Too distracting?

In my teens, there was not one thing more frustrating than the school’s enforcement of the school dress code. 

Wearing spaghetti straps? Change into your gym uniform. Yoga pants? Make sure your entire butt is covered. How about shorts not longer than your fingertips? Go home and change. Summertime left girls sitting in pools of their own sweat stuck to their metal seats begging for something else besides the marching band sweatshirt to wear. But how does school dress codes really affect girls? 

At Glenbard East High School in Lombard, Ill. girls who chose to wear tank tops to their first day of the 2019-2020 school year were not only mandated to change their clothes, but they were given extra-large, extra-bright orange t-shirts to make it clear that their outfits were not acceptable. 

 Previously, the rule had been the same but not necessarily enforced. Bright orange shirts were definitely not given out in replacement in the past. Instead of waiting for the school-wide assembly on Friday to state the new application of the rule, the administration chose to start the policy on their first day back without the knowledge of students. 

Parents spoke out about the incident and told the Chicago Tribune that students were coerced into wearing “dunce shirts” 

“They chose bright orange to make them stand out,” said Deanna Breena, a parent whose daughter was forced to change, “They could’ve chosen white shirts, but they want to humiliate and punish them.”  

Many other parents had a lot to say about this cause, especially on the parents Facebook page for Glenbard East High School. Most parents of the girls that were targeted were “outraged” by the situation. 

According to the school's dress code, “If in the judgment of school officials, modes of dress or appearance are distracting or disruptive to the progress of the educational program, the student and parent will be notified and the student will be required to change immediately” reads the handbook. “Clothing considered to be revealing and does not adequately cover the front, back, side shoulders or midriff is prohibited on males and females.”

The rule was not equally enforced. Some girls were not punished for their tank tops while others were asked to change. It was definitely not enforced for boys. 

The question is not so much about dress codes and their policies, but why we are not treating these policies equally for boys and girls? If a girl’s shoulders are distracting, do you not think a guy wearing a muscle shirt where the sides of his pectorals showing through are just as disturbing to the learning environment? 

The whole process of denying girls the right to wear sleeveless shirts and allowing boys to is completely discriminatory. Making girls change into hideous bright orange shirts is just outright shaming. 

By the administration declaring these tank tops as “distracting”, they are, without total knowledge of it, objectifying and sexualizing young girls in a place they go to learn. 

 It is more shameful for young girls to be comfortable in their own skin than for men to be inappropriately aroused or distracted. Now, I’m not saying girls should show up naked to school, but what they wear should not affect those around them. Are shoulders really that distracting? And if so, would the best way to cover them up to be with bright orange t-shirts? 

In this case, it is not so much the boys that find the girls distracting, but the administration. In protest of Glenbard East’s administration of the dress code policy, some boys wore black tank tops with the word “Distracting?” written across them. Most saw it in a positive light, men fighting for feminism. In the irony of this situation, most boys wearing the tees were not reprimanded even though their protest technically broke the school dress code. 

 What did we instill in our society that created such a rise in what is deemed appropriate and inappropriate for school? Yes, it is in the Glenbard East High School dress code, but why were only girls targeted? There is systematic discrimination of young women that roots itself in the administration. 

If the young men and school administration in our society cannot handle seeing shoulders or elbows, we should be asking ourselves what we are doing wrong instead of pushing girls to dress differently and publicly shaming them for wearing what they find comfortable. 

Instead of passing out “dunce shirts” to girls wearing tank tops on a hot day, we should be focusing on the importance of learning respect for each other's growing teenage bodies. Or at least start by enforcing the rules equally for both girls and boys. That way, we will not see such obvious discriminatory action and overall the objectification and sexualization of girls bodies in school, banning the “no tank top” rule forever.