Abolish the Dress Code: Why Girls Grow up Differently
Girls mature faster than boys. It’s stated so often it’s seen as a fact. Maybe it is. But maybe we don’t allow women to be little girls as long as we allow men to be little boys.
The socialization of pre-teen and teenage girls at a young age contributes to how they see themselves, and how they perceive society for the rest of their lives. There are many contributing factors to this socialization, but let’s examine one specific element: Dress code.
Dress code starts in middle school, when children are barely aware of how their bodies are interpreted in society. They’re still using their bodies to run around in the playground, dig in the dirt, dance, climb trees, and whatever else. It’s a vessel for activity and expression. That is, until they begin to get sexualized. Young girls are told their shoulders, legs, and chest are distracting to both the male students and teachers. When some Canadian schools began to dismantle the dress code, a trustee complained, “I would not want to see some girl partially dressed sitting in front of me.” Even if it’s a child? Any student in the high school or elementary school system will almost always be under eighteen, and should be looked at as such. If a grown man is looking at a little girl and wishing she would cover up, that says more about the grown man than it does about the girl’s apparel. However, this is not how the school system thinks.
The school system places blame on the victim, and creates a snowball effect for the rest of the little girls’ lives. Being told your body is something sexual before you even understand what that means makes you question how you are perceived. It encourages self-reflection and self-awareness at a young age, which results in the higher levels of maturity we see in girls. When you realize your actions can have extreme social consequences, or can put you in an unsafe setting, it is a sobering reality. Boys do not experience this at a young age, and oftentimes never will.
Both male and female students have protested these dress codes for years. Sometimes there is change, sometimes not. Students argue neither male nor female students care about the shortness of shorts or shoulders showing, it’s only the administrators. If the purpose is to not distract the male students, is it not better to show them a girl’s body is a normal thing and doesn’t have to be sexualized? As soon as limits are placed on clothing, male students clue into the fact that they should be sexualizing these girls as well. If the school administrators and teachers are doing it, why shouldn’t they? Further, if the boys are told these girls are trying to get their attention or are being sexually provocative with what they’re wearing in school, how will they act once they leave school? Will they chastise women on the street with taunts and catcalls? Because if they’re dressing provocatively they want male attention? Or, will they scold these women and call them names in the street for showing their bodies? Both scenarios, either over sexualization or hatred, show how they see women showing their bodies: Unrespectable.
The specific guidelines of a dress code for girls are usually shorts that go past your fingertips, straps that are at least three fingers, and no midriff showing. For boys, it’s no pants that sag below your bum, but are hardly enforced. The main punishment recipients of the dress code regulations are girls. This is because even if a boy is showing skin, he isn’t sexualized to the same degree as girls. He could take off his shirt and go on a Slip N’ Slide at school and receive no backlash. Meanwhile, girls have to put T-shirts over their bathing suits. They both have a chest, but one gender’s chest is much more sexualized. Instead of telling the boys to be okay with a girl’s body in a non-sexual way, this tells girls they have to cover up for the boys to control themselves. If they just told the boys to control any urges they have towards the girls’ bodies, they would develop higher levels of self-control in their youth as well as their adulthood. Since low self-control is one of the greatest determinants of a criminality, the administrators should encourage high self-control. A way to do this would be to accept female bodies in schools. Don’t sexualize them, just let them exist as girls.
There are racial issues in this discussion as well. In some schools, long braids aren’t allowed, which discriminates against black girls and boys. This creates intersectional discrimination against minority girls. They’re shamed for both their race and gender.
This will lead to issues later in life surrounding self-esteem and self-worth. If women are taught they'll only be respected when they're wearing "proper" clothing, and not just as human beings, they'll feel like they deserve to be shamed if they go out wearing something showing skin. Women should be respected no matter what they're wearing.
@frank_marino87
The dress code being instituted in elementary school is one of the first separations between how we treat boys and girls. It will continue in how we treat them as they get older, but this is one of the first experiences of blatant sexism for girls. It starts the next generation of feminism each time it's enforced. When your body is sexualized in a way that boys' aren't, it feels awful. When it comes from a male teacher, it makes the girls question whether this teacher is sexualizing students. When it comes from a female teacher, it feels like women policing and shaming other women. Either way, it doesn't feel good. So, it ignites a fire of injustice in these little girls' minds, but also crushes their spirits. It makes them wary of every move they make in the future. How will it be perceived? Will my body be telling others something I don't want it to? They have to self-reflect on how society in a patriarchy functions as soon as they're able to dress themselves. Sady Doyle writes, "Every woman has a moment when she realizes her body is public property." They don't get to stay a child. They have to think like a woman before they learn calculus. This is because they are given adult responsibilities with a developing brain. This extra pressure and mental gymnastics they have to do when thinking of their appearance creates problems such as depression, low self-esteem, and eating disorders.
Girls are often given extra shame and mockery from their peers. In Florida, a girl in high school was forced to wear a "shame suit" because they broke dress code. This is a greater punishment of embarrassment among their classmates and teachers. They are made to be a laughing stock because they dared to show parts of their body society has deemed sexual. This feels like a modern version of Game of Thrones, where this "shame suit" is a modern version of Cersei's walk through the village as people yell "shame" at her. The "shame suit" is clearly meant to encourage sadness and embarrassment in the wearer, even more so than the initial punishment of detention.
Since young girls are simultaneously taught from the media they should be attractive to be of value, they're put in an uncomfortable position. They go into Hollister and see the models wearing clothes marketed towards them. Everyone knows how difficult it is to escape advertisers who want your business. Especially young, impressionable teens. So, they'll buy these clothes to look attractive and cool. However, once they get to school, they're told it's too sexual. Yet, it's fashionable, and they have extreme pressures for their appearance. So how do they win? How are they supposed to impress their peers and feel attractive, when they're stuck between fashion and a dress code. Of course, there are pieces to buy that are appropriate and cool. But, these are few and far between. It's difficult to find shorts that go past your fingers, and tank tops with thick straps. It's a constant battle between what powerful advertisers, TV, and movies are telling girls to wear, against what they're allowed to wear without making people "uncomfortable". Boys, on the other hand, do not have this problem to the same degree. Their advertisers dictate fashion that is comfortable and conservative. Even if they were advertised revealing clothes, it wouldn't be considered revealing to the same degree. They wouldn't be sexualized for it. They can look cool and wear dress code appropriate clothes extremely easily. There is no toss up in their heads. They don't lose anything for going one way or the other. This is the beginning of forcing young girls to make hard choices about their appearances, as well as what the implications there will be for those choices.
Once they become adults, this translates into a constant internalized male gaze. The male gaze is the assertion that the world is so male centric, women have an internalized male gaze on them at all times. This will manifest at any moment, even when they're alone. They'll walk down the stairs and picture how they would look if a man were watching. They'll change their strut to appeal to stereotypical male desires. It is almost inescapable unless it's thought about and worked on. But even then, it's so engrained in media and life it is difficult to perform simple tasks without envisioning a male gaze.
With these implications, the dress code has many negative consequences on girls and women. Any negative side effects of boys potentially being "distracted" Do not compare to the shame and sexualization young girls have to go through at such a young age. It impacts the rest of their lives greatly. Removing the dress code would be a positive step taken in dismantling unfairness. Girls would feel less sexualized and boys would presumably develop higher levels of self-control. It would improve society in general by raising our youth in a progressive manner.
