Walking down the Freshman hallway of my old high school last spring, I saw a baffling sight. As the countless waves of young students passed me by, I caught sight of a myriad of different styles and sizes of clothing that I would never have dreamed of wearing to school. Shimmery halter tops paired with fringed shorts that barely covered the necessary areas, bright mini skirts accompanied by plunging V-neck blouses… I saw so much skin I almost blushed. I also saw plenty of apparel that I would consider to be “normal”. Skinny jeans and a crop top, leggings paired with a tunic-length flowing shirt, tennis shoes, flats, heels, and so much more.
Despite my shock at the amount of skin being showed, I found that I didn’t feel like it was a problem that girls were dressing this way. This was the way they liked to dress; what they felt pretty in. This was how these girls expressed their sexuality and individuality, how they showed that they were proud to be a woman. The assistant Principal walking down the hallway did not feel the same. He yelled out a name, beckoning to one of the girls I had walked past. I turned to see her standing sheepishly to the side of the hallway, hands at her side, as the faculty member pointed out that her shorts were much shorter than her arm length (Which happened to be the rule of thumb for pants.).
I easily heard the chastisement that the girl received as she was told she needed to go home and change, and that the dress codes were in place for a reason. Her clothing was inappropriate, and could be distracting to the male students of the school. I would have understood if he had simply pointed out that she had broken the rules, but I found that my blood began to boil as he told her that her legs were too distracting to males, so she needed to cover herself. This was the day I decided I did not like the premise behind strict school dress codes. I looked at that young girl’s embarrassed face, and realized that she was embarrassed because she was a woman, and her body should be hidden so that men could focus. I knew that this was wrong.
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Dress Codes and Uniforms: Yes, or No?
The opinions regarding dress codes and uniforms vary so widely that sometimes the wide range of opinions can be overwhelming. For the sake of the argument, this paper will be focusing on two camps at the fair extremes of the issue that will highlight the two sides of the argument best and provide an avenue to explore the issue both psychologically and socially. The first side of the issue asserts that dress codes are a necessary element of school policy, and the other side asserts that dress codes are simply the patriarchal administration’s way of subjugating students, especially females, to societal gender norms and biases.
Dress codes are a necessary element of school policy. It could even be said that dress codes increase the expectation of maturity and respect among the students and that the dress code or uniform policy imbues a sense of equality that otherwise may be lacking among the widening gaps of financial prosperity.
