The Reasons Why I Can’t Wear Shorts to School - The Sexualization of the Female Body In Society In March of 1959, the company Mattel introduced the Barbie doll to the public. Their initial goal was to create a doll for every little girl out there to play with and identify with. The girls who grew up playing with a Barbie,myself included, eventually admired and sieved to be like Barbie, for all the wrong reasons. It wasn’t the numerous professions or house she had, it was the way Barbie looked and dressed. The female body has long been associated with the idea that we must look like Barbie dolls in order to be “perfect”. Whether it be the blonde hair, unportional body frame (tiny waist, large breasts, flat abdomen,
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Schools are a place we go to learn the necessary skills to push our country forward. Attending school didn’t come without an obstacle - actually entering the very location that provides us with knowledge. Last June, in the middle of a heat wave, numerous girls in my school, including myself, decided to wear shorts that were appropriate enough for school, to battle the weather. Upon walking in, the campus dean essentially checks us from top to bottom, humiliated us in front of the crowd of fellow students and even made a couple girls go out to purchase jeans or put on their gym sweatpants, despite of the 95 degree weather. Personally, I felt uncomfortable to be essentially, “checked out” by a 40 year old male on whether or not I could attend school with the clothes I had on, when boys were able to breeze on by with a tank top and their basketball shorts pulled down, making their undergarments visible. Justification this type of behavior comes down to education officials stating that it’s “distracting” to our male classmate. In other words,this is virtually stating that males having a distraction free is more valuable than a female gaining her own education.This issue, unfortunately, is widespread across America. The Houston Chronicle reports one instance in which a 6th grader from South Carolina was accused of wearing a skirt that supposedly causes her appear “like she should be “clubbing”” instead of being in class. CNN also reports that “more than 200 students on New York's Staten Island -- almost all of them female -- got detentions over dress code infractions. In Florida, students were publicly shamed for violating dress code by being forced to wear "shame suits." Telling girls that what they can’t freely express themselves through clothing generates an increase on how self-conscious females are forced to be because of the sexist dress code. It also demonstrates to the young
Schools are a place we go to learn the necessary skills to push our country forward. Attending school didn’t come without an obstacle - actually entering the very location that provides us with knowledge. Last June, in the middle of a heat wave, numerous girls in my school, including myself, decided to wear shorts that were appropriate enough for school, to battle the weather. Upon walking in, the campus dean essentially checks us from top to bottom, humiliated us in front of the crowd of fellow students and even made a couple girls go out to purchase jeans or put on their gym sweatpants, despite of the 95 degree weather. Personally, I felt uncomfortable to be essentially, “checked out” by a 40 year old male on whether or not I could attend school with the clothes I had on, when boys were able to breeze on by with a tank top and their basketball shorts pulled down, making their undergarments visible. Justification this type of behavior comes down to education officials stating that it’s “distracting” to our male classmate. In other words,this is virtually stating that males having a distraction free is more valuable than a female gaining her own education.This issue, unfortunately, is widespread across America. The Houston Chronicle reports one instance in which a 6th grader from South Carolina was accused of wearing a skirt that supposedly causes her appear “like she should be “clubbing”” instead of being in class. CNN also reports that “more than 200 students on New York's Staten Island -- almost all of them female -- got detentions over dress code infractions. In Florida, students were publicly shamed for violating dress code by being forced to wear "shame suits." Telling girls that what they can’t freely express themselves through clothing generates an increase on how self-conscious females are forced to be because of the sexist dress code. It also demonstrates to the young