Xan Mattek

Today I walked into my favorite teachers class with a smile on my face. I was wearing a cute outfit and feeling good about myself. A small sliver of my midriff was showing and my teachers face got very serious. He promptly asked me to untie my shirt. I refused. He said “not to test him” and that he had a rough last hour. I told him that I wasn’t trying to fight, but I was not going to take down my shirt. It was not a fight it was just important to me. He said to do it or leave his classroom. I left and went to my theatre class across the hall. He came in with the school handbook saying that I was specifically refusing something that was written down. I said that I understood but there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that dress codes are shaped in today’s society. He said he didn’t care and set me to the office where I had the exact same fight with my favorite principal. He sympathized and I could tell that he was in a tough position But alas, here I am, sitting in In-School-Suspension with my shirt still tied up. Being forced to bend for sexism and misogyny is harder than any 35 year old man deciding that a 17 year old girls midriff is too overtly sexual and violently distracting. It is 2016. It is the 21st Century. I don’t need someone telling me that they’re proud of me or start a hashtag on Twitter. I need people standing up for themselves too, and starting a revolution.