| Sumario: | In this paper, we ask how the dress code comes to matter for black teenage girls, aged 12–15 years in the junior phase of a private boarding house in South Africa. The study draws on elements of an ethnography to illustrate how the dress code upholds gender binaries based on heteropatriarchal norms. Using a Baradian framework that emphasises intra-action between human and more-than-human forces, the study focuses on material-discursive systems of regulations within the boarding house that impede girls' capacities. The findings suggest that a range of elements including clothes, historical processes, bodies, space, gender, sexuality, age, flesh and customary practices are integral to the boarding-house dress code. Through these entanglements, heteropatriarchal gender binaries are reinforced subjecting younger, curvier girls to intensified surveillance. Girls' affective responses to the dress code holds potential for challenging gender inequalities and the regulation of girls' dress. We conclude with some reflection on broadening the possibilities for gender justice work to address the dress code phenomena that continues to view girls as subordinate.
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