Dress Codes Are Still Around — And They're Still Sexist

Like so many other teens, I attend a high school with a strict dress code. When COVID-19 led to a relaxation of that code due to the desire to take some stress off students, I thought I finally had the opportunity to fully express myself without judgment or repercussions. This spring, I wore a tank top that showed a sliver of my stomach to school. Midway through the second period I got an email from the dean of students with the subject line “dress code” that read: “I'm sad ... and need to speak with you. Please see me when you can.”

This email led to a 30-minute-long discussion where we discussed (or, rather, I was condescendingly told) the implications of showing one’s belly button: namely that, as the dean said, “Women are sexualizing themselves and then they get mad when they are asked to cover up.” The entire time I sat there, clutching my stomach, trying to hide myself from the world, and get rid of the shame I now felt about the body I was once so confident in. But then, I realized there were so many things wrong with her statement.

First, dress codes imply that young women have full agency over their wardrobe choices and nothing and no one dictates what to wear and what not to wear. They imply that if women wear something out of dress code the blame remains solely on them for making the choice to wear those clothes. However, women are so sexualized based on what they look like and what they wear, the idea that we have so much agency that it must be controlled by a dress code is laughable. Women, especially young girls, are told to follow rules that make them feel objectified and give them few options for self-expression because of a view of our bodies that we played no role in creating.

Ironically, dress code policies don’t reduce the oversexualization of women so much as point out just how oversexualized we are. Statements in the dress code that tell women to cover up their stomachs, backs, breasts, shoulders, legs, etc,. are inherently stating that these parts of the body are “too sexy” to be revealed to the world. But, of course, midriffs are not an inherently sexual part of the body in that they serve no sexual function. Yet, in a 2019 analysis of 481 schools it was the most banned visible part of the body; 71% of schools banning it. Which then begs the question: why are midriffs not appropriate for a school setting? Again, the sexualization of a woman’s stomach is a construct imposed on her.

Dress codes don’t even get to the root of the problem they’re supposedly trying to solve, either. Girls have been conditioned by the media and advertisements from a young age that their self-worth is tied to their sexiness. Young girls are impressionable, and reasonably want to wear what they see on models and in stores. And it’s not as if they’re making these clothes themselves — the clothes deemed inappropriate for students by schools were designed, advertised, and sold for those same students. And they were designed that way specifically for girls. I have noticed crop tops and short shorts in the little girls’ section in stores, while the boys’ section has knee-length shorts and full-length tops. One study found that in stores marketed toward teenage girls, such as Abercrombie and Fitch, 41% of girls’ clothing is sexualized. A lot of the clothes made for girls aren’t considered appropriate for schools, yet girls are penalized and shamed for simply buying what the market offers and what the media has taught us to replicate for so long.

Dress codes ultimately further the idea that women’s bodies are distracting to men or linked to our inherent value. As a society, we need to take steps to separate the mental link between what a woman can do and the clothes we wear. In fact, I’d argue that the clothes I wear are for no one but me. They help boost my self-confidence, which in turn helps me perform better in school.

The solution to this overarching problem, in my opinion, is to honor girls' agency through loosening or removing dress codes. Letting girls choose what they wear will allow women to feel more confident in themselves and their bodies. It will create more powerful leaders for the future post-graduation. It will create a world in which women have the power to say no and create their own world.