No shorts that are deemed to show an excess of skin above the knee. No skirts that end above the knee. No dresses that are arbitrarily deemed to be too short. No clothes that show a single inch of midriff. No tube tops or strapless tank tops. Or, in the eyes of many repressed students, no freedom.
Ostensibly serving to foster a professional, and supposedly academic environment, many dress codes restrict clothing that administrators deem as distracting to students, aiming to make it easier for students to focus on the task at hand. Additionally, proponents of dress codes claim that they help instill a respect for institutions among students from a young age, preparing them for their adult life where dressing professionally is of vital importance. In a similar vein, some people believe that enforcing dress codes helps discourage some behaviors such as promiscuity in high school students. In short, proponents of dress codes stress how they not only create an atmosphere beneficial to academic excellence, but also promote lifelong professional behaviors meant to help them through their career.
While intended to increase academic performance through the minimization of distractions, dress codes negatively impact students by punishing them for exploring themselves through the vital act of self expression. Furthermore, the antiquated nature of dress codes is reflected in the manner in which they typically unfairly target students who tend towards more feminine forms of dress, embodying misogynistic social norms that have long been discarded in wider society.
Read through the list of common items prohibited by dress codes at the top of the article, notice any similarities between the items? If you guessed that most popular forms of dress among young women are prohibited then you’d be right on the money. While veiled in gender-neutral language, make no mistake, women and other feminine presenting people face far more pressure from school dress codes than their masculine counterparts. Why? Because the concept of ‘distracting clothing’ is a concept entirely based on male perceptions. You don’t see men being prohibited from wearing pants deemed too tight or cladding themselves in a tight fitting undershirt. Dress codes weren’t created to benefit all students, they were created to benefit only male students. If a girl dressing in shorts a centimeter too short is too distracting for boys, then wouldn’t it follow that a boy dressing in a particularly tight pair of jeans would be too distracting for girls?
Furthermore, dress codes are extremely unhealthy for students, particularly high school students who are keen to explore different styles and learn more about themselves in the process. Therefore, restricting their options of dress also restricts their avenues of self exploration, pigeonholing them into becoming people deemed ‘acceptable’ by the system, rather than having the chance to become the people that they are meant to be. Furthermore, some dress codes straight out deny students the joy of discovery through self exploration.
In a sense, I am the perfect example of how dress codes can limit self expression and self development. For the majority of my life, I paid no heed to fashion in the slightest, opting instead for whatever the easiest option was that fulfilled the dress code (often resulting in me being clad in a baggy shirt and hideous shorts that reached my shins). As I started to spend more time outside of the school environment, and outside of the dress code by extension, I was able to develop an interest in fashion and my own style. If I was in a less fortunate position, and didn’t have many social opportunities outside of school, I likely wouldn’t have been able to explore myself through fashion in the manner that I have been able to.
Dress codes are a millstone hung around the neck of already struggling adolescent students, yet another wicked ball that they are tasked with juggling in addition to both keeping up with the challenging bustle of schoolwork and the monumental task of figuring out their future. Dress codes are archaic and favor some students over others, restricting the self expression of feminine presenting youth while allowing their masculine peers to walk away scot free. They not only siphon away the beautiful quirks found within the development of an individual style, but they also enforce a strict standard of professionalism upon a time when students should be free to explore who they want to be when they come of age, creating a world where people are more comfortable finding another dress code to conform to in adulthood rather than find their own personal style. As students, we must work to dislodge the millstone hung around our necks, for our leaded shoes of preexisting responsibilities are already burden enough in the stressful lives of high school students.
