Dress codes; What they actually do?

 ​Ask almost any student at White Hill middle school if they like their dress code and the answer will be a strong no. eighth grader Anna Mcshea says “I believe that we are enforcing the mentality that it is a women's job to censor her own body. This will give boys the idea that if a woman is raped, cat called, etc. it is the girl or woman's fault if the are wearing something provocative. We need to be the generation that turns this around. Instead of censoring young females and programming their ideas at a young age to believe that it is their fault if they get unwanted attention due to clothing choices, we need to teach boys how to treat women respectfully and disregard their clothing choices as a factor of unwanted attention.” Girls are going crazy with this huge issue. They feel as if they are needing to cover up for the wrong reasons. For these girls the fight is worth it.

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The situation at White Hill has become difficult and frustrating for everyone involved. Girls are being punished for something that's not their fault. Girls need to cover up because boys can’t control themselves? Seems like the boys are the ones with some learning to do. The students feel very embarrassed when they come into the classroom wearing pe clothes because their normal clothes were too “sexy”or “revealing” to wear in front of boys. They feel that if they are in dresscode violation they should be allowed to change into something more appropriate before publicly humiliating themselves. The young girls of White Hill feel that it's unfair when a girl that is curvier gets dresscoded rather than the more undeveloped girls. There was a social media page started through Instagram supporting the girls of White Hill. One quote from the page is “ As students we have the right to express ourselves through our clothing!” There are many complaints about rules such as no shoulders showing , no bra straps showing, no v necks, and no stomach showing. This is makes the middle schoolers outraged because they feel that they should be allowed to show their shoulder if they want to and boys need to be able to control themselves when they see a shoulder.

So when is appropriate to cover up or show some skin?
           It's agreed by white hill students that there should be a dress code but it should apply to all sexes and be enforced equally. The dress code has no restrictions against boys and boys never get dress coded. For example, there is a rule that you cannot have holes in your jeans but when boys have holes in their jeans it's not reprimanded or noticed. Dress codes provide an excuse for sexism in our schools. This issue has been solved for the students of drake. Our system works well because we have a dress code but it's not too strict and gives us enough freedom to find our own style comfortably. As long as we dress in appropriate school attire there are no problems. It's important to cover up for the right reasons, not because people might get distracted by your body. Instead you should dress appropriately for a work environment. School should allow students to wear what they want because it gives the students a chance to find their own styles and figure it out for themselves when it's appropriate to show some skin and when it's time to cover up. It also makes the students more comfortable with their body and individuality. Women's bodies are just anatomy and shouldn't be oversexualized no matter what they are wearing.

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Girls shouldn't have to change their clothes... boys should change their mindset. 

How schools can change this?
Make the code gender neutral and, when doing so is disturbing to parents or administrators, ask why and set up a process for having the necessary deeper conversations. Include students in forming a new code considering they are the ones that have to follow it♀

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