Joseph Wheeler High School's Dress Code Policy: A leading Cause For Rape.
Many of the most impacting ideas are taught in school. However, the message that girls’ bodies are property and harassment is inevitable, should not be one of them. It is the message sent to a vast quantity of students around the world,by school dress codes. Students of all ages are informed that girls’ bodies are dangerous and sexualised. Likewise, schools impose the idea that boys are programmed to objectify females. It prepares students for college, where many women are sexually assaulted, meanwhile,perpetrators are rarely disciplined. Joseph Wheeler High School’s dress code requires females to conceal their feminine attributes, but it does not cease the issue of sexual
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Evidently, dress code policies support the evidence that men and women are not equal, regardless of false claims. Although, women are justified against supporting rape culture, female pupils do not feel supported due to the risk of facing suspension or expulsion if they have defied the dress code too often. Nevertheless, when a female student is removed from class for dress code violation because she is,“distracting”,her male classmates, his education is prioritized over hers. If schools feel the need to dictate female students’ bodies while disregarding boys’ behavior, it sets up a lifelong assumption that sexual violence is inescapable and victims are partially …show more content…
Dress codes punish women who feel empowered to dress in the manner they prefer,within a culture that sexualizes and objectifies them. Blaming women for the clothes they wear rather than blaming men for sexualizing women is the largest contributor to rape. In “Capitalized Bodies; Just Life: Bioethics and the Future of Sexual Difference.”Mary Rawlinson, asserts the fact that dress code policies meant to protect female students are often complicit and imply that a female’s body is a terrible temptation that must be hidden from the lust and violence of men. Unfortunately, as Rawlinson wrote-women are treated like land owned by man and are categorized so often as property, that school districts no longer see the need for
High school graduation, one of the many milestones in an individual’s life. Teenagers are given a diploma, maybe a few cords, and if they worked extra hard, they may even receive a medal; these are all tickets to their next destination, a whole new world. They journey into the adult world, into the college world all on their own. They don’t know what lies ahead of them, they don’t know that the most unimaginable can happen, and they don’t know that college is a hunting ground. In the documentary The Hunting Ground, sexual assault and rape are bought to light with heart-wrenching statistics and inspiring stories to change society’s rape culture.
Samantha Kubota’s “School Punished Teen Girl for Working Out in Sports Bra in 100-degree Texas Heat, ACLU Say” (2023) tells the story of a young female athlete. A teenage girl who participates in cross country and track at her high school got in trouble for wearing a sports bra during practice in 100-degree heat while her male counterparts were practicing shirtless. Furthermore, since G.H. wore a sports bra, she was denied the award of being the top runner on the girls’ cross-country team; this award would have been crucial for college recruiting and applications. The girl, who identifies by her initials G.H., requested help from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU sent a letter to her high school stating the coaches, District officials, and employees violated the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX of the Education Amendments by reinforcing a sex-stereotyped dress code and treating the girls’ and boys’ cross-country teams differently.
It’s humiliating for that person, not to mention that he will most likely miss the majority of the class period,” junior Mark Even says. “What the boys fail to understand is that their inappropriate dress completely distracts the female students from their lessons,” responds U.S. History teacher, Tripp Guilt. “It is unfair to expect the girls to be able to maximize their educational opportunities when the boys are continuously violating the dress code. It is only logical to place responsibility on the boys to prevent any reactions from their
For my generation when many of female friends go off to college their parents teach them not to walk home alone late at night in fear of rape, it is such a common occurrence that a friend of mine has taken to carrying around pepper spray. There is a company called women on guard that provide personal safety equipment for its customers. The problem with this is that young women are taught to be on guard for a shadowy figure attacking them at night and not that “60 to 80 percent of rapes are date or acquaintance rape.” (Koss, Dinero, Siebel, and Cox 1988: 217) The essay “Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women?” by A. Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade differs by acknowledging who
In general, people labeled as victims often feel guilty for being a victim and do not report the offense. In cases of sexual harassment between students, both classmates and administrators often victim blame the female in the situation. Victim blaming claims that women caused the harassment by dressing and acting inappropriately. “[These] judgements create an environment in which it becomes unlikely that the target of harassment will feel justified and supported in claiming her rights” (Chamberlain). However, sexual harassment “is a part of the larger framework of oppression that subordinates females to male in a complex, deeply enculturated patriarchal system of compulsory heterosexuality” (Chamberlain).
