929-1934)

From the first year addressed, Rodríguez Jurado stated that compulsory, outdoor in both school gymnastics was carried out, “with the appropriate uniform and following the hygiene rules essential for the best result” (^{RODRÍGUEZ JURADO, 1929}, p. 26). The justification for the use and the characteristics of the uniform were produced from the medical discourse, especially hygiene, which was presented as a knowledge that governed the moral, sexual, and erotic uses of the bodies; that is, it institutionalized a certain notion of a good life or a healthy life. The following year, when referring exclusively to the plan for men, a regulation included the need to use “gymnastics suit” (^{RODRÍGUEZ JU-RADO, 1930}, p. 20). In the available photographs, these students can be seen wearing short pants and short-sleeved shirts, both white (^{RODRÍGUEZ JURADO, 1929}; EL DÍA, November 8, 1946).

As far as women are concerned, the use of uniforms also intervened in the moral, aesthetic, and kinetic universe at the same time, forming part of the differentiated material culture. Thus, it was influenced by issues that made movements and postures allowed, which undoubtedly had moral, erotic, and aesthetic connotations. It is a central practice to allow, encouraging, and prescribing certain movements of the body, while discouraging, prohibiting, outlawing certain others, and encouraging modesty among the students.

When asked about the general uniform of the Colegio de Señoritas, Adelina Nélida Bibbó (student of the institution between 1929 and 1933) states that “she had nothing. We didn't have a shield… I didn't have anything. The white overall, on here and nothing else” (^{ORTUBE, 2001}, p. 184).

Illustration 1 Uniform of the students of the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas. Early years of the 1930s. Archive of the Víctor Mercante High School. 

Grace Mildred Meckert (who was a student between 1934 and 1936) recounts that they did gymnastics “with those long uniforms or skirts”, to which she adds: “terrible, long skirts” (^{ORTUBE, 2001}, p. 196), and that the change was carried out by Juana Cortelezzi in 1935. The photos support the idea that these are long skirts that probably have considerably limited certain movements such as the opening of the legs. It is possible to consider these uniforms as “objects that are constitutive of the school experience, that demarcate different margins of freedom (for example, for girls and boys), distinguish between public acts of the body and intimate ones, and allow particular interactions with the materials and textures of the artifact, among other aspects” (^{DUSSEL, 2019}, p. 22).

Illustration 2 Female students of the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas in a physical exercise class. No date. As it is the Colegio Nacional building, the photo could be from before 1931. Archive of the Víctor Mercante High School. 

Illustration 3 Exhibition of 1932. El Argentino newspaper, November 9, 1932. 

Illustration 4 Female students of the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas. 1934. 

At that time, as seen in illustration 4, femininity was also defined by the use of details such as bows, in keeping with the clothing of women in the region, at least since the 19th century (^{CHÁVEZ GONZÁLEZ, 2006}). Therefore,

sport is also adjectived in clothes if sportswear is designed and sold if it generates a specific market for both genders, and it also generates a distinction between the genders. Thus, for women, fashion in general -and even sports fashion- was always more emphatic on the element “elegance” (^{SOARES, 2011}, p. 88).

Considering beauty as a cultural construction since the Renaissance it was associated with women, hoping that they would achieve aesthetic perfection from a rigorous moral attitude that controlled their actions (^{VIGARELLO, 2005}). In this sense, there seems to be a vigilance of the female body, in terms of maintaining a “feminine essence”, as well as her sexuality, moving away from other unwanted, mistaken, pathologized sexuality exercises, such as the cases of the hysterical woman, the prostitute, the virile. Regarding Argentina, a series of publications were in the same direction, at least since the 1920s, thinking of exercises in general or, specifically, sports that do not dispel femininity as ideal (^{BONTEMPO, 2016}). The covers of those publications

they exalted a dominant female body pattern: slim, young, white, stylized, neat women, desirable in the eyes of the heteronormative male gaze, with well-defined curves, insinuating gazes, painted lips, complicit smiles, sensual poses, with little or tight clothing, and quasi-erotic (^{SCHARAGRODSKY, 2020}, p. 87).

Some sports such as swimming, tennis, and certain athletic activities were imaginarily and arbitrarily linked to the female universe (^{SCHARAGRODSKY, 2020}).

Then, being feminine meant not leaving the subsidiary place reserved for women:

Feminizing women is, above all, feminizing their appearance and use of the body. Her posture, voice, face, muscles, way of dressing, gesturing, and exercising her sexuality are subject to surveillance and inhibitions that are internalized through submission to the “other.” Being that “other” is abstract, collective, and socially imposed (^{GOELLNER, 1999}, p. 119).

