Dear readers,
Dress codes are fueling rape culture and oppressive objectification of young women.
Sexist dress codes enforce public shaming of the female form. Girls are being told that they have to hide their bodies away and can't be confident in their figures. They're being told that even the basic female form is so overwhelmingly distracting and uncomfortable to men and boys that they have no choice but to lose valuable class time and comply with the sexist standards. Dress codes blame the wearer for the onlooker's perceptions or actions. They blame the girl for what the perverted boy is thinking.
Dress codes not only sexualize girls, but they also picture boys as being so hormonal and sex crazy that they can't even look at a girl's shoulders without getting turned on. Plenty of boys don't care if girls wear tank tops and shorts. So not only are dress codes making young girl's bodies seem sexual, but they're also making boy's thoughts and opinions on girls seem sexual.
Normal clothing that tons of women and girls wear, like leggings, crop tops, and cold-shoulder shirts are being banned, causing girls to have absolutely no use for them. This may lead to girls spending more looking for an outfit to wear in the morning because they have to go through a mental checklist. Does this shirt cover my collarbones? Is this skirt longer than my fingertips? Imagine missing your bus because you're agonizing on whether or not a perfectly normal outfit is going to get you sent home from school.
Schools should be teaching girls to be comfortable and happy in their own bodies. Young girls today are often insecure and unhappy with their bodies, calling themselves fat or ugly at a unhealthily young age. The added pressure of not being able to wear clothes that fit your body only worsens these feelings.
Girls who wear revealing clothing need to stop being slut-shamed. Calling a girl a slut or a whore because of an article of clothing that they're wearing is dehumanizing and incredibly cruel. Boys aren't called names for clothing that they wear, and if they ever are, it's certainly not in a sexual pretense. Why is it that boys are allowed to be shirtless and paint letters onto their chests in the name of school spirit and nobody blinks an eye but cheerleading, which is all about school spirit, has outfits are so skimpy and sexualized?
Dress codes also have the possibility of being racist and classist. Dress codes in which things like bandanas, backward ball caps, biker or gang colors, chains, or baggy clothing are banned are specifically targeting students of color or poor students who are generally not able to afford or want no interest in the type of clothing that faculty members want: well-fitting, high quality, and from their culture. The creators of these dress codes simply want to make every student look the same, when the reality is that every one of us is different and we deserve to be individual and independant people.
The solution is to make dress codes gender neutral, less strict, and to take out racist, sexist, and classist rules. I get that teachers want students to be appropriately dressed for school, but these standards are getting ridiculous. They don't have to be about how wide straps are and how long shorts are. Dress codes don't have to be about gender and race and class. If you live in a county or go to a school in which your dress code is unfairly targeting certain students-- girls, students of color, poor students, or other minorities, even if you don't fit into any of those categories, you can help. It might take a while, and it might be hard, but we have to make sure that girls and boys are raised properly if we want to bring about larger change in the sexist system of today.
-Blue
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