Notes

Dress code is enforced in elementary and middle schools almost as much as it is at Northwood. My younger sister was dress coded in kindergarten. The dress code sexualizes young children, and I find it kind of disturbing. My five year old sister is not “distracting her male peers” with her body. In addition to that, dress code is heteronormative, or in other words, assumes that everyone is straight. If the reasoning behind it is that girls in more revealing clothing are distracting boys, the least they could do is also account for people of other sexual orientations. Dress code serves to makes teenage girls who are already feeling self conscious, doubt themselves. It screams at them “society doesn’t accept you.” It seems to target girls with a higher BMI. Singling them out is going to make them feel terrible about themselves. It is not fair to blame women for “distracting the boys”. That is almost like blaming a woman for for being raped because she was wearing provocative clothing.