Regarding the administration and surveillance of female bodies, in the Memoria of 1934, Rodríguez Jurado explains that in clothing and presence “students must go to class with their heads uncovered, without stockings, worn with sandals or shoes without heels and flexible; their clothes must be the usual gym clothes” (BENIGNO ^{RODRÍGUEZ JURADO, 1934}, p. 15). Elements referring to appearance rules or regimes are presented here. For males, he simply clarifies that they must attend classes “provided with an appropriate uniform for practicing the exercises [and that] they observe the essential hygiene rules” (^{RODRÍGUEZ JURADO, 1935}, p. 200). This justification, based on hygienic discourse, for the use of differentiated uniforms for gym classes, would present moral reasons linked to the construction of a differentiated universe for men and women, respectively. From the reading of the queer theory, we can see how “the materiality of the body does not remain independent of social discourses” (^{MARTÍNEZ, 2015}, p. 326). In the words of ^{Butler (2018}, p. 18), “the regulatory norms of «sex» work in a performative way to build the materiality of bodies and, more specifically, to materialize the sex of the body”.

Illustration 5 Girls from the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas in a basketball game. 1934. Archive of the Liceo Víctor Mercante. 

Illustration 6 Students of the Colegio Nacional with their uniforms. Rodríguez Jurado (1929). 

From the photographs presented here, we are also interested in highlighting the appearance of the women in their tied hair. Following the French feminist historian, Michelle Perrot,

hair is a matter of hairiness. Hair is linked to the intimate, and also: by its internal penetration and by its proximity to sex. Its roots penetrate the body, in the “I-skin”, to use Didier Anzieu's expression, the thin film that defines the limit between inside and outside. The hair covers the sex (^{PERROT, 2009}, p. 41).

That is why loose hair at that time was arbitrarily linked to seduction, eroticism, even prostitution, and sin. In the words of Patricia Aristizábal Montes (2007, p. 119), “The long hair as a weapon of seduction and vital strength has been a recurring theme in literature, where the tacit relationship that exists between the abundance of hair and appetite has been taken advantage of sexual appetite”. In this sense, linked to a certain modesty and discretion with the female condition, in the same period the Instituto Nacional de Educación Física established the use of headbands or turbans to hold the hair as mandatory (^{SCHARAGRODSKY, 2006}).

From the educational institution, through the use of the uniform, a differential school aesthetic is transmitted for men and another for women. Therefore, we refer to

a system of operations that converts the sensory world of the subjects into certain sensibilities through the sanction of value judgments. Consequently, it develops a vocabulary of specific categories (beautiful/ugly, pleasant/unpleasant, etc.) for classifying sensations (^{PINEAU, 2013}, p. 1).

In this system, the difference hierarchizes positions, roles, attributes, functions, and aesthetics. Thus,

the colors, costumes, dispositions, gestures, and gender positions that can be summed up in «good taste», «common sense» and «correct feelings» in teachers and students are not casual, naive, and universal, but rather respond to a historic production campaign: these brands are awarded or sanctioned, allowed or prohibited, according to their degree of adaptation to the models imposed by the educational institution, and are taken up again in other more or less institutionalized educational spaces (^{PINEAU, 2019}, p.22).

In this way, it is possible to appreciate how the sphere of the aesthetic has played a role as a trigger of affections and emotions, being a programmatic aspiration of authorities, educators, teachers, and many other actors to influence their students in certain ways (^{TORO-BLANCO, 2021}), pursuing certain purposes, such as binary and hierarchically differentiating bodies.

In this sense, school uniforms for physical exercises also contribute to the process of gendering and sexualization. We understand that it is a binary process (there are only two opposite options), which excludes other possible sexual identities, prioritizing certain economies of desire over others.

The women's uniform is following what was shown by the press (general and sports) from the beginning of the century and until well into the 1920s, as shown by ^{Kaczan (2016}). In the words of this author:

The bell skirt that covered even the shoes made any extraordinary dexterity difficult and prevented the visualization of the separation or opening of the legs, as a need to possibly protect the disturbing sexual fantasies that this unequivocal sign of femininity aroused (^{KACZAN, 2016}, p.30).

^{Scharagrodsky, Manolakis, and Gosende (2003}), who analyzed textbooks on Physical Education for teachers, between 1880 and 1930, coincide in showing women with a large part of their bodies covered.

