Foucault asserted that knowledge is power. This has been interpreted that those in the know have the power to affect things. However, it can also be read as those aspiring to power having to know in detail what they are about to do. In this essay on school dress codes, I will

The sheer attention to detail required to formulate rules along the lines of "these kinds of shoulder straps are okay, but these slightly thinner ones are a moral hazard leading the young into temptation" is staggering

People devote their entire careers to learning such details

From the perspective of governance, e.g. being in charge, the one thing to do in order to get some peace of mind is to formulate rules of such clarity that the few edge cases that exist can be dealt with when they come up once every two months

To be sure, school dress codes are not about good governance. They are 100% about regulating the bodies of young women, and as such, no effort is spared, no detail too small, no fine distinction too academical to become subject to legal interpretation

Thus, these detailed regs

'tis something of a contradiction when they say they can't enforce the wearing of face masks, but do enforce that a skirt can not be of a certain length if cut a certain way, and another length if cut differently. They know how to do the one but not the other; knowledge is power