Friday, March 31, 2017

Dress Codes

Ladies, listen up.
It's that time of year again where it's getting warm and more girls are or will be getting in trouble at school for their dress code violations. I've already seen the posts circulating around the internet about how sexist dress codes are.
When a girl gets sent home, or has to have someone bring her a change of clothes, she rants about how it's so sexist that she has to do this in order to "not be a distraction to the boys." Yes, many school dress codes are in place to avoid distractions, but this doesn't just apply to girls and their booty shorts and tank tops. Some schools also have rules preventing everyone, boys and girls, from wearing extremely baggy clothes, which can become a safety concern due to how easily weapons can be concealed, shirts that promote illegal/dangerous activity, or even dying your hair an unnatural color (i.e., pink, purple, blue, etc.). The only way this is sexist is if the rules about girls not showing too much skin are the only rules that are enforced, which I'll admit does happen more often than it should. If all dress code guidelines are equally enforced, I see no problem here.
The real issue I have with this topic is when girls say that instead of teaching girls to cover up, we should teach boys not to sexualize/objectify girls, or that school dress codes are teaching girls to be ashamed of their bodies. I'll agree that boys should be taught to not objectify girls, but it's a two-way street. You have to do your part to help them. Also, by dressing modestly, you present yourself in a much more respectable manner. There are a lot of girls who dress inappropriately with the purpose of getting the attention of guys. It's hard to tell the difference between a girl doing this and one who is simply dressing for the weather. Dressing in a modest, respectable manner will also make it harder for other girls to say catty things about you.
Dress codes are also not about shaming you or your body. It's about all the things I've already discussed. There's nothing wrong with your body. Stop using this argument.
All I'm saying here is, we need to get rid of this "women can do what they want and men just have to deal with it" mentality. It's incredibly selfish. Stop playing the victim and blaming the men for everything.

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