However, it was not a process of imposition or absolute regulation of the bodies from the uniform. Among the fugues and resistances, partly linked to its use, we find another story by Adelina Nélida Bibbó, about the day the music teacher took them to sing at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata. She dressed them in a white tunic and a crown of peach blossoms to sing La Traviata and Himno a la Universidad. There they began to run behind the stage, threw down a curtain, and broke a statue.

The concealment of the body was part of the transmission, from the education provided by the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas, of certain domesticity for the students, as well as the promotion of the image of a woman-mother and the allusion to a supposed “feminine nature”. Values such as grace, beauty, and sensitivity were promoted for the students, from the Argentine System of Physical Education, which we understand destined to a potential heterosexual male desire. For men, on the other hand, values such as autonomy and responsibility, chivalry, and honor were transmitted.

Certain liberation of the female body: shorts or baggy pants (1935-1939)

A new uniform began to be worn in 1935, the year after Cortelezzi's assumption as director. It is about the use of shorts or baggy pants. Faced with this change, we understand that the use of the gymnastics uniform meant for the students the possibility of carrying out more varied movements and breaking with the physiological trap of intensity: girls and women, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, they had to be moderate in their physical executions, which in the 20s and 30s was being eroded, at least in certain social actors (^{TOUSSONIAN, 2021}). It implied the use of clothing that for that moment broke with the traditional, signifying a disruptive fact for the time.

Grace Mildred Meckert explains that Cortelezzi was the one who renewed the gymnastics and the clothing because she was not satisfied with the previous clothing. For this reason, she established the baggy pants as mandatory:

in baggy pants yes (...) and my teacher Cleónida Avena... well she too. But she, when Juana told her that she also had to wear those short shorts... and other things she didn't like... then she was offended, because she had to tell us that this was the uniform we had to buy, with the right pants short and everything else (^{ORTUBE, 2001}, p. 196).

At the same time, Grace, who introduces herself as “big as fat” says that when the gym teacher asked her what to wear, she began to cry. The next day she was summoned by the director, telling her that she had been humiliated. Given this circumstance, Juana Cortelezzi responded: “You do not have to wear that. If you don't want to wear it, don't wear it” (^{ORTUBE, 2001}, p. 196), although she ultimately decided to wear it. This would show some relative freedom in the choice of uniform by the students. Regarding the general attire, he affirms that “Juana [Cortelezzi] brought [from Germany] that uniform that had the collar like this, worn with buttons and she liked that it was well starched and we had a cape. So, the girls rejected that navy-blue cape” (^{ORTUBE, 2001}, p. 200). Regarding the help of the Cooperating Association for the purchase of uniforms around 1936, it is explained that it contributed, taking charge of 16 units for the outfits for gym classes (^{CORTE-LEZZI, 1936}).

Illustration 7 5th-grade students after competing in basketball. El Plata newspaper, November 8, 1935. 

Illustration 8 Methodized class by Professor Cleónida Avena and assistant María Manini (both in the photograph). October 1936. Archive of the Liceo Víctor Mercante. 

Illustration 9 Students in gymnastics uniform. 1937. Archive of the Liceo Víctor Mercante. 

The baggy pants or shorts used by the students are clothing that is close to that presented by the students (which would indicate a certain equality between them) and allow greater freedom of movement, while allowing the exhibition of the women's legs, unlike the long skirts used in previous years. However, among the rules of appearance, there is evidence of the obligation to continue wearing the hair up (so as not to arouse indecent feelings in the others in public spaces), to sin, and even to prostitution. Furthermore, it could be inferred that, from the display of women's legs, their bodies are being built for the desire of the heterosexual man.

Based on the work of ^{Kaczan (2016}), we see that these shorts coexist and gradually replace the previous clothing. As the author points out:

towards the 1920s, participating in the process of modernization of women —in which appearance was part of political emancipation— and hand in hand with technological advances in the textile industry, the clothing used for gymnastics became more functional and the body is plausible to develop with greater autonomy. The innovations allow the replacement of rigid materials by elastomeric fabrics and the dress becomes light, a meager and tight mesh is implemented that highlights the charms and the curves thus creating “a new more hygienic and more pleasant morale” (MANGUDO, 1927, cited in ^{Kaczan, 2016}, p. 30).

