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Decoding the Dress Code

October 21, 2014 by Jacqueline Thomas Leave a Comment

Screen Shot 2014-09-16 at 12.14.25 PM

It is a topic that I have not thought about since high school because as a college female I don’t have a dress code for class. It wasn’t until I started seeing various campaigns about dress code that stated messages such as how our society could have a man walk on the moon yet we are still not letting girls wear shorts to school because boys might get “distracted”. In your average college classroom (that isn’t a freezing cold lecture hall) many girls wear shorts and tank tops that would have been otherwise banned for me to wear as a 17 or 18 year old in high school. I grew up in Hawaii and attend college in Southern California, both places have hot climates and Hawaii might even be the hotter out of the two. Needless to say there are days when wearing shorts and a tank top are essential to simply being comfortable in the sweltering heat. In high school in Hawaii our dress code included no tank tops and only shorts that reached the knees as well as skirts and dresses. There were not many fashionable or stylish options for these longer shorts, skirts or dresses so most girls had to resort to wearing jeans or leggings in temperatures ranging from 80-90 degrees, it was uncomfortable and we all could not wait until after classes when we could change into shorts. The girls had to remain physically uncomfortable in warm covering clothes to “protect” the young men in our classrooms from not being able to control themselves mentally, at least that is how it was often explained to us.
In high school if a girl broke dress code she would have to report to the Dean’s Office where she was given clothes to wear. The clothes were embarrassing, they were often oversized grey shirts and blue basketball shorts that had the word “Dean” written across them, which brought the girl humiliation for the remainder of the day as if she had been branded for disobeying and not wearing the proper clothing.
In America there are many critics of the muslim culture where some women wear hijab for political or religious reasons. Some Americans see women wearing hijab as oppressive yet at the same time believe it is ok to tell a high school girl she can’t wear certain clothes because she might “make a boy become attracted to her and therefore he can’t study or focus”. Essentially the school system is treating the censoring of girls clothes like they would the censoring of the internet at school. The school can control what sites you can access on your computer while using the school wireless, the school can control not using your cellphone in class, the school can control all these “distractions” but what is scary is that certain schools are controlling young girls as if they were simply another distraction.
Our society waves banners declaring that just because a woman wears a short skirt does not mean she should be raped because she looks “sexy”. This same society however still thinks girls should dress a certain way at school because by appearing sexy it is as if they are “asking for men’s attention” or are “trying to distract the boys”. It appears our society has contradicted itself in this regard.
Now that I am in college and I am wearing whatever I want to school I am more comfortable walking from class to class in the hot sun. As far as I am concerned at this university young men are still getting good grades regardless of what the females in their classes are wearing. Clearly we have underestimated young men while oppressing young women. Men can still obviously achieve their academic and professional goals regardless of a woman wearing a tank top in their class, it is insulting to both sexes to assume otherwise.


Jacqueline Thomas

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