Sexualization and Sexism in School Dress Codes

Shoulders and knees have become a battleground recently. Girls have been asked to leave their school dance because chaperones consider their dresses too “sexual” or “provocative.” By giving girls detention or sending them home to change because of their outfit choice removes them from the learning environment and lessens their learning time. The school is prioritizing a male’s education over a female because she happens to be showing more skin. “When a school takes the decision to police female students’ bodies while turning a blind eye to boy’s behavior, it sets up a lifelong assumption that sexual violence is inevitable and victims are partially responsible” (Bates). Male students are conditioned to believe that it is okay to sexualize a

Advocates of school uniforms repeatedly use arguments such as: uniforms decrease violence and gang activities, uniforms remove distractions from the classroom, and uniforms enhance academic performances but multiple studies have proven that uniforms or enforcing a stricter dress code of any kind produces any noteworthy changes. Most of the time it’s only the parents and administrators that see the results but that might just be a placebo effect, where a person claims they see changes because they expected it. It’s often seen in scientific studies where group one receives the experimental substance and group two received a substance with a similar appearance in order to see if the substance is viable. The school staffs sees changes but the student do not proving that dress attire does not have a great impact on learning. Dress code policies are also very sexist and aimed mostly towards females. It teaches boys it’s okay to sexualize girls and that it’s in their nature. Girl’s are told it is their fault if a boy objectifies them. Girls cannot embrace their bodies in fear that they will be harassed and can’t sit comfortably in a classroom on a hot day without being paranoid that she could get pulled out and sent home for exposing her shoulders. Etobicoke School of the Arts senior Alexi Halket once said “We are just trying to love our bodies and appreciate them for what they are, even with a dress code. Why would you send a female home because guys can 't control themselves when they see a girl 's outfit?” We need to be teaching boys to view women as people and not sexualized