The Pros And Cons Of Dress Codes

In early October 2014, two boys at an Los Angeles school were seen wearing a shirt with an extremely sexulized photo of a near naked woman in class. This was a huge violation of the school’s dress code, yet a teacher stated that one of the boys walked around campus for the entire day wearing the shirt and was never asked to change (Chemaly). If the dress code isn’t enforced for boys the majority of the time, why are girls continuously being humiliated with their simple dress code violations, such as wearing a tank-top or athletic pants? Dress codes violate all the following rules; they hypersexualize young girls’ bodies by teaching them to cover up so they’re not a “distraction” to boys, dress codes tell young women that they should be “ashamed”
Women especially have been confined to modest and unrevealing garments. Though in modern times, clothing has become more liberal, and many people have decided to show more skin and definition of their body. With the changing times comes changing style, and with these new styles comes new dress codes for each environment in society. One of the most controversial settings that dress codes are in place is in schools. There are lots of good reasons for dress codes to be in place, such as supplying students with a concept of what is acceptable to wear when they’re in a white-collar situation, such as an interview or business meeting. The disagreement with dress codes comes in when people look at how dress codes affect the girls abiding by them. Right now, much of teenage girls’ clothing has the common theme of form-fitting. It would be very hard to go to a clothing store that doesn’t sell anything that would accentuate a girl’s body. Many school dress codes ban this form-fitting apparel, leaving girls with hardly any
They are just beginning to discover who they are, only to have their schools shut down expressing their individuality through clothing. This sometimes causes girls to feel as though their bodies aren’t even theirs, but something that is shameful and must be hidden (Chen). Girls then begin to wonder just why their bodies are such a taboo. When a school says that girls who show skin or curves aren’t worthy of respect, it could plummet their self-esteem. A good example of this occurring is at a North Dakota school where administration played a clip from the movie “Pretty Woman” that depicted a prostitute being judged by the salesperson for coming into the store wearing revealing clothing. The school was trying to prove to girls that they will be looked down upon if they dress in a “risque” way at school. When asked how this situation at the North Dakota school could affect the girls involved, Dr. Stacy Kaiser quoted, “This message is telling boys that if a girl is dressed in a provocative way, they have a green light to behave any way that want, and that can be very dangerous.”