Baggy Apparel

Dress codes in middle and high schools are a form of discrimination against teenage girls in today’s society. Parents and students all over the country argue that dress codes are directed mainly at girls and are a blatant example of gender inequality. The idea behind the strict enforcement of a dress code is that it will teach self-respect and raise moral standards for the students. However, when the reason for many dress code violations is questioned the rationale is often to prevent distracting the male students. Young women across the country are being shamed and punished for wearing what schools consider immodest and being a distraction to their male peers. This discrimination against female students results in their clothes being strictly regulated and dress coded more often than male students’ clothes are. The enforcement of these discriminatory dress codes has become a form of public humiliation for female students. Theoretically, a dress code makes sense and should be effective. In reality, it does not affect how students dress but causes a distraction and interruption of a girl’s education.

Olive quickly gains popularity when most of the student body witnesses, from the other side of the door, her having sex at a party with a boy from school. Little does everyone know that it is all a ruse to get them to think that Brandon, her fake sex partner, is not gay in hopes that this very public display of sexual activity will prevent daily beatings at school and it works! (Perry et al., 2011)

As the temperature rises, so do hemlines and the suspension rate. Students get suspended for violating school dress codes by wearing outfits that ‘show too much skin.’ One can argue that revealing clothing is distracting, but some families and students agree that school dress code implementations end up just shaming girls. Dress codes, the epitome of high school, teach girls to act ashamed, not modest. According to most school boards that come up with the dress code, the outfits young women wear come across as too distracting for their peers, especially men, and make it unable for women to be viewed by the public with dignity and respect. Everyday, school dress codes target females—especially females that are more developed.

In Zhou, Li’s article “The Sexism of School Dress Codes,” she explains how the dress codes are diminishing children's self-esteem and, is mostly sexist towards girls as well as the LGBT community. To reach a wide audience including students, parents, and high school administrators, she relies on a wide variety of sources from high school students to highly credited professors. Zhou creates a strong argument against strict dress codes and encourages audience to take a stand against out of date dress codes that schools implement, using the rhetorical tools ethos, pathos, and logos to advance her argument.

Schools are slowly taking away people 's individuality, but only seems like they are focusing on girls not boys. “ The way boys and girls get in trouble for violating dress codes is different and girls are disproportionately targeted for disobeying it” (“Rosalind Classroom Conversation”). Rosalind agrees that girls are targeted for dress codes more than boys are. In a girls point of view it seems unfair that boys can wear anything they would like, for example muscle shirts, shirts with alcohol, shirts with naked women on them, but not even get dress coded or a warning (Bassett). Meanwhile, a student that was a girl gotten dress coded because her collarbone was showing and it was deemed that it was inappropriate, even after her mother brought her a scarf in that covered her collarbone (Alvarez). Another student which was also a girl got dress coded because her skirt was a few centimeters under her finger tip. They had to send her home, she had missed all her classes and what they were teaching that day because of what they thought it was inappropriate (Bassett). Analuiza states that “ The only reason I go to school is to get my education. When I get dressed in the morning, my intention is not to provoke or be sexualized. My intention is to feel comfortable in my own skin” (Bassett). As a girl I believe that Analuiza is correct with what she had stated, that girls should be able to feel comfortable, and not be sexualized or feel like they are

In the article, “The Battle Over Dress Codes” written by Peggy Orenstein, explains the dress code of Berkley Middle School from a mother’s point of view. This mother of argues that young girls who are reaching puberty and whose bodies are growing, are being told to cover up once they start to develope. She says, “In May, students in Utah high school opened their yearbooks to discover digitally raised necklines and sleeve added to female classmates’ shirts.” I find this act highly deceitful and unnecessary. If i was that student or that student’s parent, I’d be very upset. Orenstein also states that “seductiveness” has been an issue for girls, which has become politicized. Although, no matter how we’re dressed, there is no excuse for catcalls from older men. Orenstein says, “I don’t want her to feel shame in her soon-to-be-emerging

The Victorian Era is well known for puffy skirts and restricting formal garments while the Progressive Era was known for its more flamboyant attire and the World War II Era for its more conservative style to ration for the war. The history of clothing and fashion calls to question its importance in distinguishing identities of different groups of people as well as marking the different stages of the country’s cultural, political, and economic history. How are the different clothing styles reflective of the values and lifestyle of the multicultural United States and more importantly, how did it contribute to the creation of the American identity? 17th century inhabitants of the North American continent exhibited vastly different wardrobe choices

