Why Are School Dress Codes Unfair

School Dress Codes Are Unfair A North Carolina principal suspended a high school girl for 10 days and banned her from attending graduation and any senior activities because she wore a slightly off-shoulder top to school. A dress code is a set of rules specifying the required manner of dress at a particular office, club, event, or school. School districts and employers usually install dress codes to encourage education, safety, and image. The school dress codes exclude clothing including gang signs, inappropriate language, and provocative attire. School dress codes are unfair because they target students of color and girls with maturing bodies. First, strict school dress codes are unfair because they target students (especially girls) of color.

Baker 2 made since the end of the civil rights movement. The stern school dress codes didn’t consider the plethora of cultures and religions that don’t relate to Christianity or American culture . Colored students are consequently the center of attention of the restrictions of the dress codes. Next, dress codes for schools are unfair to girls, whose bodies are maturing, going through middle and high school. Most high schools and middle schools impose dress codes that strictly limit how much skin girls can display. Lyn Mikel Brown from Colby College declared, “bodies become objects of adult interest and surveillance,” in regards to girls’ maturing bodies (“Home”). When girls’ figures mature, it gains the attention of adults to monitor and keep them covered. Girls could have worn some clothes they had before, but now their bodies have changed and adults notice. If they’ve noticed then so have other people. The adults at school force girls to change the way they dress to prevent any source of distraction when instead they should be teaching boys and staff not to objectify women (“Home”). It’s unfair that girls have to wear clothes with no rips or shirts where people can see their midriff, so as not to create a distraction for boys or staff members. Girls get punished for their bodies developing and have to dress a certain way so as to not become a nuisance to boys. Boys’ figures are also mature but they don’t have a strict dress code they must follow so as not to distract girls. In contrast, generally, school dress codes apply to everyone, boys and girls, so it is in fact fair for everyone. Strict dress codes can’t target students of color if that school has a colored majority. Although this may be true, dress codes aren’t fair to everyone if girls are the main ones hindered from it. The schools with the majority of the population being colored seem to have stricter dress codes. A student named Brittany Kruljack replied, “We [female students] have all these