Notes

• Community members often understand the term to be "doodie" (meaning "poop") because the skirts are seen as unattractive. See thread debating this phrase and its origins here. See a military "duty skirt" here. One contributor writes, "The term originated amongst Bais Yaakov students in the 90's. This was a term that adolescent students originated and spread amongst themselves, and it was not used by school administrators or respectable adults. At around that time, it became fashionable to wear skirts so long that they touched the floor. This fashion was deemed against the dress code by many Bais Yaakov schools, who specified instead that skirts should end somewhere between the bottom of the knee-cap and mid-calf. (Today, policy at most BY schools has evolved further and mandates that skirts be at least 4 inches below the knee.) Students preferred skirts that were either just below the knee or went all the way to the floor. The mid-length was seen as old-fashioned and unattractive, and thus named "doodie-length" by the students. Today, in 2023, fashion has come back around and mid-calf styles are popular again. Frum adolescent girls today are likely to wear mid-calf skirts and call them by the term "midi skirts". Still, their mothers were teenagers in the 90's and continue to call those same styles "doodie-length", and so the term lives on!"