In this day, children can often feel as though they are at a loss of ways to express themselves. With the heavy burden of societal standards, clothes are one of the only “acceptable” ways students have left to express themselves with. The biggest and most relevant example of this today is Transgender and LGBT students, or those who identify with a different gender than the one they were legally born into. As said in The Movement Against Sexist and Discriminatory School Dress Codes, “Meanwhile, gender nonconforming and transgender students have also clashed with such policies on the grounds that they rigidly dictate how kids express their identities. Transgender students have been sent home for wearing clothing different than what's expected of their legal sex.” This said, they way one dresses can extremely affect

It is the beginning of August, the dreadful days in school have finally arrived. Since it is still ninety degrees outside and the AC can not keep up, most boys walk through the halls with shorts and cut-off tank tops. Girls, we wear long pants such as, jeans or leggings, “Why?”, you ask, Why would one ever want to wear that? Unfortunately, It is not a choice for us. Girls face the question when deciding to wear shorts, “Are these long enough, am I going to get in trouble?” Despite the warm temperatures outside and inside girls can not wear what they want, because it shows too much of their bodies. Boys? Can wear their cut-offs showing more than girls. Do they get in trouble for showing too much? The answer, usually is no. .To this day women are not equal to men in, school, the workplace, or at home. In this article, Rowena uses ethos, a very limited amount of logos, and no pathos to make an argument about the sexism towards school dress codes and how it promotes rape culture.

A common theme in the discussion is that dress coding promotes victim shaming amongst girls. Students in question are made to feel ashamed for questioning the decisions of their teachers. Tallie Doyle, a fourteen year old dress coded for wearing a tank top that showed her bra straps, is a notable example in this regard. After being taken to the principal’s office, Tallie

It’s commonly believed that boys will be too distracted to learn because of the way a girl is dressed. For fear of distracting boys, girls are being taken away from their education. A mother of a student that goes to a school in New England wrote a blog post all about how she’s fed up with the way the school is treating girls because of the dress code. At this school girls are being shamed, kicked out of proms, and even called skanks by those in authority. (Mangiacotti, "Back Off, Dress Codes. This Is Not Your Call.")

It is especially challenging when anatomical differences are unaccounted for when determining a dress code (Conchas). Girls that would be described as “curvy” are often deemed a large “distraction” in schools based on what they wear, however this doesn’t mean all girls are not classified as a distraction (Orenstein).

A terrible social experience at a school over reacted with their dress code for homecoming. In Utah, “Twenty-four girls were asked to leave” even though their dresses were not short or revealing (Ramos).

School dress codes are sexualizing girls by restricting certain clothing because it makes the girl look “sexy”. The school also restricts certain clothing such as tank tops, shorts, yoga pants etc.. because it is “too distracting for the boys” which is giving boys the power of dictating what girls can and can’t wear to school. In certain cases, the parents take the complaint up to the school board and they will revise the dress code and set up a community meeting to go over it. “Prior to this incident, the school had a community meeting on April 7, 2017, to discuss the dress code and Molly told me that they focused largely on the girl's dress code," Neuner said. "They wanted to make sure girls didn't wear clothes that would be distracting for the boys. That was their concern."” (Shankar) is something that was said to some parents at the meeting about how the dress code works and that their daughter wasn’t their concern, that their concern was the education of the boys at the school. This teaches girls that their bodies is an object and this is teaching boys that they are just objects to use, that they aren’t human beings and the only thing about a girl is their appearance and body. Schools are saying that a how a girl wears her clothes is a “distraction” to the men and boys at the school. This is allowing the school to make dress

The air is filled with a sweet aroma as another female student walks by. The perfume is strong and people choke and turn their heads when she walks past them. The sound of noisy flip flops coming down the hallway alerts the boy and he rises to greet his friend. When standing, he is about six feet tall and seems to be well muscled. His friend was of much the same description, only the friend is slightly less muscled and his eyes are the color of the sky on a clear day. Girls leaning against the walls and sitting in the chairs in the hallway, stare at the two young men exiting the building in which they wait. The young men pay no attention and