Dress Code Argumentative Essay

In schools, girls are dress coded for the most foolish reasons. Women on the streets are called rude names for wearing certain outfits. Girls and women are told how to dress, what clothings are presentable, and what is too much. As long as there are commands placed upon women on how to dress, women will never be free.

Women are often deemed as sluts or whores when they wear provocative clothing. When women wear certain clothing pieces, they are the accessories to the clothing. Schools and others should stop sexualizing women's bodies and placing rules on what to wear. The clothing isn’t the problem, it’s the sexualization of the clothing. “The dress code controversy operates within a larger cultural context--one which women are frequently sexualized and
portrayed as "sex objects" valued primarily for their sexual appeal. Increasingly the United States, it is not just women. Instead, the sexualization of girls and girlhood is recognized as widespread and problematic,” (Rich L.
Rev, 1041). Schools should not make girls feel like they are sex objects that need to cover 24/7. Women can’t live in fear of arousing the other gender and getting punished. The gender of the person shouldn’t be the determining factor of what is “sexy” or the amount of denceny they have when wearing certain clothing. Instead of punishing those who sexualizal the female race, schools and society punishes the girls wearing clothing that their bodies are comfortable in. Women have bodies, men have bodies, all humans have bodies. All society and schools got to do to stop sexualization of female bodies, is recognize that human beings have different body shapes that come in different sizes, not matter what the gender of the person may be. To press on the topic of female bodies being sexualizal by soiecty, is that sexualizaling a women can cause damage to their self esteem and bring down their views on themselves. “Why my objectification and sexualization was paramount in our relationship, while my achievements and personality fell by the wayside, unexplored, uncelebrated. Only years later did I begin to process the emotions I felt that day and the interaction that lead to them. Much time passed before I began to
accept the precarious nature of womanhood, or understand how it is defined by patriarchy,” (Tiffanie Drayton, The Frisky). Tiffanie felt that her body was over praised to all of the outstanding achievements she had. She felt that for a women, the only achievement that gets complimented that most, is when they lose 15 pounds. The effects of sexualizaling a women’s body, is that it’s “ the woman’s way of life”. Tiffanie gave up on trying to get her achievements praised, because in the end, the patriarchal world women live in today doesn’t acknowledge goals like that. This cause Tiffianie’s self esteem to drop down and her way of thinking is now narrow. She feels like an object, rather than a fellow human being to her male counterpart. Due to the sexualiztion of women’s bodies, lots of women are beginning to think that same way as Tiffanie, causing their minds to focus on things that aren’t relevant to them. With the constant sexualizaltion of the female race, it causes a rape culture to be accepted and to happen more often. When rape occurs, men and other people blame the girl/woman (victim) for dressing a certain way that provokes a man to take advantage of her by forcing themselves on her. The cause of condemning women of their rapes, makes the women feel degraded, isolated. “The rape of one woman is a degradation, terror, and limitation to all women. Most women and girls limit their behavior because of the existence of rape. Most women and girls live in fear of rape. Men, in general, do not. That’s how rape functions as a powerful means by which the whole female population is held in a subordinate position to the whole male population, even though many men don’t rape, and many women are never victims of rape,” (Marshall University). Men aren’t blamed when they sexually assault women, even if she didn’t give consent to the intercourse. Women are blamed for the man’s sexual assault. Often women are blamed because the clothing is too provocative and was deemed invitational. A woman’s clothing shouldn’t signal that she’s “asking for it”. By indicating expressions such as “she’s asking for it”, supports rape culture and can cause women to be afraid of being confident in their clothing. Stop telling girls they are the reason they got rape. They aren’t trying to get rape, nobody wants to get raped. Society and schools should stop teaching women to avoid rape, and start teaching men not to rape. In addition to rape attacks, sexaul harssessment is also a large issue against women. “Rape culture is a culture where 1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. It’s a culture where only 3% of rapists will see a day in prison. It’s a culture that cares more about protecting the identities of rapists than supporting rape victims. Dress codes lead to the sexualization of young women, the punishing of women for taking control of their own bodies and the blaming/shaming of women who don’t dress overly-modest. And after all that, your schools have the audacity to not even have a sexual assault policy, ” (Youth Feminists). In this society, it seems that the importance rape is directed at women. Rape implies women that are overly-modest can avoid rape and/or sexual harassment. Instead of wasting time on telling women how to dress, schools should create a system to protect victims of rape and sexual assault. To add on, sexual assault isn’t caused by a woman wearing short skirt and a crop top. Sexual assault happens when certain males can’t contain their hormones and force themselves on to women. Stop blaming the women’s clothing and their bodies as the cause of their misfortune, and start blaming the persecutors.

From sexualization to rape, ridiculous dress codes create only disasters for females. The fact that it only causes problems for females is very sexist. Dress codes often have double standards when dealing with gender. Girls/women are more restricted to clothing freedom than men are. The dress codes in schools and in the outside world target only the girls. “The new dress code is biased against girls – they are supposed to watch what they wear, while the boys don’t have as many restrictions. The problem stems from the fact that girls are targeted more often than boys, and the implied message of dress codes is that it is the responsibility of female students to prevent boys from being too distracted to learn, “ (Silvia Alfonso & Shaun Weber). Ladies shouldn’t give in to make the learning area more “comfortable” for men just because their bra strap is showing or a sliver of their belly is flashed. The female body is not a distraction, the clothes they wear aren’t a distraction, so stop putting rules against women for being a distraction. A distraction is a butterfly flying in and out of a window, not a girl wearing a shorts and a t-shirt. A distraction is a non-human action, so schools should stop dehumanizing women. Schools should stop putting one gender over the other and treat both female and males on an equal level. “We live in a culture that tells boys it’s OK to shed clothing in the heat in order to be more comfortable, but tells girls that their comfort is secondary to how others perceive them.” (Caroline Siede) By not setting any restrictions on the comfort of a man, but with a woman, to be comfortable is something to think about after the measurements of their shorts. Girls are held to a double standards of schools and society. Females are told to dress comfortable for hot weather, but not too comfortable otherwise the outfit will be deemed as slutty. If a guy took off his shirt, there would be no reaction, no punishment, or no rude remarks. But when a girl does the very same thing, they are punished severely, called horrible names, and get cat-called. How does the board of education think girls can study in a 68 degrees classroom with their long sleeved shirts and uncomfortable jeans? Women should put their comfort over their measurements. Females deserve the right to be comfortable in the attire they come to school. They should be allowed to dress accordingly to the different seasons in whatever manner they choose.