What Are The Arguments Against School Dress Codes

Imagine everything that a person might use to express themselves is limited. Imagine a person having to watch what they wear carefully to insure that they don't get in trouble just because they’re wearing a skirt a centimeter too short. This is a frustrating issue all around the world. Students in primary, middle, and high school deal with this problem every day. Dress codes and uniforms used to be enforced mostly at private schools, but in the recent past, maybe the past 60 years or so, public schools have adopted this idea and have started to enforce more. Back in the early ’60s to ’80s, many sexist ideas were going around. Dress codes and uniforms enforced things such as no skirts more than an inch above the knee, or that shoulders must

To begin, one girl at Woodford Country High noticed how her school’s dress code targeted mostly female clothing types, and how most males were rarely dress coded, even when breaking the rules. “I’ve never seen a boy called out for his attire even though they also break the rules,” says Sunseri (Zhou ). This shows the unfair and unjust stereotypes and/or assumptions that are still supported today, despite what society thinks of these rules. This also shows how unfair the students themselves think of these rules, and how much they want the rules to change. Additionally, the old excuse for showing no skin or shoulders was that it was too distracting for boys. This is unfair in many, many ways. Besides calling girls a distraction, these people are assuming that boys would be distracted, and are showing how lowly they think of these students. This is extremely unfair to both boys and girls. This issue offers an unfair social expectation that both educators and phycologists agree on. “Educators and sociologists, too, have argued that dress codes grounded in such logic amplify a broader societal expectation: that women are the ones who need to protect themselves from unwanted attention and that those wearing what could be considered sexy clothing are “asking for” a response”

Dress codes also negatively impact mental health. For example, a poll taken at 402 Eaton Highschool shows that a very high amount of interviewed students claim that dress codes impact negative thoughts and feed negative mental health. “A poll taken by 402 Eaton High School students showed 76% believe restrictive dress codes leave a negative impact on girls’ mental health” (Reynolds). This shows the proportion of people around the age of middle to high school that believes dress codes are detrimental to the mental health of young females. This is concerning, as many schools and districts are implementing mental health programs to support their students. If the schools and districts are at the same time implementing a harmful dress code; any help that the services provided could be eroded. In one example cited in the article, a student who identifies as gay describes being disciplined for dressing in drag that complied with the school dress code. The day the student dressed up was a dress day, for a previous decade. In this example, dress policies and rules were corrupt and unjust. The student describes how he was accepted by his peers for wearing what was described as a 1950s housewife outfit (Reynolds). This shows how sometimes the discipline is applied unfairly and based on the enforcer’s opinion and interpretation. This also shows how dress codes, even when