Low rise jeans, a tank top and a zip up hoodie: these are the articles of clothing that secured an eighth grader detention. 

A barely-teenage girl kept her head down, staring intensely at her sneakers while a campus supervisor told her off for daring to wear a plain tank top with a V-neck collar that just almost reached the mid-point of her chest. Meanwhile, a boy wearing nothing but basketball shorts and an undershirt tank top sat somewhere else peacefully on the schools’ property. 

I witnessed this bizarre dress code for girls every other day at the age of eleven, and I unfortunately still witness this at fifteen.

I, a sophomore student, am fortunate enough to have had school experiences where I have been given the freedom to express myself in my clothes and fashion style. Disappointedly, there are other young girls from other schools that have been restricted from exploring their identities during their adolescent years due to discriminatory dress codes.

The only cases where a dress code in action would be reasonable is an instance where promiscuous intent is apparent or when graphic content is printed on clothes. Apart from that, I find it absurd that adults are the ones giving lectures to minors on what they should or should not wear. Strict and unnecessary dress codes surrounding irrational reasons such as “her shoulders are visible” can just as easily bring attention to what the adults are, for some odd reason, afraid of and otherwise contradicting the purpose of the dress code.

But I want to dig deeper into that odd, unspoken reason adults are afraid of. I want to dissect why these particular adults are obsessed with dress codes selectively for girls that push them to escalate the situation beyond appropriate clothing.

Is there an undertone of animosity in those who strictly establish dress codes against students? Or could it be sexism?

As it turns out, the reason behind the obsession surrounding dress codes may be an unfortunate case of both, according to a sophomore student here at Sage Creek High School. Camille Ambrogelly breaks down her experiences with irrational dress codes during her 10 years of experience in public schools.

“I rode my bike to school once in middle school. The principal stood outside the gate, and she was analyzing every girl that came into school,” Ambrogelly said.

While debriefing the strict policy her middle school enforced, Ambrogelly emphasized that boys were rarely ever given the same attention as girls when it came to dress codes as she recalled. She claimed that the furthest extent the staff went to dress code a boy was if he wore a hat or hood indoors.

Ambrogelly said, “A lot of the dress code has to do with controlling what women wear to not distract men. It’s super oppressive towards young girls, because it makes them feel like they’re a distraction and that their body is not theirs.”

She went on to explain that the real issue is just trying to make sure that everyone feels safe and comfortable at school, and trying to blame women’s clothes for that is not the right way to fix anything.

Furthermore, an article written by the The United States Government Accountability Office (USGAO) addresses how the dress code system is unbalanced in a school setting.

The article states, “An estimated 90 percent of dress codes prohibit clothing items typically associated with girls compared to 69 percent that prohibit items typically associated with boys.”

Evidently, a drastic contrast exists between boys and girls when it comes to dress codes; this can easily influence young girls to feel as if they should conform to a social scale built beneath the rank of boys. That should never be the goal.

Unnecessary dress codes send messages ranging from “bodies should be a certain way in order to avoid the consequences” to “this person should be recognized as less valued than that person simply because they are different.” These messages are demeaning to students’ ideologies, and they feed into self-consciousness starting from an early age.

Is that what we want students to expect coming into an educational environment that is supposed to be a welcoming place? The students who are willing to go to school with the most significant intention of learning new things? People should not be worried about the size of her tank top strap more than how her education or well being is.

Rather than bystanding, school communities should express their everlasting support with those who have been discouraged from wearing their clothes freely by speaking out. Anyone who believes in self expression and fair standards are capable of pivoting away from the focus on dress codes by boosting petitions and organizations that help empower girls in all schools if they are not receiving advocacy already.

To those who have said or thought of saying something against a student’s clothing choices: Remember that at the end of the day, it’s her body and not yours.