Is it just me, or are high school dress codes absolutely ridiculous? This last week my sister texted me furious that she got called out for her ripped jeans. Her jeans were completely fine, but that's not even the problem. The problem is that girls get called out in the middle of class because their shoulder is showing, and somehow, just somehow, educators think objectifying a young woman as a sex object in the middle of class in front of everyone is OK.
I guess young men have no idea how to control their sexual urges because of a shoulder? Shoulders must be very appealing to teenage boys in order for educators to make such a huge deal out of it.
When I was in high school, I thought that this rule was absurd as well. There were a couple times where I was wearing a shirt that was a little too short that might have shown some skin and I got yelled at and was forced to wear a hideous shirt that had been in the lost and found for years. For high schoolers, this is just as humiliating as wearing a big A on your chest, like you are some sort of adulterer.
On my very first day of college, I was actually worried that there was some sort of dress code and that I would get called out on it. Now I know better and can wear whatever I want to class because I'm an adult and so is everyone else around me. We aren't worried that showing our shoulders are hindering another person's ability to learn.
All we are worried about is our own education. That should be the only thing students should be worried about, is getting their high school education. Young girls shouldn't have to worry about being humiliated in front of their classmates because of what they chose to wear that day. They chose to wear that outfit that day because it's what they felt comfortable in, not because they wanted to be scorned by their teachers. Nobody wants that.
What they do want is to go about their day and get their education, without being bothered for feeling confident about themselves in an outfit and to not feel like they are always being looked at because they are a sexual object. Because educators are calling young women out on their clothing choices, they are reminding these young ladies that they are merely a sex object, and are only there for men to look at. They are also reminding young men that they can call a young lady out on her clothing and deem it "slutty" , and shame us for our clothing choices. But they aren't just shaming our clothing choices, they are shaming us. They are demeaning us. They are breaking down our self-confidence, without even realizing it.
Is it too much to ask, that simply the dress code regulations be changed to fit these changing times? You tell me.
