Why Do Schools Have Dress Codes
Dress codes. Dress codes are something that everyone has to deal with for almost their whole lives, but schools are where dress codes seem to be the most prominent. It seems that every couple of weeks a school has made the news because of their strict dress code or their punishments for breaking the dress code. As a teenage girl, the dress code is something that I have a love-hate relationship with. It can either limit what I can wear or make me thankful for giving me guidelines when I don’t know if something is appropriate enough to wear to school. But there are some very obvious problems with many dress codes around the country that need to be addressed.
Dress codes can have a very obvious gender bias against females. In a majority of dress …show more content…
codes, most of the guidelines are targeted at girls. Shorts must not be above fingertips, you cannot show your collarbones or bra straps, you cannot wear spaghetti straps. While girls have all these rules they have to follow, boys get off easy with just a couple like having to wear belts or no sagging pants. One girl named Hailey Tjensvold, an eighth grader at Irvington School in Portland, Oregon on the website NeaToday said, “She explained how boys whose trousers sag are simply told to “pull your pants up” without further repercussion while girls are sent to the office and “forced” to call their parents to bring them a change of clothes.” There is a very unfair way that boys and girls are treated when they “break” the dress code. Another girl named Maggie Sunseri, from a middle school in Versailles, Kentucky said on The Atlantic website, “that certain articles of girls’ attire should be prohibited because they “distract” boys—.” It shows that girls are limited to what they can wear because the clothes they wear can potentially be distracting to boys, though there is no real evidence of that currently. Girls have all of these rules and standards that they have to follow while boys have it easy and are rarely punished for breaking them.
In many schools there is some sort of punishment for violating the dress code.
These punishments can range from detentions to “shame suits”. An example of this is, “In Florida, students were publicly shamed for violating dress code by being forced to wear "shame suits."” Some schools that dish out punishments for violating dress code can be very severe and humiliating. It seems that the principles and staff of the schools that do this seem to enjoy embarrassing students that supposedly break the dress code in place. A senior at James River High School near Richmond Virginia shared her opinion on the “shame suits” at her school. On the website Today, she said, "And I just thought that was completely unacceptable. The dress code is all about professionalism, but to me, a sweatsuit meant to shame students does not convey professionalism." Lydia Cleveland, the senior, was forced to wear a pair of old sweatpants with the words “DRESS CODE” printed on the side after she was told her outfit was violating the very strict dress code at her school. Many school with strict dress codes set in place can have very extreme and humiliating punishment that are meant to belittle students. Some of the schools that participate in these behaviors have received backlash for it and have changed their rules for
dressing.
Dress codes aren’t only teaching girls that they should cover up their bodies, body-shaming, but that they could hold part of the blame for sexual harassment they may receive. A girl named Rose Lynn from Oklahoma was featured in a CNN news story about how she was dress coded. She said, ‘So once again, society has failed to advocate young ladies, by confining them in a box, where they are stripped from their sense of self-respect and self-expression, rather than teaching young men to respect the boundaries of young ladies.” She talks about not only the way that girls are put into boxes where they cannot express themselves, but the way that the dress codes doubt the maturity of the young men in schools. Instead of just telling girls to cover themselves so that they will not be distractions, we should be teaching boys to respect young ladies and their choices. Angel Fabre, a student at Grand Arts school in L.A. talks about what she should be focusing on in school, “I should be worrying about my test that I have in the next period, I should be worrying about a dance class,” she said, “not my body or if somebody is going to attack me or harass me for it." What she says about her focus in school is something that many girls can relate to. Girls should be free to think about their classwork and homework instead of whether or not their clothes are deemed appropriate for school.
Overall, there is a very very obvious gender bias put on girls to meet the standards that their schools set in place for dress codes that are unfair. They should not have to worry about the severe punishments they may receive for violating the dress code, which in many cases they haven’t in the first place. Young women in schools should not be stressed about the way that they are dressing and if they will be punished for expressing themselves in a society that often doesn’t let young girls express themselves. And young ladies should not have to fear that they will be blamed for sexual harassment they may receive for dressing the way that they do in a society that often blames the victim for things that happen to them. School should be a place for us to learn and grow, not a place to unfairly shove us into a box where we cannot express ourselves and be striped of our basic rights to dress as we wish.
