Strict, gendered dress codes do not reduce sexual harassment and assault against girls and young women. Instead, let students have autonomy over their appearance.
Strict, gendered dress codes do not reduce sexual harassment and assault against girls and young women. Instead, let students have autonomy over their appearance.
A school official digitally raised dozens of girls’ necklines after deeming the students’ tops—which consisted mostly of v-neck T-shirts—immodest. (News4JAX — YouTube)
Ms., June 15, 2021
With so many schools disciplining girls for their clothing—and now a Florida high school editing out images of cleavage in its yearbook—it’s clear that administrators are stuck in an unhelpful and even harmful mindset and need a fresh perspective.
I’ve been tracking slut-shaming in schools for 25 years. I’m not against school dress codes, and I don’t believe that students should be permitted to wear anything they want. But something is seriously wrong when it’s become commonplace to hear about a 5-year-old in Minnesota, wearing a sundress, being told by the school nurse to “cover her body,” and a 16-year-old in Nevada who wore a shirt exposing her shoulders, and whose teacher called two police officers to escort her to the school office, where she was forced to sit and miss class.
And last month, the news broke that Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County, Florida, doctored at least 80 photos of girls in the school yearbook; none of the photos of boys were altered, including one with boys on the swim team wearing Speedo bathing suits.