Dress Code Rules Essay

When reading student handbooks there is always a page (or more) dedicated to the dress code rules. At first glance they seem like common sense. Until you notice that most of the regulations seem to target what girls wear. While many of the regulations are used in gender neutral terms they are applied to articles of clothing that is usually considered for girls and is all about limiting the things that even remotely show off the female form. These regulations tell girls that they need to be ashamed of their bodies and they are a distraction.

Though it can argued that this is all about being appropriate in the learning area. At work you are supposed to look professional and school is hardly any different. If girls wore things such as belly

The common arguments for the dress code includes telling girls that they are “distractions”. This only pushes the idea that their comfortability is nothing compared to the possibility of a guy drooling over an exposed shoulder. This also gives the idea that girls have to be the ones to stop boys from making bad choices and within itself promotes victim blaming and rape culture. (Rape culture and victim blaming is what makes it the girl’s fault if she is harassed in any way.) We should not be treating teenaged girls as sexual objects or teaching them that their bodies are supposed to be ashamed of.

Teaching girls that they are distractions or dressing immodestly when they are showing their collar bones (how dare they) opens the floor to slut shaming. Clothes do not determine one’s value on sex and one’s value on sex certainly doesn’t determine someone’s value as a person. These strict dress codes suggest that anyone who exposed their skin is scandalise and deserves to be punished for wearing clothes they are comfortable in. The dress codes tell girls that their bodies are just regarded as a distraction for boys and that their education is thought to be less important than