It's been said many times, many ways. Life isn't fair. More specifically, social norms aren't fair.
Recently, there have been many articles on the internet about girls being sent home from school for inappropriate dress. It's not just teenagers that are being sent home, but elementary schoolers and kindergarteners as well. "It's a distraction," is often offered as an excuse. Why? It's natural. Everyone has to call a female body home before being born, so what's the big deal?
Obsession with modesty and covering up, ironically, makes clothes sexual objects. Have you ever looked at a school's dress code? The regulations are ridiculous. How is the line between racy and modest determined? Is Johnny really not going to pass chemistry because Susie's shirt straps are two inches wide instead of three? If so, sounds like Johnny has bigger issues. Have a little faith. There isn't a dress code in college, or life for that matter, but people aren't running to class half-naked.
Why is it socially acceptable for guys to run around without a shirt on? It's not fair. I would love to be able to take my shirt off if it was hot out. Fair enough, I could. I just wouldn't get very far. It's not something I want to do for the heck of it. I want it to be normal.
Clothes shrink; people grow. Everything doesn't always fit the same way as when you last wore it. Time shouldn't be spent telling girls their bodies need to be covered, because skin shouldn't be personified as having unnatural power. It's skin. It's an organ for crying out loud.
Getting dressed shouldn't be a calculated decision. Drawing acceptance lines on our bodies is unacceptable. How much skin one shows or doesn't show doesn't reflect on the amount of respect one has for themself. Outfit choice is a product of personal preference and availability, nothing else.
Take clothing for what it is, a utility. It has a function. That function is not to enable judgement. It is not to discriminate between genders. Instead of making social boundaries, breed acceptance.
Despite presentation in social media, the female form is not inherently sexual. The body is the machine through which we manipulate our world. Why does it's gender have to affect so much?
How long should my skirt be? That's up to me.
