So the other day I had to take my sister a pair of jeans to school because she was wearing jeans with holes in them and it just really fired me up. I started thinking about all of the times I, or my friends, got in trouble for the clothes I was wearing.
My first memory of one of my friends getting dress coded was 8th grade. It was August and it was hot and she was wearing a plain solid colored tank that was dress code appropriate and a spaghetti strap OVER that tank. She was given a demerit. Just because you could see a strap that "some-what" resembled a bra strap.
I have been in trouble myself for wearing a dress code appropriate dress with heels that "made the dress look too short", wearing jeans without pockets because "that too closely resembled leggings", wearing leggings with a shirt that didn't completely cover my butt, and my favorite time was the time I got sent to the office for wearing gym shorts to my last class which I had right after gym in 98 degrees weather.
I'm sure everyone is completely sick of hearing about how wrong the dress code is. About how it is wrong to remove a child from class because their clothing is "disrupting" the class or the teacher's ability to teach. But it is 100% TRUE. If a teacher cannot concentrate on what they are teaching and all they can focus on is what a child in their class is wearing. THEY have the problem. If a student in that class is too overtaken by the outfit of the student next to them that they cannot focus, THEY have the problem. Even if we got past the fact that dress codes are teaching students that they aren't responsible for their actions but that they can do whatever they want because of what another student is wearing. Even though having a dress code DOES teach rape culture and that what someone wears can justify your sexual assault on them. If even then we looked past it and found some reason a dress code is okay, shouldn't it be enforced the same in boys and girls? Yes, it SHOULD. But it isn't.
My junior year in High school "chubbies" became a thing. If you aren't familiar with what these are they are extremely short-shorts for males.
Everywhere you turned there were boys in these shorts. And it seemed like every day they got shorter and shorter, but I couldn't wear gym shorts? Or a dress that "looked" shorter than the dress code? How was that okay? The answer we got, from everyone including teachers and staff, was that women's legs are sexualized more than those of men and therefore they weren't as distracting. ARE YOU SERIOUS??
That isn't even the worst of it. Football was a HUGE deal in our school. More important than almost anything. Our cheerleading skirts weren't dress code, at all. So we were only allowed to wear them at school on special days like homecoming, playoffs, those types of things. But even then most of the time we had to wear our pants under them and if we didn't at the first complaint of them being "way too short" we would have to put them on. So needless to say it was a battle. One time, one of our pep-rallies was being filmed for a local News channel. It was 5:30 in the morning and the whole school showed up and showed out to their best ability. One student even came with a painted on "jersey" instead of a real shirt. Now keep in mind this is before school hours and so no one sees any issue with this. However, most people DID see an issue with the fact that student was allowed to walk around all day, at school, with that painted on shirt.
Personally, I don't blame the boys that wear the chubbies, or the cut off shirts, or the one that wore the painted jersey because if they aren't getting in trouble for it why not? I do, however, blame the school. I blame the staff, and the teachers, and society for making a woman's every move about sex.
Maybe it isn't the same in every school, maybe it was just ours, but from what I've seen, heard, and read this isn't the case and all over the country girls are being forced to abide by a ridiculous dress code while boys are allowed to wear whatever they want.
