Don’t get me wrong, I support rules regarding appropriate clothing while at school, but as long as it is balanced evenly. As a teenage girl in high school, I can attest to the fact that when dress codes are instilled in schools, girls are usually more adversely affected.
If you look at a standard dress code, what will you see? You might see: no spaghetti straps, no midriff showing, shorts have to go to your mid-thigh, etc. Let’s be honest. How often do we see a boy wearing spaghetti straps? Or showing their midriff? Probably not very often. This goes to show that dress codes are, in fact, more targeted toward girls.
With the majority of dress code, girls are subconsciously being taught that their body parts are extremely important to others. This can translate to girls caring more about the way their bodies look. This can have countless long-lasting effects such as body dysmorphia, body shaming, and eating disorders all because too much skin was showing.
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Additionally, Dr. Tim Jordan tells us that ways of enforcing dress codes can lead to a sexually objectifying environment which can make girls feel physically and psychologically unsafe.
Vivian Petersen
Twin Falls