I know that it's all to keep everyone looking appropriate and such, but let's be real, the dress code is absolutely ridiculous. While it's attempting to be in good taste and "for the students" it clearly isn't. It's for our older teachers who maybe are a bit out of touch with fashion and how clothes are made nowadays.
We're classified as a time where sex is cheap and easy, even though it was easier back in the day where a man could cheat whenever he wanted and a wife had almost no choice but to deal with it. So, they try in high school and lower to train young girls that their bodies are just an overall sexual resource and it's normal for a boy to comment and think sexually based thoughts about women. So instead of teaching boys that women are simply just sexual objects, we could teach them to not think a skirt means they're asking for something.
In many cases, someone who rapes another person says that the person was "asking for it" due to the way the person was dressed or coming onto them. I don't know about you ladies, but when I wear a skirt or a dress, I'm wearing it because I feel confident in it and want to feel beautiful. It's not because I'm looking to have sex with a person I met that night, not that there's anything wrong with a one night stand. (Yes, one night stands are normal, get over it.) Where do they learn this? In school, because we're trained that women showing their shoulders mean they are sexually promiscuous and asking for someone at school to take them home after math class. I've never thought of my shoulders as a sexual aspect of my body, have you?
Another thing that upsets me about the dress code is the fact that most of the time, you can't find shorts that are long enough to be comfortable in! So many stores sell shorts that are shorter than the required length for the dress code that finding longer shorts is next to impossible. And that just requires ourselves or our parents to spend more money on shorts that our teachers can deal with before they have a freak out from the length of your shorts.
There is a positive effect to the dress code, however. It pulls you out of class. Because while you're searching in the nurse's office for jeans in ninety-degree weather, you're missing your teacher's lecture about the skeletal system, so there's a plus.
What's important to understand is that it is NOT the teacher's fault for bringing you out of your class. DO NOT BLAME THE TEACHER. THEY ARE DOING THEIR JOB. However, it is a problem. We're teaching boys and girls that short shorts make you promiscuous and that you're asking for attention while really, you're just trying to be comfortable. There's nothing sexual about a shoulder and spaghetti straps don't make you a sexual object. In the real world, no one cares what you wear.
No person on the side of the street is going to grab you and tell you that your tank top is inappropriate, and if they do, run away. But, perhaps we are a little too hard on people that wear these. If you're all tucked away and not showing off too much of your assets, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Yes, we all have our limits, but wearing what you want is just another form of expression and should be celebrated, not repressed.
