The Online Newspaper of Lakewood High School

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Sexism in the Dress Code

    Almost every school across the nation has certain sets of rules for the students and staff that are designed to create a safe and inviting space. One of the most important rules to follow are the schools dress code. A long list of guidelines of what teenagers can and cannot wear on school grounds. These clothing restrictions happen to be directed mostly towards women.

    “Tight fitting bottoms (yoga pants, leggings, jeggings, etc.) may be worn so long as the garment worn on top covers the buttocks.”, “Sleeveless tops are permissible with straps are a minimum of 2 inches.”, “Clothing that exposes undergarments/underwear are not permitted.”, these are just a few the rules that students at Lakewood High School must follow before getting dressed for school.

    Have you noticed that these few rules really only apply to women, bra straps can’t be showing, your behind has to be covered? What are these irrelevant pieces to an outfit doing to keep us from learning you may ask? Well according to many school officials any of these parts of your clothing or body that are showing are deemed distracting, especially to men.

    It’s honestly disgusting to think about women having to change what they wear to protect themselves from being harassed by their peers. Yes, these rules apply to men to, but we can all say we’ve seen our fair share of school administrators letting a boy walk right on by with their pants about to hit the floor, clearly by choice.

    These rules are blatantly sexist towards women, and the adults refuse to admit it. Anyone can be a target male or female, but we all know these rules are put into place because apparently it can be a distraction to a boy learning when a girl is walking to sharpen her pencil and her shirt is not covering her leggings.

    So what can we do to change that?

    How about we start with teaching our kids to quit viewing each other as sexual objects and teach them to mind their business.

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