It seems as we progress as a society, there are some things that we tend to forget about. Whether it be our racial views, our religious views or one of the million other views that divide us, we've decided, as a society, to continue to restrict each other and limit our ability to express ourselves. High schools are sending home students because they're shoulders are exposed or you can see a woman's knee. I believe that out of all of our divides and our limitations that are put onto us by normality, we need to stop hyper-sexualizing our female population. We need to move past this fear of our anatomy and evolve into this acceptance of what hides beneath. We need to stop calling our women hoes, sluts and whores for being comfortable. We need to stop sending young girls the message that making a man comfortable is more important than their education.
Across the country, dress codes reside inside of schools, workplaces and households. Of course, dress codes are appropriate but logic has it's limit and it seems these dress codes have reached the end of their rope. High schools claiming that they "set an example of the kind of dress code a young student would experience in the 'real world,'" yet students are sent home for showing their collar bone? When are we going to teach students not to be scared of themselves? Horrified that they're knees might distract their peers? A big issue with the sexualization of girls in high schools is that these girls are all underage. Students are being pulled aside by teachers saying that their bodies are viewed as the problem and not confronting the fact that we are teaching men in schools everywhere that it isn't their fault for being distracted by a women's collar bone or knee or inherently basic anatomy simply because it's on a woman.
At the high school I spent four great years in, girls were sent home every single day for having shirts that were cut below their collar bone or jeans with holes in the knees or a classy dress that sits right above the knee despite the boys in my school allowed to wear shorts way above the knee, tank tops and so much more. It's become so blatantly obvious that this isn't apparent only in high schools, either.
Woman's censorship is limited so harshly. Men are seen shirtless on billboards, magazine covers, movies and it seen as normal and acceptable. Women, though? We can only be found shirtless in sex-related scenarios. Women are judged for breastfeeding their children and are shunned into bathrooms in fear that someone will interrupt them feeding their child because the idea of a women's breast not being used for sex is out of the question. It's gotten so bad, that we need a #FreeTheNipple campaign.
We're censored for art but when our bodies are on magazines, it's seen as acceptable. Women are taught that if we dress a certain way, we will attract stares and bad things will happen to us because of it. Men are not taught not to do bad things simply because of the way a woman is dressed. We are taught that if we expose to much of ourselves, we'll never be found appealing or get married or have a happy life. We forget that men do indeed, have full control over their bodies and their eyes and actions. I'm tired of wearing a skirt and feeling comfortable but being scared that a man might just see this skirt as an invitation to my body despite the lack of an actual invitation.
It's offensive to men that they've become this shell of a body with no moral compass to tell them what is right and what is wrong; that they all come programmed with the primal instinct to be distracted by the skin and unable to control themselves or have the knowledge to know yes from no. I'm tired of seeing my sisters being taught that their education is less precious than it is to keep a man comfortable. I'm exhausted with trying to counter my little sister's idea that she must be fully covered in order to be seen as anything more than her body.
I'm no longer going to overlook the idea that women must get a man's attention by showing skin while simultaneously losing the respect of a man by showing skin. We're stuck in this catch 22 that nothing we do with our bodies is acceptable. I'm going to make in crystal clear for everybody, now:
If a man does something stupid, it is because the man chose to do something stupid. Not because my skirt persuaded him to do something stupid, or my knees forced him to do something stupid. My body is not dangerous, my underage sister's body is not dangerous to her peers. I'm tired of being seen as this loaded rifle for no reason other than the assets my body posses. If I'm a loaded rifle, it's because my words are loaded and my willpower can kill. And I never miss a shot to shoot down the idea that I need to hide my body to keep anybody comfortable. I'm going to do what I want and wear what I want because I am comfortable. That's that.
I am more of a bullet than a shotgun. I am more a person than the sum of my clothing choice.
The female body is paraded and described on virtually every media platform but completely unacceptable in real time. Basically, the female body can be sold but not possessed.
