Article Analysis: How To Stop Policing Girls By Stephanie Hepburn

Over the past 50 years, our sense of style has evolved tremendously. With the evolution of fashion has come dress codes and what this society thinks is appropriate clothing choices. Many women and girls are faced with the everyday challenge of fitting into todays society. This article definitely showed how women need to stop feeling degraded by other people, equality between women and men, and also how us women should have a voice in what we want to wear.

This article by Stephanie Hepburn entitled “How to Stop Policing Girls” mainly focused on how girls and women are policed for the clothing choices they make. The writer gave many examples of how girls and women were policed in their everyday work or school area. In the article, it also

Having somebody tell a person they can’t wear something or getting called out of class to go change because their outfit is inappropriate really makes them feel worthless and degraded. Today in our school districts, girls are being told that they can’t wear leggings or track shorts because it’s distracting to the boys. Teachers and adults are basically telling girl students that they are the reason the boys act the way they do to them and that boys aren’t the problem. In the article, the author wrote about her friend and how they were required to wear revealing clothes to work so her boss and the other men colleagues could have something nice to look at. It’s amazing that even in the work area women are still being policed and sexualized for what they wear. One woman was taken aside by her boss because he wasn’t impressed that she wore a turtleneck to work. Another case was that a bigger lady went to work with leggings on and was told she no longer can wear leggings, but her other female employees could. Men shouldn’t have a say in what women should be wearing to work and if it’s appropriate or not. This subject needs to be dealt with, because if boys think its alright to sexualize girls in high school, nothing's going to stop them from doing it in the work area. This problem is forcing women to be insecure about themselves and their body

In the article, it stated how one school made young girls sit in a classroom and have an adult talk to them about inappropriate clothing. While the girls were inside being taught about dress codes and how not to distract a boy by what they wear, the boys got to go outside and play on the playground. The people teaching the girls basically were telling them it’s their fault because of what they are wearing, but maybe the real problem are the boys. The author also stated how she was sitting in the library doing homework wearing jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. A male teacher came up to her and told her to close her legs and that she was inappropriate. It was definitely the male teacher who was thinking inappropriately, and all she was doing was homework. Maybe men and boys are the ones that should have a class on how to control themselves in class. This generation needs to make sure boys and girls, women and men are all being treated equally. This is one example of how women and girls are treated differently and not equal to the men