From this quote, it is important to highlight how the clothing worn by women has clear effects on their emancipation and autonomy while considering elements such as pleasure, previously denied, which is in line with the image of a modern woman (TOSSOUNIAN, 2020). We want to highlight the fact that, in the specific case that we are analyzing, the use of light clothing and the empowerment of the exhibition of women's legs occurs only in this second period that begins in the mid-30s, Therefore, it is carried out with a certain delay in what was disseminated by the aforementioned graphic publications. However, as has been said, showing the legs is an act of liberation, but at the same time an act of dependence in the face of the desiring hetero-masculine gaze.

As indicated, students were already wearing shorts, at least, since 1929. Therefore,

the social construction of masculinity and femininity has supposed different and opposite body forms, as well as gestural manifestations, control of emotions, habits, tastes, and attitudes that are differentiated from each other. In this logic, female body techniques differ from male ones and operate following visualization and clothing uses (^{ZAMBRINI, 2010}, p. 144).

Illustration 10 Student in gymnastics uniform. 1937. Archive of the Liceo Víctor Mercante. 

In the Memoria of 1936, it is stated that the director of the school has adopted a new model of white apron for the daily use of her students, which she will make compulsory for the 1937 course (^{CORTELEZZI, 1937}). In a commemorative book about the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas, it is stated that “this model, attached to one side and a high collar, along with the cape, was the classic Liceo uniform until 1969. Prof. Cortelezzi, Director of the school at that time, was inspired by the one used by German schools that she had just visited” (^{ORTUBE, 2001}, p. 362).

In the same Memoria, Cortelezzi states that he has commissioned the making of the sports pennant that bears the UNLP seal embroidered in white and the inscription “CSS” on a blue background. In addition, he “has adopted a badge, which affects the shape of a shield, and which also bears the initials of the establishment, as a complement to the physical exercise uniform” (^{CORTELEZZI, 1937}, p. 38). This is linked to the construction, by the Colegio, of a certain sense of belonging, which would contribute to the production of identity meanings in being part of the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas. In this, it can also be inferred the intention to distinguish from other schools that contributed other capital (^{BOURDIEU, 2012}).

The clothing used in gymnastics classes was controlled, at least around 1938, by Aurora Duquet, an assistant teacher who was also in charge of accompaniment on the piano and seeking discipline. Such is the importance assigned to the obligatory attire that is included in the Memoria in the following way: “The students have always responded to the obligation to attend physical exercise classes wearing their uniforms and in the change of clothing in the time assigned to them before starting the class” (^{CORTELEZZI, 1939}, p.2).

In 1939, the head of the discipline explains that at the entrance she was in charge of inspecting the complete uniform, “making them remove the scarves, colored belts and ornaments” (CORTE-LEZZI, 1939, p.17), reason contributing once again to the promotion of a certain aesthetic, delimiting an allowed kinetic universe, as well as a certain morality.¹⁰ At that time, in the national and international context, the use of ornaments is arbitrarily assigned to women ¹¹ who associate with beauty to a greater extent than men, which allows us to see once again how femininity was (and is) a symbolic and political construction. However, this dominant discourse was qualified or resisted by different voices and publications at the end of the 1930s in Argentina, such as the magazine Cultura Sexual y Física (^{LEDESMA PRIETTO and SCHARAGRODSKY, 2020}). There, for example, the way to classify the bodies from the supposed impartial male voice was questioned. According to Ledesma Prietto and Scharagrodsky, they also went beyond the dominant aesthetic criteria and highlighted the importance of pleasure and joy during bodily practices, while opposing the regulation of female desire, which produced nervous and sexual imbalances, and they rejected the hypocrisy of double standards and sexual prejudices towards women.

In this second period, the image of the woman-mother continued to be present at the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas with references, from Physical Education to the “nature of women”, also alluding to a supposed “feminine sensibility”. For men, on the other hand, the subject, patriotic and hygienic values were promoted, a “winning spirit” was transmitted and character formation was sought.

New concealment of the body: the skirt pants and the blouse of the Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction (1940-1946)

In 1940, the new director of the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas, Faustino Legón, established that for the teaching of gymnastics, the regulations of the Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction of Nación should be adopted, doing the same with the uniform. That attire will then be used for at least until 1946. In Resolution No. 1, shortly after taking office, the director of the Colegio told the director of the department that, together with Professor Cleónida Avena, “study and propose in detail complete the verbally agreed clothing to be required from the beginning of the next course, on the basis that it is imposed by the aforementioned Ministry (blouse, skirt-pants...)” (^{LEGÓN, 1939}, p. 2). It is necessary to highlight at this point that the authority that decided on the attire of the female bodies was a man, unlike the previous period in which the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas was in charge of a woman. Along these lines, the DCF presented an androcentric view since, during the eighteen years of its existence, its authorities were exclusively men, while women only participated in teaching classes at the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas and worked in the doctor's office of the institution. The same happened with the referents (Physical Education teachers and doctors) who were taken as authorities.¹² This was following what happened in public and private, national and provincial organizations, in which the specific field of “physical culture” and physical education was thought of, conceptualized, elaborated, and defined by men or by certain men, taking the male body as the ideal or universal, and that of the woman as the particular, hierarchically inferior, with limitations (^{SCHARAGRODSKY, 2014}).

