Put a Stop to Sexist Dress Codes

Every school has them. Every wardrobe is limited by them. And every girl is taught that she is inherently a sexual object for boys to gawk at because of them. Dress codes are prevalent everywhere. But why is it that girls’ seem to be a mile long and boys’ tend to be next to nothing? Why is it that 90% of detentions given for dress codes are given to girls? Why is it that girls will be sent home for knees or shoulders showing, appropriate, non-sexual body parts, but if a guy’s underwear shows or their shirt slides up, everybody brushes it off? Dress Codes are perfectly fine if it is about being respectful and serious for both genders, but when they have become as they are, with 60% of students attending schools with a dress code finding them unfair, something has to change with this.

As an anonymous person once said, “If she’s ‘too young’ for her to be wearing ‘shorts that short’, she’s also too young for you to be sexualizing her body for wearing them.” Dress codes instituted in schools across the world teach boys that it is okay to think of girls as sexual objects. It says that it is natural to sexualize appropriate body parts such as thighs or shoulders to the point where girls are now required to cover them up. Riddhi Sandil, a psychologist from the APA said that “Schools are sending the message that a girl’s physical appearance is to blame for how boys behave towards them.” To say a girl must change because “boys will be boys” is saying that boys are incapable of change or development and girls are responsible for other people’s actions.

“Men are never told that their legs, arms, or stomachs are a problem. They are seen as human and very rarely seen as something there for your sexual exploitation.” A student posted signs with these words all around her school. They were taken down. There is a strong double standard towards girls in schools. Men are hardly ever ridiculed when they violate their dress code, and there hardly ever is a dress code for boys. They are not objectified in the way girls are. We have come to the point where one thigh is sexual, and the other isn’t. One shoulder is allowed, and the other is forced to be covered. 90% of detention for dress codes are given to girls. There is a simple reason behind. The clothing permitted at schools only suits one of the gender’s needs.

“When you send a girl home from school because her shorts are too short or her clothing is immodest, you are telling her that hiding her body is more important than her education.You are telling her that making sure that boys have a distraction-free learning environment is more important.... In a way, you are telling her that the boys are more entitled to an education than she is…. ” Said a young student, Allie Faithers. And this is undeniably true. “Administrators are punishing girls with detention, public humiliation, expulsion, and mandatory assemblies, which distracts from the female students’ education.” Laci Green points out. Teachers and Administrators are favouring a boy’s education over a girl’s. They are telling girls because they are perceived as sexual objects, they are undeserving of an education.

Most schools claim that they’re dress codes are to keep an appropriate, professional, and mature mindset. But when girls are told that they are a distraction because too much skin is showing, they are being objectified and valued less. Boys are being told that they cannot control their thoughts and that girls are responsible for how a boy sexualizes them. They are sent home or made to sit through assemblies or forced to change because they interrupted a boy’s learning. But their learning is interrupted by sexist standards forced upon them. It is plain to see that dress codes have become objectifying, belittling, and sexist among schools everywhere.