Dress codes can have a very obvious gender bias against females. In a majority of dress …show more content…
codes, most of the guidelines are targeted at girls. Shorts must not be above fingertips, you cannot show your collarbones or bra straps, you cannot wear spaghetti straps. While girls have all these rules they have to follow, boys get off easy with just a couple like having to wear belts or no sagging pants. One girl named Hailey Tjensvold, an eighth grader at Irvington School in Portland, Oregon on the website NeaToday said, “She explained how boys whose trousers sag are simply told to “pull your pants up” without further repercussion while girls are sent to the office and “forced” to call their parents to bring them a change of clothes.” There is a very unfair way that boys and girls are treated when they “break” the dress code. Another girl named Maggie Sunseri, from a middle school in Versailles, Kentucky said on The Atlantic website, “that certain articles of girls’ attire should be prohibited because they “distract” boys—.” It shows that girls are limited to what they can wear because the clothes they wear can potentially be distracting to boys, though there is no real evidence of that currently. Girls have all of these rules and standards that they have to follow while boys have it easy and are rarely punished for breaking them.
In many schools there is some sort of punishment for violating the dress code.
These punishments can range from detentions to “shame suits”. An example of this is, “In Florida, students were publicly shamed for violating dress code by being forced to wear "shame suits."” Some schools that dish out punishments for violating dress code can be very severe and humiliating. It seems that the principles and staff of the schools that do this seem to enjoy embarrassing students that supposedly break the dress code in place. A senior at James River High School near Richmond Virginia shared her opinion on the “shame suits” at her school. On the website Today, she said, "And I just thought that was completely unacceptable. The dress code is all about professionalism, but to me, a sweatsuit meant to shame students does not convey professionalism." Lydia Cleveland, the senior, was forced to wear a pair of old sweatpants with the words “DRESS CODE” printed on the side after she was told her outfit was violating the very strict dress code at her school. Many school with strict dress codes set in place can have very extreme and humiliating punishment that are meant to belittle students. Some of the schools that participate in these behaviors have received backlash for it and have changed their rules for
dressing.
Dress codes aren’t only teaching girls that they should cover up their bodies, body-shaming, but that they could hold part of the blame for sexual harassment they may receive. A girl named Rose Lynn from Oklahoma was featured in a CNN news story about how she was dress coded. She said, ‘So once again, society has failed to advocate young ladies, by confining them in a box, where they are stripped from their sense of self-respect and self-expression, rather than teaching young men to respect the boundaries of young ladies.” She talks about not only the way that girls are put into boxes where they cannot express themselves, but the way that the dress codes doubt the maturity of the young men in schools. Instead of just telling girls to cover themselves so that they will not be distractions, we should be teaching boys to respect young ladies and their choices. Angel Fabre, a student at Grand Arts school in L.A. talks about what she should be focusing on in school, “I should be worrying about my test that I have in the next period, I should be worrying about a dance class,” she said, “not my body or if somebody is going to attack me or harass me for it." What she says about her focus in school is something that many girls can relate to. Girls should be free to think about their classwork and homework instead of whether or not their clothes are deemed appropriate for school.
Overall, there is a very very obvious gender bias put on girls to meet the standards that their schools set in place for dress codes that are unfair. They should not have to worry about the severe punishments they may receive for violating the dress code, which in many cases they haven’t in the first place. Young women in schools should not be stressed about the way that they are dressing and if they will be punished for expressing themselves in a society that often doesn’t let young girls express themselves. And young ladies should not have to fear that they will be blamed for sexual harassment they may receive for dressing the way that they do in a society that often blames the victim for things that happen to them. School should be a place for us to learn and grow, not a place to unfairly shove us into a box where we cannot express ourselves and be striped of our basic rights to dress as we wish.