Dress Codes Sexism

Dress Codes and Sexism: How They Correlate Billions of women around the world will be discriminated against today, but rarely do we associate such outright discrimination with our own country. Women hear every day that they are inferior; that they are not as smart, not as strong, not as competent, and not as valid as their male counterparts; which, in turn, promotes the concept of male supremacy. Not only does this constant degradation affect adult women of society, this outright sexism has broadened its horizons; and it’s reaching out to American students. Dress codes are a hot-button issue today; many people oppose them for their contradiction of 1st amendment rights or for conflicts they may cause with religion. However, the question that …show more content…
This idea is typically considered to be a basic right of human beings; it’s the justification behind allowing a person to decide whether or not to be an organ donor after their death; even though it may save the lives of others, a person has the right to opt out of organ donation. Dress codes jeopardize bodily autonomy. By dictating what a woman wears, you deny this right, and therefore grant her cadaver more rights than her living being. How girls choose to dress is their business, and their right. A person’s body is of no one’s concern but their own. While some may argue that these rules are in place to teach modesty, the truth is that modesty is a moral, not a law. A moral, by definition, is a personal belief, therefore meaning that not all people may practice it to the same degree. A school has no right to legislate morality, and they shouldn’t be permitted to force personal morals onto their students for administrative …show more content…
Though it may appear implausible, everyday traditions and actions are contributing to this concept. Dress codes are repeat offenders in this domain; they represent men as uncontrollable and irresponsible and condemn women for the way they dress, which correlates with the ever-popular “blaming the victim” ideology. Through this condemnation, girls subconsciously pick up a few things. For example, they learn that they are not in charge of their bodies, they are inferior to men, and that the way they look and dress justifies their invalidation and any harm done to them (“Are School”). However, as I said before, rape culture is not a societal downfall that concerns only women; men face negative effects as well. “Boys will be boys” is a statement too often used to justify wrongful acts of men. By instilling an entitlement to women in young men, society teaches them that they are not responsible for their actions, an attitude that not many would care to promote. In addition, policies such as dress codes portray males as beings not in control of their actions; that when a woman dresses a certain way they are unable to concentrate on their education or control their impulses. They are represented as unintelligent and incapable of morality. Those who disagree with me may argue that these sexist rules are in place for the