Many students have complained about the dress code here at Buena Park High; many of them are girls and a few boys. The girls think it isn’t fair that girls can’t show their belly buttons during school, for example wearing crop top shirts. Even if it’s a little bit of skin showing from girls’ stomachs, they will have a problem with it, and personally, I don’t think that is fair at all. I always feel like women are also being targeted and sexualized. I’m confused as to why a belly button is a problem with being shown at school. It’s not our fault they think our stomach attracts eyes. Boys need to learn to keep their eyes to themselves. In our journalism class, we aren’t allowed to create a video if our belly button is shown. Our videos have been deleted and taken off the website because of this. Our teacher, Mr. Arnold, told us his opinion on it, and he believes it’s not something he would make as a rule, but our principal, Dr. Berg, created it. As a girl that wears crop tops, I’m really confused about why a simple belly button created so much drama.
When teachers or staff dress code us they humiliate us by making us wear random ugly shirts they find for P.E. Going to school dressed how you want and being confident in yourself is a good feeling for a girl, but punishing them and making them wear what they give us can tear students down and feel embarrassed. I feel like it makes girls focus on what they are wearing rather than learning in school. This can easily make a girl self-conscious and can lead to body shaming.
This punishment is on the same topic as gender inequality and affects girls by sending a message that their body is problematic or that they need to dress a certain way to feel respected. This type of stuff creates stereotypes that are not needed in this world today. School should be a safe space for students. A lot of students go through things at home, and coming to school can only be their source of freedom, which means students do not want to come to school and get punished and gain more stress. The article “Why you should let children choose their clothes” states, “Making their own clothing choices can help children develop their sense of style and express their individuality, it is a brilliant way to build their independence and encourage them to trust their own opinions”. I like this statement because it talks about a kid’s way of expressing themselves because at this age in high school students are figuring out who they want to be, how they want to express themselves, and many life choices. While going through this stage of life, I don’t think it is right to ruin a girl’s imagination or make them think twice about how they wants to express themselves. Authors Alex Harwin and Sarah D sparks wrote the article “School dress codes often target girls. What happens when Male teachers have to enforce them?” (February 15, 2024) they explain that, “The dress codes more heavily control girls’ attire: 90 percent of schools restricted girls clothing items like tank tops or skirts, 20 percentage points more than the share of schools that restricted boys clothing. The job of enforcing dress codes in many schools falls to both male and female educators. I believe that this discrimination is in front of everyone’s eyes. Enforcing these rules on girls creates a stereotype that girls must dress modestly to avoid distracting boys.
With my own experience, male staff member told me to change my shirt that I was wearing because my shoulders were showing too much. When the male staff member told me to change my shirt, I felt some type of way because the opposite gender was trying to make me change the way I looked. It made me feel uncomfortable, and that led to me not listening to what he said to me and walking away. Every time I saw a staff member that day, I felt like I had to hide or cover myself because I was afraid they would tell me something. Overall was not a good experience.
In the article “Sexism behind Dress-code” (September 30, 2021), Dani R says, It’s always “Cover up, you’ll distract the boys,” and never “stop looking”. Women’s shoulders, knees, or stomachs should not have to be covered up on a hot summer day due to men being “distracted”. School dress codes have been a thing for as long as we can remember. The dress code is biased and sexist: boys wear tank tops, have holes in their jeans, and face no consequences, but as soon as a girl wears a tank top, she’s forced to change into an oversized shirt or forced to go home. I agree with everything this author says. What is a girl supposed to wear in 100-degree weather without boys being too “distracted” or having to change their clothes? It is not fair that the boys get to wear tank tops and shorts while the girls have to wear regular shirts or a jacket.
Dani R continues by saying, “ We live in Las Vegas where it gets up to 100 degrees on the average summer day. Tank tops are against the dress code, and shorts need to be right above the knee. Where do they even make shorts that long? I am so shocked that in Vegas, in this specific school, tank tops are banned, and if they wear shorts, they have to be knee-high. What makes these staff members think it is okay to ban all of these fashion choices, especially in this hot state that can go up to 120 degrees? A Lot of girls will not wear knee-length shorts because it is not a cute fashion choice, and they might end up wearing pants in 100-degree weather.
I remember that at my old school, Orangewood Academy, they didn’t let us wear jewelry, and if they caught us wearing jewelry, they would take it away from us and charge us 5 dollars to get it back from the principal. I felt so trapped in that school that I was not happy at all. They called me out in front of the whole school for wearing shorts and I felt so embarrassed I wanted to leave the school imminently. One day, I got caught wearing earrings, and my Spanish teacher told me that girls who wear earrings go to hell. She was also so mean to the girls and let boys get away with a lot of things. A lot of girls at the school felt targeted. Thank God, after that year ended, I left that school and transferred to Buena Park High School.
The report “Whom does the school dress code affect?” (March 28, 2023) Charity Limas tells us that “After getting an idea of what it is like from a student’s and administrator’s perspective, I wanted to hear from the more broad perspective of all the students from our school to get their take on it. 39% of the boys said to had been dress-coded. 79% of those who were dress-coded were dress-coded for wearing a hat, while only 21% of the dress-coded boys were dress-coded for showing too much skin or “wearing an accessory inappropriate for school”. As you can see by the percentages, girls are getting targeted to the extreme and are always dressed coded for the smallest reasons. Boys are hardly ever getting in trouble even though sometimes they wear inappropriate shirts.
I hope things can change soon so that girls feel safe around their school and wanted I had to many experiences with this topic and needs to change and evolve, I just feel like things like this will never change because its already such a huge stereotype that when girls wear tank tops or shirts or even show a little bit of skin they are a so-called “distraction” to the boys in the school. People need to start treating girls the same way they treat boys, and that’s with respect.
Overall I am happy my team and I covered this topic so we can be a voice to these young girls and raise awareness to this topic. Stereotyping young girls is not right and needs to come to an end. Young girls need to express themselves and find out who they are at this young of an age, and staff members at their school should not be able to decide on what they wear.
