dresscode

AndrewAA

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I come from a place that is almost always cold, so going to school somewhere where 80 degrees is “good” weather is hard for me. So I wear a lot of crop tops and shorts. And I can tell I get looked at a certain way for it. I get told by a guy friend that I shouldn’t wear things like that in public, and particularly in front of him because it makes him stare at me. It’s not like I am wearing little to no clothes and being seductive. This mentality that what I’m wearing has meaning behind it is ignorant. I’m not asking for anything by deciding to wear a tube top. Dress code standards are strictly for women and they outrage me because as a woman I feel like I will never be able to get out of a cycle of victimization because people are raised to think girls are distracting when they are a little revealing. No tank tops, no skirts or shorts 3 inches above your knee. We are taught that these areas schools and systems are so eager to hide should, in fact, be sexualized.

brooke

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A few days ago i was walking through my school hallway when the girl beside me was dress coded for the most outrageous thing. Apparently we are expected to cover our bra strap because god forbid a boy sees it and is reminded of the anatomy of the female body. Girls have boobs people. Anyways, i was disgusted by this but of course i couldn’t say anything so i carried on. Later in the day i walked past by a boy wearing a marlin Monroe shirt, and on the shirt she was wearing gang signs and a red bandanna. This article of clothing was CLEARLY offensive and against dress code (reminding you gang signs were on the shirt and us students arent aloud to wear bandannas) and teacher were greeting the boy and not saying ANYTHING AT ALL. i mean seriously how sexist can we be people?????

Sydney

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In 6th grade (aged 12), I got a dress code violation for wearing a cami that had a tiny bit of lace trim at the top (I was also wearing a long sleeve v-neck shirt over it). The vice principal pulled me into her office and told me that I had to change my shirt because our school was “not a Victoria’s Secret fashion show”.

Lauren

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All the women at my office were instructed to have a meeting regarding dress code, since we recently hired a few new women. I was told I can’t wear spaghetti strap shirts anymore. I genuinely cannot wrap my head around a logical reason why this would matter. I do my job well. I very much enjoy picking out my work clothes and try to look stylish and put-together. Why is it that my shoulder is a problem? Is it my bra strap? I could go without a bra – I’d love to go without a bra – but I feel like that might raise another issue. Another girl was advised to leave jeans for Fridays, yet her boss wears jeans every day. This woman is being instructed to invest more into her work clothes than her boss, purely because a woman in jeans reads as too casual. I was incredibly annoyed by this meeting, yet when I slightly voiced my annoyance, I looked like I was too sensitive because none of the other women were annoyed.

Rebeca

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“Hey tuck down your shirt” I hear a male coworker point out to be honest a little skin was showing, nothing embarrassing, so I just tucked it down I kept on working. “Hey, I’m just trying to protect you” he said a little more loudly, I just forced a weak smile his way and kept on working. ‘Protect you’ those words echoed in the back of my head, protect me? Protect me from what? You? This? Me? Society? Did I need protection? It was just a small strip of skin about half an inch, not even my underwear was showing, was it that distracting? Was I in such danger? In our office most of the employees are female, about 60% , even our COO is female, so why did I need so much protection and why did I feel such shame and discomfort from that comment. Maybe he didn’t mean to make me uncomfortable but why would I need protection for such a small strip of skin showing, this happened a while back and it still lingers on the back of my mind.