In the 1950s women were expected to cook, clean, and take care of kids while also keeping their husband happy and following a strict set of mannerisms to be seen as the “perfect woman”. Women have been expected to dress a certain way just to go to school and get their education. A set of rules inflicted towards women specifically, have been set in place telling young women what to wear in order to attend school.

Dress code affects women more that it does men on a grand scale. Across the United States young women have been personally attacked for the attire they chose to wear. “I believe people dress code women because they believe guys are distracted..but if a guy can show his shoulders why can’t I ?’’ Ashley Kloster expressed in an interview with disappointment smeared across her face. She had been dress coded for a small piece of her bra strap showing in which in turn she had to wear gym clothes all day which what can be imagine as confidence degrading. News flash if you didn’t know women wear bras!

Young women miss class, and miss assignments when they are dress coded all because adults believe women’s shoulders and body distracts men. This implying that mens education and comfort is much more important than women’s.

Why are we teaching young girls from the age of five when they start school, that degrading what women chose to wear to express themselves is okay? Teaching to shame women for what they wear is not okay. Teaching men it is okay to see women as objects seems to place rape culture as an apparent figure in women’s lives. What we should be teaching to men and young boys from a young age is that women deserve respect in whatever attire they chose to wear no matter what. Women deserve to be seen as more than just objects to look at.

Dress code is inflicted in a humiliating way. When adults dress code women it is often handled in an embarrassing way such as calling out in the front of class, calling out dress code violations in front of a group of people and often when women are dress coded they are shamed. “ Your mother let you leave the house like that?”, is a question asked by some judgmental adults  to young women more often than not. Adults shaming young girls really has more of an effect then adults think. Comments like those stick to women. If dress code is implied at least try not to personally attack someone’s mother when you dress code women,okay? Dress code violations should be handled in a respectable, non-shaming type mannerism.

According to the PHS handbook, garments that are…cut low..are not acceptable. Sleeveless garments must extend to the end of the shoulders..Clothing should have adequate coverage… Undergarments must not be visible… to ensure modesty.

Alot of the rules in place as dress code simply don’t make sense. The wording of these rules that people are expected to conform too are directly targeting women telling them to cover up everything and anything. What the school board who created dress code does not understand is that the only ones getting distracted by young women’s shoulders or shoulder blades are teachers who are given a sexist set of rules to force women to conform to! I understand shorts extending to cover buttocks and rules such as those but sometimes dress code is taken too far. Dress code should  be clear and easy to follow such as shorts extending to cover buttocks and no half or crop tops etcetera. Also when women are dress coded they should not be embarrassed, called out in front of a class,singled out,or shamed in any way or matter.