Dress Code: a Critical Look
The school bell rings, and the students all file into their first class. The teacher enters the classroom and looks them over with a critical eye. “Smith!” The teacher points at the only kid in the room that is different. Amidst the sea of brown, black, and blonde hair, hers is a bright, fluorescent, pink. Her cheeks heat and she stops trying to pull her homework out of her bag. Some of her classmates snicker as the teacher orders her to the Principal 's office, while some cast her envious or sympathetic looks; Envious because she’d dared to disobey dress code, and sympathetic because she would likely be suspended for the rest of the day as punishment. While this particular situation is a hypothetical, there are …show more content…
Dress codes decrease in-class distractions. The theory behind this one is that if boys are looking at a woman’s legs or cleavage because her clothing doesn’t cover up, the easiest way to fix it is forcing girls to have certain areas of her body covered, thereby reducing the distraction. Now the boys will be focused on the teacher, schoolwork, and learning. Here is Suzie Webster’s response to this idea after her daughter was sent to the office for wearing a denim skirt to school. “I understand there has to be a line, but shouldn’t the emphasis be on teaching our sons to be gentlemen and focus on their school work, not how much skin our daughters are showing?”. In a similar situation, Laura Wiggins was suspended for wearing a dress with no shoulders. She wrote a letter to the vice-principle at her school. “In today’s society, a woman’s body is constantly discriminated against and hypersexualized to the point where we can no longer wear the clothing that we feel comfortable in without the accusation and/or assumption that we are being provocative. [. . .] If you are truly so concerned that a boy in this school will get distracted by my upper back and shoulders then he needs to be sent home and practice self control.” There are countless stories that illustrate the same point. Don’t force girls to compensate for a boy’s lack of self-control. …show more content…
Earl Ogletree addresses this point in the article Parents ' Opinions of the Uniform Student Dress Code. saying, “Advocates believe that a uniformity dress code promotes a feeling of "oneness" among students, and can reduce the difference between the "haves" and "have nots" This in of itself is not a bad goal, but Ogletree continues on to say, “though the majority of the students admit to the pressure put on them by their peers in reference to clothes, they were or they are still opposed to a dress code/uniform policy. Students basically feel that a dress code policy whether it be uniformity or not would not eliminate competition over clothes.” Those with means will always find a way to show their ‘superiority’ over those without. Dress code doesn’t help that. Not only does it not eliminate competition over clothes, it can do some real harm. Michelle and Knechtle write, “Dress has cultural and ethnic dimensions. Some youth of color, their parents, families, and community members may view dress codes and uniforms as restrictions on students ' cultural expressions of dress.” In schools with dress codes, all hats and other headcoverings are forbidden. What about someone who wears a hijab or burka? This would be a serious infringement on their rights, and would create tension
The school bell rings, and the students all file into their first class. The teacher enters the classroom and looks them over with a critical eye. “Smith!” The teacher points at the only kid in the room that is different. Amidst the sea of brown, black, and blonde hair, hers is a bright, fluorescent, pink. Her cheeks heat and she stops trying to pull her homework out of her bag. Some of her classmates snicker as the teacher orders her to the Principal 's office, while some cast her envious or sympathetic looks; Envious because she’d dared to disobey dress code, and sympathetic because she would likely be suspended for the rest of the day as punishment. While this particular situation is a hypothetical, there are …show more content…
Dress codes decrease in-class distractions. The theory behind this one is that if boys are looking at a woman’s legs or cleavage because her clothing doesn’t cover up, the easiest way to fix it is forcing girls to have certain areas of her body covered, thereby reducing the distraction. Now the boys will be focused on the teacher, schoolwork, and learning. Here is Suzie Webster’s response to this idea after her daughter was sent to the office for wearing a denim skirt to school. “I understand there has to be a line, but shouldn’t the emphasis be on teaching our sons to be gentlemen and focus on their school work, not how much skin our daughters are showing?”. In a similar situation, Laura Wiggins was suspended for wearing a dress with no shoulders. She wrote a letter to the vice-principle at her school. “In today’s society, a woman’s body is constantly discriminated against and hypersexualized to the point where we can no longer wear the clothing that we feel comfortable in without the accusation and/or assumption that we are being provocative. [. . .] If you are truly so concerned that a boy in this school will get distracted by my upper back and shoulders then he needs to be sent home and practice self control.” There are countless stories that illustrate the same point. Don’t force girls to compensate for a boy’s lack of self-control. …show more content…
Earl Ogletree addresses this point in the article Parents ' Opinions of the Uniform Student Dress Code. saying, “Advocates believe that a uniformity dress code promotes a feeling of "oneness" among students, and can reduce the difference between the "haves" and "have nots" This in of itself is not a bad goal, but Ogletree continues on to say, “though the majority of the students admit to the pressure put on them by their peers in reference to clothes, they were or they are still opposed to a dress code/uniform policy. Students basically feel that a dress code policy whether it be uniformity or not would not eliminate competition over clothes.” Those with means will always find a way to show their ‘superiority’ over those without. Dress code doesn’t help that. Not only does it not eliminate competition over clothes, it can do some real harm. Michelle and Knechtle write, “Dress has cultural and ethnic dimensions. Some youth of color, their parents, families, and community members may view dress codes and uniforms as restrictions on students ' cultural expressions of dress.” In schools with dress codes, all hats and other headcoverings are forbidden. What about someone who wears a hijab or burka? This would be a serious infringement on their rights, and would create tension