Who gave the privilege of telling me what to wear to a bunch of old men sitting in a room somewhere? Do they know how tall or short I am? Do they know how long my arms are? The answer is no (and if they do, we have a bigger issue here). Aside from the obvious faults with dress codes, they are also blatantly sexist, in that girls are always the sex to compromise on their clothes. A typical dress code, for example, looks like this:
Guys:
Don’t wear sagging pants.
Girls:
Bra straps should not be seen.
No sleeveless tops.
3 finger-rule for tops.
Shorts, dresses, and skirts must be fingertip length.
Clavicles must be covered.
No exposed midriffs.
The reason that the education board gives for the stringent dress codes for girls is that women's clothes are a distraction to the education of male students. There are two things wrong with that statement: firstly, the board members are demeaning male students and assuming that they are immature individuals who will not be able to resist the sex appeal of girls, and secondly, most guys truly couldn’t care less what a girl wears.
So, dear education board members,
(*insert dripping sarcasm here*) I am extremely sorry that my shoulders and my bra strap are just too much to handle. I mean what guy isn’t attracted to my bra strap? I promise that from now on, I will wear long sleeves and turtlenecks, despite how uncomfortable and claustrophobic they make me, and I will wear long pants, despite the fact that it is 70 degrees outside and I might die of hyperthermia.
If my shoulders and my bra strap really are such disturbances, I would have a line of guys trailing behind me every time I wore a sleeveless shirt, but clearly, that is not the case (though I really do wish that happened). I can guarantee you that no guy has ever come up to me and said the following words: “Your shoulders are really beautiful. And your bra strap—just wow. I was just so distracted in class today.”
It is unfair that girls are blamed for “distracting the guys.” There are many more distractions than girls’ clavicles, such as phones, and males, just like female students, are trying to concentrate on the teacher’s lecture, not on girls’ outfits (shocker: guys actually pay attention in class). They have much better things to do be doing with their lives, like getting good grades, than measuring how many inches of skin are showing on a girl.
Also, it is simply not feasible to have a dress code that states that dresses/skirts/shorts must be fingertip length. My arms are extremely long for my body, so I would have to wear skirts that come down to my knees, and I am not trying to look like my grandmother at the age of 16. So, when a school administrator comes around, I have to discreetly try to inch down my skirt in my seat, and it is just a mess. I look like I have an itch down my leg, and I tend to get some weird looks from the guys in my class. Ironically, my trying to follow the dress code is the only thing that actually distracts guys.
All this being said, I am in no way encouraging girls to come to school wearing booty shorts and a see-through shirt, or even worse yet, their birthday suit, but I am saying that they should be able to wear what they want, as long as it is reasonable. The key to a fair dress code is moderation, and as a rule of thumb, girls and guys alike should not wear something they wouldn’t want their mother seeing them in. After all, you wouldn’t want anyone to see your Barbie underwear or boxers.
