Pros And Cons Of School Dress Codes

At Hickory Ridge High, a straight A student was suspended for two weeks for wearing a shirt that revealed the tops of her shoulders. The dress code clearly states that the revealing of shoulders is not allowed, and the principle was the first to enforce the rules. Summer Bond was confronted in the school cafeteria by her principal. She asked Summer if she had a jacket to cover up, but Summer didn’t have one. A friend of hers loaned her one, and she put it on, and zipped it all the way up. However, that was not the end of it. The principal then proceeded to call her down to the office, and order her to change. Summer refused to go if her mother was not on the phone. Summer waited for her mom’s phone call, and the principal decided to call the

SRO for backup. The officer was within five feet of Summer, and had his hand on his gun. The principal then said “I’m going to give you an ultimatum. We have tried to call your mother, you either come with me to the control room to change your shirt, or we will arrest you.” Summer’s mom finally called back, but by that time it was too late. The senior with a 4.4 GPA was suspended for 10 days, and was told that she wouldn’t be able to walk at graduation. Everything she had worked so hard for over the course of 4 years could potentially be gone just, because she exposed her shoulders. The main goal of this essay is to prove how public school dress codes discriminate women. This essay describes sexualization in society, how dress codes distract from learning, and feelings of young female students that are caused by public school dress codes.
Sexualization has has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen no matter what. The society we live in today characterizes women as sexual objects. It’s everywhere you look. For example, look at the media. Reality TV, romance movies, fashion magazines, and advertising all portray women to look a certain way; slim, young, and attractive. These images of women are etched into our brains, and it’s normal to look at these medias and think that those women are what society calls “beautiful.” A contributor to sexualization is girls’ dress. Many female clothes are designed in a way that enhance their sexuality. Society mostly embraces revealing clothing, and schools teach girls not to dress provocative because their bodies are “bad.” A hard decision these girls have to make is do they want to portray the cultural norm of being seen as an object, or satisfy others who want them to cover up? Either way, society will say it’s wrong. An article from the University of Richmond Law Review states that “in the end, girls must walk a fine line between conforming to cultural expectations and not being perceived as too sexual.” Society tells us that women must wear things that highlight your assets, but you can’t show too much, or else you’ll be called a “slut.”
The school dress codes are bringing a negative connotation into the academic atmosphere.

In many articles, there has been a repetition of calling female students a “distraction.” Schools claim that the revealing of shoulders, collarbones, thighs, and etcetera are too distracting for male students. This is sending a message that girls are posing as an inconvenience to males’ education. If a boy can’t concentrate in class because a girl is exposing too much skin, it’s the girl’s fault. That is the message everyone is receiving. There was a news reporter that proctored two tests with two teenage boys. The first test was just the two boys taking the test by themselves. During the next test, a woman was in the same room as them wearing a shirt that revealed her collarbone. There was no difference in the boy's’ tests. The women had asked them if they noticed anything different, and their answer was, “no.” This proves that boys are not affected by these types of things. Girls are the ones who get distracted from the dress code. They have to worry about whether or not their clothes meet the dress code requirements instead of thinking about what they’re going to learn that day.. Some of the punishments for female students who get dress coded are getting removed from class, given detention, or forced to change. Sometimes, they are even forced to wear what is called a “shame suit;” red sweatpants and an oversized neon yellow shirt that reads “Dress Code Violator.” Not only does this

cause a distraction for the student, but also utter humiliation. Pulling students out of class to change into an outfit that is deemed more school appropriate is a waste of precious learning time. School administrators should start to think of what kind of distraction their policies are causing, and take a closer look into the negative message they are sending.
Many teenage girls have experiences with dress codes, and can give strong opinions towards the matter.

Shame: A Documentary on School Dress Code was directed by Maggie Sunseri. The adjectives “shameful, unhealthy, unfair, objectifying, overrated, inconsistent, and discriminatory,” are just a few adjectives used in the film. Teenage girls that attend the same high school as Maggie participated in the short film, and these were the words they used to describe the dress code. One girl who wore leggings mentioned that she felt embarrassed and ashamed for wearing pants that she felt comfortable in. The majority of students in the documentary said they felt “embarrassed,” when they got dress coded. There is also the problem of inconsistency. A girl could wear a shirt many times throughout the school year, and not get caught. But then one day there’s a teacher that will call her out for it. Another example is when someone gets dress coded for wearing a dress that another student is also wearing, but only one of them gets caught. Females believe that the dress code is sexist, not only towards girls, but also guys too. The reason for it being sexist for boys as well is, because it tells them that they can’t control themselves. Women feel like they aren’t able to express themselves the way they want to. Girls sometimes want to look nice, but can’t because of the clothing requirements. This knocks down a girl’s self-esteem, because no matter how hard they try, they can’t dress nice

and meet requirements at the same time.
Dress codes in public schools are discriminating female students. This topic of controversy has caused us to look at sexualization in society, how it distracts female students, and the feelings of the girls who have been dress coded. There are ways to solve this problem. Having the student body help create the dress code, or making it less strict could possibly solve the issue. Young female students feel that they learn best in clothes they feel comfortable in. So, why can’t we enable them to?