It is worth clarifying that, both in this period and in previous ones, the national regulations were followed, which allowed a series of modifications applied by the UNLP and by each school. Then, on March 6, 1939, Circular No. 3 of the Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction, in charge of César Vásquez, established a new uniform, both for the teachers of the subject and for the students:

By resolution issued on the date, it has been established that in educational establishments dependent on the Ministry, physical education teachers will wear the following uniform: wide, white, non-transparent blouse, with a turned-down collar, three-quarter sleeves, fastens under the skirt; non-transparent royal blue skirt-pants, avoiding buckled belts; white, soft, rubber-soled sneakers, preferably without heels; short white stocking rolled around the ankle; and white sweater, with a closed neck and long sleeves. The students will have the same uniform with the difference that the skirt-pants will be dark navy blue and its length will reach the vertex of the kneecap (ARGENTINA, 1939, p. 216-217; the highlights belong to us).

We highlight the reference to the non-transparent skirt, which we understand in the sense of a certain fear of showing certain parts of the woman's body. That is, we identify in this type of allusion the manifest intention of hiding certain parts of the female body.

Illustration 11 Mandatory uniforms for Physical Education teachers and students were established by the Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction of Nación. Bulletin 1939, year 2, no. 6. 

If we consider illustration 11, we understand that the image intends to build the female figure, manufacturing, for example, the waist with a certain thickness, since, obviously, not all women had that waist or that body. At this point, it is possible to perceive how images and discourses are performative, considering performativity as a specific modality of power (understood as discourse): “The power that discourse has to materialize its effects is therefore consonant with the power it has to circumscribe the sphere of intelligibility” (^{BUTLER, 2018}).

Precisely in 1938, César Coll, Minister of Justice and Public Instruction of Nación (entity in which the aforementioned resolution had been generated), visited the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas and was struck by the fact that the teacher did not have the regulated uniform, but street clothes (^{CORTELEZZI, 1939}).

Catalina Lerange, a student at the Colegio between 1940 and 1945, refers in her work to the uniform used for the other general classes. She states that the use of a white smock was mandatory for classes, excursions, and official events and that it was a faithful copy of the one worn by high school students in Berlin: “With almost elegant lines, it has two boards in the front and one in the back.” the rear; high neck. It turns on with a row of buttons on the left side” (^{LERANGE, 1949}, p. 22). She alludes to the fact that they were not allowed to exaggerate “the headdress” or the excessive use of jewelry or accessories, in line with what happened in the previous period, and that the Colegio was not responsible for the loss of these valuables. As for gym clothes, she confirms what we have already stated:

The so-called “equipment” consisted of navy blue skirt-pants, a white piqué blouse, white sneakers, and pumps. A triangular-shaped scarf for the head in the colors red and blue; and, in the center of the chest, the shield, with the beloved letters: C.S.S. During the winter we had to use the well-known “windbreakers” (^{LERANGE, 1949}, p. 23).

The use of the headscarf is confirmed by the former student interviewed; she linked it with a certain modesty by not showing her loose hair, with the aforementioned (imaginary) relationship of that aesthetic with the eroticism of women.

Following Scharagrodsky, clothing was a central concern of this school discipline, which contributed to regulating certain attitudes, values, and behaviors arbitrarily linked to the masculine and feminine on the bodies:

the dress codes and their use became, during Physical Education classes, powerful control mechanisms over what is allowed, what is appropriate, and what is correct for each gender. Clothing -and its effects on body appearance- hid a whole strongly normalizing moral universe” (^{SCHARAGRODSKY, 2006}, p. 187).

