Yo, is this Sexist?

“Yo, is this Sexist?” Transcript

Hello guys, my name is about Abby and I am going to be discussing school dress codes! So now, if you guys are like me, I’m sure just saying those words leaves a bitter taste in your mouth because many of us have been victims of the sexist rules of dressing in high school, middle school, and some, unfortunately even in elementary school. So just for fun, I decided to pull up my own school districts school dress code in the twenty or- in the 2018-2019 parent/student handbook, which was from my senior year of high school and I read through it and I just wanted to share a few things I found to be quite interesting. So, to start, they prefaced the section by saying, “The Board will not interfere with the right of students and their parents to make decisions regarding their appearance, except when their choices interfere with the educational program of the schools.” Which, that sounds expectable, but then I kept reading and saw what they considered to be “unacceptable.” So, in their long list of inappropriate items, I found: “Halters, midriff tops, crop tops, spaghetti strap tops, open mesh garments, garments with open sides which expose skin or undergarments, and muscle tops” So, let’s just pause for a moment because some of these I can see where they could possibly be distracting, like open mesh garments because, maybe, we don’t need to see- maybe we don’t need to be wearing all of our Friday and Saturday night attire to class. But items like halters, crop tops, and spaghetti strap tops are clearly targeting a certain 50%, give or take, of the students. So, my research didn’t end here. I actually went back on my school district’s website and found the dress code in the handbook from the year before, 2017 to 2018, and they had a section of questions students should “consider” when getting ready for school. I actually laughed when I read few of these because they are absolutely ridiculous, but my two favorites were: “Would I interview for a job in this outfit?” and “Am I dressed appropriately for the weather?” Yeah, so who in the world goes to school every day dressed like they would for a job interview? I mean that is absolutely ridiculous, talk about “distracting attire in the classroom,” who in the world would be comfortable and able to focus with everyone dressed like they’re trying to beat you out for a job. And the question regarding the weather is actually my favorite because during this time, my like- during this particular school year, my school was doing renovations, so there was no air conditioning and at one point, one of my classrooms was literally 88 degrees. Yet, if I had tried to show up in a spaghetti strap top, which in my opinion would have actually been appropriate for the weather, I would have been sent home. Which actually did happen to me in the second grade. Yes, I did say the second grade, and yes, I was an eight-year-old child. I showed up to school in my new High School Musical tank top thinking I was the literal queen of fashion, just to be sent to the office after thirty minutes in the building and told my tank top was inappropriate because my shoulders were exposed and that was distracting. I mean literally what is that? What is so sexy about an eight-year old’s shoulders? Let me repeat that, an eight-year-old. No one even questioned that, maybe, it wasn’t my clothing at fault in this situation, but instead the ideals society has ingrained in our brains. My favorite dress code story, though, was in seventh grade when I was walking to the bus after school wearing a t-shirt and those Nike shorts that literally every girl under the sun owned back in 2013. Yes, I know you know exactly what I’m talking about and I’m sure you also owned a pair. But, anyways I walked out of the building and I saw my assistant principle who was so notorious for dress coding people and I did my best to avoid her, but, unfortunately, she did see me and called me over and told me to put my hands at my side. I can almost feel the eyerolls that just caused because I know so many of you listening right now hated the fingertip policy just as much as I did. So, anyways, I know you guys can’t see me right now, but I have incredibly long arms, um, my wingspan in actually 2 inches longer than my height, so there was no way I was getting out of this. She then proceeded to tell me that my Nike shorts, yes, let me repeat that, Nike running shorts, were incredibly inappropriate and I was not permitted to wear those to school again. Yeah, so, let’s talk a little bit about the damaging effects sexualizing the female body can cause. So, I did a bit of investigation and I read some articles about other girl’s experiences with dress code “violations,” and let me let you there were so many articles, I just had to pick a few because I started to get information overload. So, one article that really stuck out to me was an article written in The New York Times by Kayley Krischer and it’s titled “Is Your Body Appropriate to Wear to School?” Yep, let that just sink in for a moment. So, the article focuses on a seventeen-year-old girl named Lizzy Martinez and basically, she had a sunburn and wearing a bra was really painful on her skin, so she decided instead to wear an oversized, dark grey shirt with no bra underneath for school. And I’m choosing to tell you what she wore because even she was conscious of the restrictions imposed on her body in school and did actually make a conscious effort not to draw attention to herself. You can probably see where this is going, she was dress coded and forced to put on a top, that was not her own, and when the administration decide that that wasn’t enough, they made her put adhesive bandages over her nipples. I think her mom said it best when she was interviewed at a later time about the situation and said, “‘the fact is that she wore a long sleeve T-shirt that was not see-through. It wasn’t even flattering,’ ‘So to say she was trying to be a distraction is absolutely absurd.’” One thing that pretty much every story I read was about was sexualizing female stud- was schools’ sexualizing female students’ clothing that isn’t even meant to be “sexy” and for these administrators to continue this trend is incredibly dangerous and damaging. During my research I stumbled across an article on the National Education Association website that’s written by Kira Barrett. The article is titled “When School Dress Codes Discriminate.” In her writing, Barrett talks about Shauna Pomerantz, a girlhood expert working at Brock University, who brings up an incredibly important point: that dress coding is essentially a form of victim-blam- victim-blaming, and the more you think about it, the more you begin to agree it and you realize that this idea actually makes a ton of sense. In an article written by Laura Bates in Time, titled “How School Dress Codes Shame Girls and Perpetuates Rape Culture,” she brings up the point about how girls are conti- continuously told that if they- that they need to cover up because they’re distracting boys or making male teachers “uncomfortable.” I personally get so incredibly frustrated when this “excuse” is used because they are missing the entire point. Instead of teaching boys to respect female bodies, they’re teaching them that if females choose to show skin, then “she’s asking for it,” which further justifies their actions and keeps them from being held accountable. It’s basically like saying that if a gas station sells candy bars and I steal one because I want it, tha- that the gas station is actually asking for me to steal the candy bar because they chose to sell it. The only difference between these two scenarios is that in the latter one, the person at fault is actually held accountable. It’s no wonder that one in five women are sexually assaulted during their time in college. The school dress code becomes ingrained in peoples mind and soon enough people are saying things like “oh well her top showed a lot of cleavage” to justify that fact that a woman is brutally raped and then murdered. Clothing choice should never, ever, be a justification for violence against women. It is time for accountability and to stop the objectification of the female body. Laura Bates made such an important point in her Time article when saying, “I can’t help feeling there is a powerful irony in accusing a girl of being ‘provocative’ – in projecting that societal assumption onto her adolescent body – before she is even old enough to have learned how to correctly spell the word.” Instead of preaching body positivity and self-worth in classrooms, our first exposure in education teaches young girls to associate their own skin with embarrassment and shame. Without action, this vicious cycle of female oppression will continue and I. for one, do not want to get a phone call in twenty years from my future child’s school telling me to bring her a new pair of running shorts because hers are distracting to her male peers.

Works Cited:

“9-12 Resources.” Resources – 9-12, www.foresthills.edu/resources/9-12.html.

Barrett, Kira. “When School Dress Codes Discriminate.” NEA, 24 July 2018, www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/when-school-dress-codes-discriminate.

Bates, Laura, and Everyday Sexism. “Everyday Sexism Project: Dress Codes and Rape Culture.” Time, Time, 22 May 2015, time.com/3892965/everydaysexism-school-dress-codes-rape-culture/.

Krischer, Hayley. “Is Your Body Appropriate to Wear to School?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/style/student-bra-nipples-school.html.