For many years now woman have been able to express themselves, and show that they are comfortable with their bodies. But once again the male hierarchy has gone into play, and girls are told to hide their bodies away, and not be who they want to be. So that is what the young girls of this generation are being taught, that they need to be respectful at all times and make sure that the boys have all their accommodations met. One study in particular called the “Everyday Sexism Project” tells a story of a young girl in high school, “I got dress coded at my school for wearing shorts.
All this being said, it's not just girls being targeted but also people of color and certain cultural beliefs. Another piece of evidence states “For instance, dress codes with restrictions on how a student can wear their hair often prohibit common Black and Indigenous hairstyles.(Gale)” In explanation, dress codes target Black students for things that are far beyond their control and take away their rights to take care of their hair the proper way. All this being said, dress codes should be taken away so that all students feel equal and are able to take care of themselves properly. Not only should dress codes be taken away because they
A human sexuality teacher tries to explain throughout the essay how boy’s behaviors match up to the standards society sets for them. “We’ll know we’ve succeeded when boys call one another more often on disrespectful behavior, instead of congratulatory, because they will have the self-respect and confidence that comes with being held to and holding themselves to high standards”. (Roffman 24). The teacher states “I confiscated a hat from a student’s head that read, “I’m a Pimp”…I asked the boy whether he would wear hat that said “I’m a Rapist”… I said “Do you have any idea what real pimps do to keep their girls’ in line?”(Roffman 11).
School Dress Code is Sexist School dress code has gotten out of hand, limiting young girls and boys on what they can wear to school. Telling young women that they are distractions in class because of what they wear. Girls get sent home because of their outfits it makes it seem like the administration is not worried about whether or not they get an education. Many types of clothing d or that have such as leggings, low cut shirts, and shorts have been banned or have restrictions. It is hard to find clothes that meet all these requirements.
They also need to stop targeting and sexualizing teenage girls with the dress code. Growing up school dress code has taught females from a young age that they should cover their bodies, and that their bodies are “distracting” to not only their classmates, but to society in general.
This quote reveals the way in which we often engrave in young girls how they should be careful of the clothes they wear because of the repercussions of wearing said clothes. This type of mentality can be seen in the rape culture in the United States, in which the victim is often blamed with the reasoning being her clothing was too revealing. Creating this outlook that clothing has a certain connotation often promotes the mentality that girls should be restricted to the type of clothes they wear. This culture allows for women to have restrictions on what they wear due to what it might suggest to others.
Any girl who has attended a public high school understands the daily dilemma of dress code. On those scorching hot days as the school year approaches summer, many girls can be found scavenging through their closet for a “school appropriate” outfit or one they won’t melt into a sweaty puddle in. Her dresses will show too much leg, her tops will inappropriately expose her shoulder or collar bone, and her shorts will be too short — at least that 's what the school says. Dress code in modern day high schools should be boycotted because they are a violation to student and parents rights, sexist, out of date, a double standard, and they disrupt a female students education. It 's fair to agree with a policy that claims stringent dress codes increase the emphasis on academics and reduce the pressure of socioeconomic status; however, these dress codes violate the students First Amendment right to freedom of expression and the parents’ Fourteenth Amendment right to raise their children in their own way.
What if your middle school girl came home from school one day and told you that she had to wear boy’s gym shorts because the yoga pants she was wearing turned boys on. Well, this happened to a 13 year old girl for two days in a row at her school. Most schools in the United States have a dress code policy containing many rules for what kids have to wear. In the United States dress code has a very controversial background with many opinions for and against it.
Reporter Kelly Wallace, from CNN writes a piece about Catherine Pearlman, a mother of two who said her daughter was, now 13 was told by her teacher she couldn 't wear her yoga pants to school because “ Boys would get turned on and then be embarrassed.” The article then goes on to show the mothers anger towards the sexuall “lessson” that was made to her daughter. Her daughter was just 13. She does not understand why the outfit her mother bought her is wrong. It is not just this one teacher who has this mindset Kosher Casual writes their five benefits of dress code.
2017 has been a year supporting female empowerment, expression, and confidence with your body. So why should girls feel ashamed of their bodies in the environment where they should feel the safest? The dress code should be less restrictive because, it’s unfairly targeted at females, it makes women feel less confident, and it restricts most athletic clothing made for girls. Schools continually enforce rules that they’ve had since they were founded. Times change, and rules need to too.