Baotran Tran
English 101-81
Argument Essay

School dress regulations emphasize on conservativeness with the intention of preserving and encouraging self-modesty. Yet, more and more students are finding themselves to be victims of unfair dress coding and public humiliation, surprisingly, from the staff itself. An example is a place near and dear to Sierra Vista’s very own teenage undergraduates: Buena High School. Many current students have not only witnessed but have claimed victim to unfair dress coding – the majority being female. Although Buena’s dress code claim to exist with good intentions, many instances of dress coding are seemingly executed with personal preference, unneeded hostility, and an abundance of sexism. Buena High School’s student handbook state and oppose the following: leggings, low-cut tops, straps smaller than a three-finger’s width, certain length skirts and shorts (they should be longer than the length of your fingers when you put your arms down to your side), and articles of clothing deemed to portray inappropriate acts, gangs, or images. In a general gist, the dress code is provided with reasonable guidelines and purpose. It is understandable that a dress code should be enforced in order to maintain individual decency. Overwhelmingly, most rules are especially catered against the female sex. The most controversial topic that females students argue against is the restriction of leggings – a form fitting garment made out of spandex, cotton, and other stretchable material, covering the legs’ whole length, void of pockets, buttons and a zipper. Leggings are a more comfortable alternative to other pants with harsher fabric. The administration claim that because of its fitting material and the way it clings onto a girl’s bum – like any other pair of pants would – it would distract the male students who are, “trying to concentrate on their education.” Many people who oppose this rule do not understand why Buena claims that these bottoms are so significantly more exposing and inappropriate than other trousers and how it has the power to sway the attention of males, temporarily dominating their concentration in a classroom environment. Are regular jeans, sweatpants, khakis, or any other variety of pants not supposed to fit comfortably around a person’s hips, butt, and thighs similarly? Females should not be harassed and assumed of purposefully consuming male attention for wearing something they find comfortable and suitable for them. It is understandable for the need to keep students from wearing certain revealing clothing – I personally find it disturbing when a female purposefully wears trousers that do not even cover their whole bum or shirts that expose an excessive amount of cleavage – yet the reasoning behind the code is too far-fetched. Buena also uses their, “male distraction,” claim to defend rules against certain length skirts and shorts, low-cut tops and spaghetti straps. I can reason with all except for the last – I was not aware that bare shoulders were so enticing to men. Continuing onto the unjust ways the staff dress codes students, many examples of their execution were seemingly based on personal preference and not truly on the line of the rules. I recall back to when a friend was relaying to me as to how she got dress coded. Said friend was walking to class when she was stopped by a teacher accusing her of wearing a shirt that showed too much of her cleavage. The shirt she was wearing was clearly in dress code, as it had sleeves and the neckline was barely a couple inches below the base of her neck, but because she was more well-endowed around her bust, the teacher claimed that it had shown too much of her chest and that she needed to change into another top. Many female students also naturally gifted with a bigger chest too experienced this kind of debasement from school admin. For me, it was on the last week of school. I was wearing a pencil skirt that reached just above my knees at full length and was walking down the stairs. As I walked down the steps, the skirt started to ride up and since I was carrying books, so I did not have a free hand to pull it down to its proper length. I resolved to wait until I was at my intended destination before I adjusted it. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my left shoulder and was jerked back, greeted by my principal with an accusatory look on his face. “Put your hands down,” he said briefly, so I put down my books on the floor and did exactly that. Since the skirt rid up, it was not long enough to be considered in dress code then, so I explained that it was because I was walking down the stairs. His reply to me was, “It should be long enough no matter what,” and I was taken to change my skirt. I wanted to defend myself, but he had already strutted away. Skirts and even jeans ride up regardless of the movement. Jumping, strolling, running, sitting, walking down stairs – what did he expect, our trousers to be glued onto our legs? Students who aid the admin in the office hear daily insults that the teachers make toward students whose attire they deemed too revealing in one way or another. They used the dress code as an excuse to make spiteful and over-sexualizing comments that go as far envisioning the female’s future rape/assault. This debasement is not only found in the high school but also within society. Regardless of a woman’s actual personality, if they are donning anything that the public deem improper, they are automatically accused of intentionally being inappropriate and seeking equally inappropriate attention. Females wearing attire to feel comfortable, confident, and/or to accommodate to the weather should not be said of deserving hurtful acts done to them. This dress code influences all those that have knowledge of it and promotes social profiling, slut-shaming, and rape culture. This hostility toward a woman’s certain choice of clothing may unknowingly cause a world of insecurity, body-negativity, and depleted self-confidence. This notion of bias and sexism should not be present within any form of dress code. There should be a compromise within the dress code, one that differentiates between inappropriate attire versus shorter, yet still decent modern clothing. The staff administering the dress code should have a clear understanding of how the clothing is relayed on the student’s body – whether it is revealing their body indecently and how much is being exposed. As soon as someone walks by, people aware of this dress code unconsciously judge whether or not their attire fits with the regulations. The emphasis of dress code draws excessive attention to attire and people are more subject to judgement compared to someone that is unaware about the clothing restrictions. For the sake of modesty and respect, dress code should promote confidence and regulate reasonable forms of indecency, not over-prioritized and create a dictatorship for teachers to decide on proper attire without understandable reason.