Sexist dress code
"Schools should not be teaching girls how to dress. We know how to dress; Schools should be teaching boys how to control themselves," an excellent quote from a well educated high school student. The dress code across the country is completely sexist and absurd in quite a few ways. Girls do not have permission to wear clothes that are too "revealing," yet boys are permitted to wear no shirt at all during gym class. Even when covered up, girls are allowed to show practically no part of their body.
For starters, this dress code policy does not only make women feel uncomfortable in the clothes they wear, but it makes girls go through the thought that, under the circumstance that we are taken advantage of, we could potentially think that it is our fault for dressing so provocatively. Not only will this result in fear being placed within our hearts that we are the ones responsible for such a thing happening to us, but we seem to learn to be obedient servants rather fierce women who are comfortable in who we are.
Furthermore, boys have much more freedom over what they wear in school. High school student, a relative of a student at Needwood Middle School, reports that boys were seen removing their shirts during gym, but the moment a girl wants to be in something of less clothing, meaning that she requested to have a more revealing type of clothing, she was not allowed to. Tank Tops are not permitted to be worn and any shirt that has less than three adult fingers for the shoulder length is to be changed immediately after their parents bring them a change of clothes deemed "appropriate."
"How dare you dress so provocatively, How dare you have a body" is the basic summary of a school dress code for girls. Males are allowed to wear basically whatever they please, but girls are not permitted to wear things they may find comfortable. Others argue that the school dress code was made to keep girls safe and protected, whilst keeping the boys from getting distracted by the type of clothing a female wears. Instead of teaching us girls how to dress, why don't schools teach the boys how to control themselves. Besides, no one goes around and says "Hey. You have nice looking shoulders that are extremely distracting." The simple audacity within the dress code is there to teach women how to be scared girls, frightened of being harmed because of the clothing they chose to wear. Tell us schools, what is defined as too provocative?
