A Stitch in Sexism

Abida Mariam is an eighth-grader at MS 101 and was selected as a winner.

Dress codes have been part of the education system since the dawn of time, and they have become a common practice throughout many schools. You can’t wear “revealing” clothing that exposes your shoulders or wear shorts and skirts that go above your fingertips. Schools implement dress codes under the excuse of keeping the environment “distraction-free,” but how effective are these dress codes? In many cases, these dress codes are targeted toward feminine clothing including spaghetti strap tops, sandals, short shorts, and tube tops. Even though dress codes can also have an impact on boys, dress codes disproportionately affect girls. Dress codes spread inequality among genders and spread rape culture.

Dress codes are part of our long-standing patriarchal world. The patriarchy is a social system in which men dominate responsibilities such as political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and property control. The patriarchy sees women as beneath men, with women not having the same opportunities as men because of their gender. Dress codes help to spread gender inequality through schools and reinforce students, from a young age. that men are the superior gender. This is done through what is called ‘hidden curriculum’ which is in place to ensure that a girl matures into the type of woman that a patriarchal society desires, guaranteeing that males continue to control and dictate society.

“Hidden curriculum is a concept that describes the often unarticulated and unacknowledged things students are taught in school and that may affect their learning experience.”

One major area of hidden curriculum is the academic hierarchy which has stereotyped, underestimating girls, along with their intelligence and capability. “Teachers also tended to see girls' futures in terms of marriage, child-rearing, and domestic work. Future careers were stereotyped into secretarial and caring work.” The hidden curriculum are habits that are picked up by kids simply from being in the school building. This hidden syllabus continues to standardize the way girls are perceived therefore leading to gender inequality. Dress codes merely compartmentalize girls' abilities and turn them into objects for the male gaze. And while the dress code may affect some boys as well, it is sometimes completely disregarded how dress codes are targeted towards clothes typically labeled as feminine. In one school a girl received detention for wearing shorts whilst a boy wearing an inappropriate shirt was ignored. Rules like these install a mindset into adolescents about gender superiority, and these rules contribute to perpetuating the patriarchal society.

In an interview with a middle school student in the Bronx, NY, she discussed whether or not dress codes discriminate against girls stating, “Girls are constantly up against double standards with regards to dress codes. Usually, girls have much stricter dress codes than males. Shoulders, midriffs, thighs, cleavage, and many other things girls get dress coded for although

they are just normal parts of the body deemed as distracting. Many boys get to wear any shorts or shirts, while girls have to worry about covering the shoulders with tops and their bottoms with long or loose pants.” In school, we learn a variety of things such as math, science, ELA, and Spanish. Unfortunately, dress codes used in school also teach students that because a student is a girl they can be discriminated against because of their gender. Dress codes also strip the right of students to express themselves. Some students feel more comfortable in different types of clothing that represent them, but if their clothing choices do not pass dress code regulations they are forbidden from wearing that clothing. Furthermore, some girls choose to express themselves by their hairstyles, but in some schools, girls can also be targeted for their hair.

A second student stated, “It’s someone’s hair. And I know people, at a lot of schools who discriminate against others with textured hair or bigger hair, that they mark that as distracting...” Usually, schools that discriminate against a student's hair are racially motivated. Girls of color are discriminated against not only because of gender but because of their culture. Schools mark hairstyles such as braids, ponytails, and students who wear their hair down to be distracting to “the boys and male teachers”. In one case a 12-year-old African-American student's parents claim she was threatened with expulsion because she refused to cut her naturally styled hair. Her mother was told she was a "distraction" at school and had broken the dress code. Hairstyles are a form of expression that may connect to one's culture. Dress codes aggravate gender inequality and take away a student’s right to express themselves.

Another major reason why dress codes are sexist is that they expand rape culture. Rape culture is a sociological idea that describes a situation in which rape is widespread and acceptable as a result of cultural views on gender and sexuality. Many schools respond to criticism of dress standards by emphasizing the need of having a "distraction-free" learning environment. However, dress codes sexualize young girls' bodies by telling them what part of their bodies they are not allowed to expose. It is repeatedly told to girls that the main reason that they need to cover up their bodies is to avoid ‘distracting’ male peers, or making male teachers ‘uncomfortable’. One student states;

"I have been walking down the street in my school uniform and regardless I have gotten catcalled or verbally sexually harassed."

It instills in our young, the belief that women's bodies are dangerous, powerful, and sexualized, and that males are biologically driven to objectify and harass them. It prepares them for college when one in every five women is sexually assaulted. Interestingly, society blames, questions, and silences the victims, while the perpetrators are rarely punished. There has been little to no effort in disciplining boys for harassing female students, whether that be physically or verbally. Dress codes help to expand rape culture as they sexualize and objectify girls' bodies. Girls are then blamed for being distracting to male students even though they are the ones being

objectified. “Because how am I distracting another student with what I wear? This person chose to be distracted by focusing on me and what I’m wearing. I’m not responsible for another person’s thoughts, so how am I at fault?” stated the student quoted above.

Some schools make the claim that dress codes help prevent sexual harassment by enforcing rules to ‘protect’ female students. Nevertheless, girls continue to report being harassed only to be silenced. When teachers call out students for their clothing it “projects an adult sexual perception onto an outfit or body part that may not have been intended or perceived as such by the student herself. It can be disturbing and distressing for students to be perceived in this way and there is often a strong element of shame involved,” as reported by Time Magazine. Around 97% of women and girls have been sexually harassed and it will only continue as rape culture persists because of dress codes and other factors.

Ever since the beginning of time, women have been subjected to scrutiny over their attire and their bodies. Through not only school dress codes but stereotypes, the media, entertainment, and so much more, girls have been perceived as damsels in distress that need to be saved. Dress codes have negatively affected not only girls but boys who also want to express themselves freely. These codes have only fueled the continuing rape culture, of normalizing sexual harassment and behavior. It's time for schools to realize that school dress codes need to be removed; allow students to express themselves freely, fight against the gender inequality that entraps the world, and know that it's time for a change.