Dress‐Related Responses to the Columbine Shootings: Other‐Imposed and Self‐Designed

Abstract

In 1999, two students at Columbine High School (CHS) used gunfire to claim their lives and those of 13 others. Media writers devoted considerable attention to this crime, drawing linkages between the shootings and dress. The purpose of this study was to explore this media dialogue, particularly the dress‐related responses proposed and/or adopted in reaction to the shootings, who advanced/opposed these responses, and why. Theories of identity, social power, and symbolic interaction guided the authors' work. An inductive content analysis approach was used to examine dress‐related text published in The Denver Post and The Rocky Mountain News concerning the shootings. Analyses revealed two major dress‐related responses: (a) other‐imposed regulation aimed at protecting students and deterring them from expressing hatred against others and (b) self‐designed/selected creative acts of resistance for grieving, memorializing, and unifying. Arguments in support of and against these responses are discussed, and theoretical implications are considered.

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