For this last period, Enilde Houstaix, another student at the Colegio between 1941 and 1946, also explains that the gymnastics uniform was “blue gabardine skirt-pants, white pique blouse or a white zip-up windbreaker. Everything that was bought in «Gath y Chaves». A red and blue handkerchief because we played basketball and baseball in the garden” (^{ORTUBE, 2001}, p. 203). Regarding the class uniform, she states that “it was the white overall with two boards, German type (...)” (ORTUBE, 2001, p. 203).¹³ Beyond the reference to the fact that compulsory clothing was purchased in Gath and Chaves, the institution's cooperator collaborated with the students to obtain it (^{LEGÓN, 1941}, 1943), as also happened in previous periods (COR-TELEZZI, 1936).

In 1944, in the Minutes of a meeting of the Colegio Secundario de Señoritas, Rodríguez Jura-do states that the students must attend the act of April 14 in the Plaza San Martín in skirts (it is said that there will also be an act at the same time in Plaza de Mayo). This indicates some concern about showing uniformity in very crowded events.

Two former students of the Colegio from the end of this period affirm that for Physical Education classes a skirt and a blouse was used: “Skirt-pants are pants that have a board... two boards, similar to a skirt” (interview 2019, p.3). Here again, we can see how the uniforms, by fostering a certain aesthetic, present a thinkable kinetic universe as well as an unthinkable one, mixed with moral issues. Then, the interviewees give an account of a new change that would have occurred with the dissolution of the Department, explaining how they felt their change in terms of comfort:

The uniform change was in 1946 or later. The new uniform was a white bloomer, not shorts, and jogger pants for the winter. It was fantastic for me to wear baggy pants, not the skirt-pant. What happens is that when you fell to the ground and had to raise your legs, those pants… No, no, you were going to show the parts, but the boards came crashing down on you. It was not comfortable for exercise. It was more comfortable than wearing a skirt, and at the beginning of all we used the uniform because we did rhythmic gymnastics with hoops, we didn't throw ourselves on the ground or anything (interview 2019, p.4, the featured one belongs to us).

Following Inés ^{Dussel (2003}), clothing has effects on students' school experience and was part of a process of modern homogeneity and equality through appearances. Its effects are linked to the possibility of establishing certain social relationships and the authorization, from the school institution, of certain configurations of the body. Thus,

the uniforms are consciously and deliberately symbolic since in them, there is a reasonable selection in their design that is inserted within the representations about the duty of men and women. The uniforms are a symbol of the regulation that is exerted on the bodies to inscribe attitudes and behaviors standardized and considered normal. For the ones who use them, it represents giving a sign of belonging to a social group and placing themselves within a hierarchy (^{CHÁVEZ GONZÁLEZ, 2006}, p. 172).

In this way, we witness a regulation of the bodies in pursuit of equalization (within the groups of male and female students, respectively), at the same time that a differentiation is sought between each group.

Illustration 12 Exhibition of Physical Education in which the students wear the aforementioned skirt-pants and blouse. El Argentino newspaper, November 8, 1946. 

This return to a certain concealment of the body in this third period was reinforced for women with the prohibition of having bare shoulders for Religion classes.¹⁴ The interviewees say that at that time women could not go to church with short sleeves and without a hat. For this reason, the teacher attended classes with many shawls to provide them to the students who went without sleeves, and they affirm that “the one who insisted a lot on that was especially this priest” (interview 2019, p. 6). However, the students resisted the use of this type of uniform, constantly questioning the priest about why it was necessary to use it if it was not requested in other subjects.

In this way, there seems to be a setback in the display of women's legs and the fact of facilitating their movements. However, the fact that it was a skirt-pant meant the inclusion in the history of women's clothing as a highly symbolic sign of masculinity, such as pants (^{BARD, 2012}). In other words, it was somewhat eccentric for women to wear a kind of pants, but it was for the context of the early 20th century, when it allowed greater movement without losing modesty (^{KACZAN, 2016}), not for the early 1940s, as it happened in the analyzed case. In this way, a process is carried out (not exempt from ambiguities and resistance) of differential and unequal allocation of moralities, aesthetics, and emotions, of their regulation, understood as situated cultural and social practices (^{AHMED, 2015}).

This setback in the school uniform is part of the search, for the subject, for a certain discretion by the students. There is a return to domesticity, although paradoxically, the image of a woman-mother gives way, in part, to the idea of a working woman and the search for responsibility, also for them. In the three periods analyzed, different parts of the body were exercised in male and female students: while they trained all parts of the body through numerous and varied sports (with a predominance of arm strength work), they participated in activities that focused on the lower part, with speed and flexibility predominating.¹⁵ In the latter one can appreciate a certain fear of the masculinization of women.