Schools have dress codes for a reason. They want to make sure that kids are showing up to class in clothes that are comfortable and appropriate.
There’s just one problem: how do you decide what “appropriate” means?
On the surface, it should be as simple as telling kids to make sure their undies aren’t showing and that there are no cuss words on their favorite t-shirts.
In practice, however, lots of kids — especially girls — end up in trouble because the school dress code is so strict that they’re seen as “distracting," no matter what they put on, as we saw with this young woman sent home for wearing a tank top under her cardigan.
If you’ve raised a girl (or just grew up as one) you know how incredibly difficult it is to find any modest clothes for girls at most affordable stores.
You also know that boys will be “distracted” no matter what they wear, and that's not girls' fault.
Needless to say, girls everywhere are getting pretty fed up with all the contradictory messages and double standards, and they have something to say about it all.
Scroll through below to learn the important message girls want to send to their teachers and administrators.
All girls know that having a basic dress code is important for everyone's learning, but they're sick of getting trouble for showing their shoulders, their knees, and their collarbones.
As girls rightfully point out, these are just normal, non-sexual body parts that they shouldn't be punished for having.
This sign, posted in the hallways of a high school, makes the point even more directly, reading:
“‘I’m sorry, can you see my shoulders?’
Men are never told that their legs, arms, or stomachs are a problem for other people. They are seen as human and very rarely seen as something there for your sexual exploits.
We are thirteen- through eighteen-year-old girls. If you are sexualizing us, YOU are the problem.
Dress codes are perpetuating rape culture and oppressive objectification towards young women."
These unidentified high school students are far from the first to get fed up with the double standards of school dress codes.
Girls everywhere are sick of being seen as "sexy distractions" first, and as students and people second.
Another similar sign circulated after an eleven-year-old got in trouble for wearing leggings and a long-sleeved tunic top.
This sign has a similarly important message, reading, emphasis theirs:
“When you interrupt a girl’s school day to force her to change clothes, or send her home because her shorts are too short or her bra straps are visible, you are telling her that making sure boys have a “distraction free” learning environment is more important than her education. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.“
These messages make a lot of sense to most women, especially mothers, but I think all of us tend to stop short and think, "well, let's be reasonable, girls can't wear just anything!"
And of course, that's true to an extent. If a girl or a boy showed up wearing something wildly inappropriate to class, common sense dictates that they should cover up or go home, especially if the obvious intention of the outfit was to distract or cause a hubbub.
But it's important to note that, most of the time, these girls (and it's almost always girls) get sent home for wearing totally appropriate, modest outfits — like the girl pictured above, who got in trouble because her collarbone was showing, and was sent home from class.
Earlier, we briefly noted an 11-year-old who was forced to change into borrowed sweatpants on her first day at a new school, for wearing leggings and a tunic.
Pictured above is the outfit in question: a pair of pretty floral leggings and a pink sweater top that comes down past her rear end.
This little girl was humiliated on her first day at a brand new middle school, and actually had to stand there while a the nurse measured the fabric at her front and back, before it was deemed "too short" and she was asked to change into borrowed sweatpants that were too big for her.
Another similar story unfolded when a high school student wore plain black leggings and an oversized pullover sweater to class.
The school rules stipulated that any top worn over leggings had to hit at three inches above the knee, and this girl's sweater was slightly too short.
As a result, she was detained from going to class and held in a detention room on campus until a neighbor could bring her something else to wear. She missed a whole class period's worth of learning over a couple of arbitrary inches of fabric.
A fifteen-year-old girl was publicly humiliated at her school dance for wearing the pale pink dress pictured above.
She wanted to wear a dress like Audrey Hepburn, so she picked out the pink frock on a family vacation, and even had it specially altered to fit her school's strict dress code so that she could wear it to the special Sadie Hawkins dance at school.
Unfortunately, a school official deemed the straps slightly too narrow, and she had to wear her winter parka over the dress for the entire dance.
What do you think of dress codes and how they're enforced?
Sound off in the comments down below, and don't forget to SHARE with friends who know what it's like to be seen as a "distraction" instead of a person.
