SOCI 1101 Dakota College at Bottineau Sociology Essay
Order Number |
4586953623 |
Type of Project |
ESSAY |
Writer Level |
PHD VERIFIED |
Format |
APA |
Academic Sources |
10 |
Page Count |
3-12 PAGES |
SOCI 1101 Dakota College at Bottineau Sociology Essay
SOCI 1101
Dress Codes: A Misandrist Approach
For a moment imagine that you are back in high school. Now imagine that you are a female who is currently sitting in the principal’s office. “The reason?”, you might ask. You wore a shirt that was too revealing. “Well, what was I wearing?”, another reasonable question to consider. You just so happened to be wearing a tank top that revealed your shoulders.
Astounded? You should be. Not only was your shirt considered too revealing, but you are also now having to go home for the rest of the day causing you to miss out on valuable educational material. As if this wasn’t enough, you are now placed on a list to count the number of times you wear “revealing” clothing items to school so that in the future you may be suspended and, in some cases, kicked out of school. All of this seems unreasonable, and frankly hard to believe, but, in fact, this happens to females everyday throughout American schools. So why has society allowed these misogynistic dress codes to be enforced and when will they be banned?
According to Leah Shields “Data shows in March, 90 percent of dress code violations at Bartram Trail High School were for girls” the article continues on to state that “For the entire school year up until about February, 83 percent of dress code violations at nearly all the schools were for girls” (Shields 2021: para 2). In another article titled The Issue with Dress Codes by Ary Eagen, it states that “The majority (56.1%) of respondents said they have not been dress coded, but 43.9% reported that they have. 79.3% of the respondents stated they knew a female peer that has been dress coded, 3.7% said they knew a boy, 11% said they knew no one that has, 4% said they knew people of both sexes that have been dress coded” (Eagen 2020: para 13).
In American society it has become an everyday occurrence that females are sent home for wearing clothes that are deemed “too revealing” or inappropriate for school. Dress codes in America are not supposed to be discriminatory in any way. However, it seems that school systems have found a way to implement discriminatory rules in accordance with federal legislation. According to J. N. Martin & J. N. Brooks, school dress codes should not be used to directly discriminate on the basis of race or sex, but, often, the rules in place do appear to target specific students through coded language (Martin and Brooks 2020). J. N. Martin and J. N. Brooks go on to state that dress code language that polices and sexualizes female bodies is aform of victim blaming, insinuating that certain forms of dress are distractions to learning (Martin and Brooks 2020).
With this being said, it is hard to see how these rules have been able to slip through the system with no push back from political leaders. Even though there seems to be no pollical push back for dress codes, there have been agreat deal of resistance from students and parents alike. In an article titled Sexualization, Sex Discrimination, and Public School Dress Codes, author M. J. Harbach states that “Students, parents, and others have a number of concerns about public school dress codes and their impact on female students” she continues with “Female students are powerfully affected by these policies and many express a profound sense of injustice.
The consequences of being “dress coded” have a negative impact on student learning and participation. Beyond the immediate disruption resulting from removal, detention, and the like, studies suggest that a preoccupation with physical appearance based on sexualized norms disrupts mental capacity and cognitive function” (Harbach 2016: 1043). With this being said, it seems that the push back from parents and students themselves is necessary.
SOCI 1101 Dakota College at Bottineau Sociology Essay