What Are The Arguments Against School Dress Codes

Imagine a situation in which a girl is sent home for wearing yoga pants, but her boy classmate stays in class while wearing a skin tight “muscle shirt.” This situation happens too often in schools all over. The discrimination in this situation may seem obvious, but some might deem this as an appropriate and fair incident, where the female was rightfully punished for her inappropriate clothing. Situations like the before example, are often backed up by school dress codes, a code in which certain articles of clothing are regulated. Dress codes are in all schools, including private and public, middle and high schools; however, regardless of the kind of school, dress codes almost always target girls(9). Girls are purposefully defying the dress code as a kind of civil disobedience to point out the sexism and unfairness in school dress codes (4). Middle and high school administrators often believe they have created dress codes for appropriate reasons; however, the dress codes are often sexist and do more harm than
Many girls are taken out of the class room because of their distracting outfit (4). When this happens it tells a girl that a boy having a distraction free learning environment is much more important than the girl just having a learning environment (4). In one middle school, girls a putting up poster that say, “Are my pants lowering your test scores?” (5). These posters are trying to say, that boys do not really need girls in yoga pants banned from school. Keeping students in the classroom, without the interruption of monitoring dress code would most likely be more conducive to the whole learning environment. Removing a girl from a classroom, or sending her home, because her outfit is “too distracting” is really saying that a boy’s education is more valuable than her’s