Middle School Girls protest Sexist Dress code

[ismnotwasm]

More than 500 students have signed onto a petition protesting the new dress code policy, which they say is sexist because it’s only targeting girls’ clothing. Some female students have chosen to defy the ban and are wearing leggings and yoga pants to school in protest. A poster plastered in Haven Middle School reads, “Are my pants lowering your test scores?”
“Not being able to wear leggings because it’s ‘too distracting for boys’ is giving us the impression we should be guilty for what guys do,” one of the students participating in protest, 13-year-old Sophie Hasty, told the Evanston Review. “We just want to be comfortable!”

It’s not just the students who are getting involved, either. Two parents, Juliet and Kevin Bond, sent a letter to the school principal arguing that this approach toward the dress code is furthering unhealthy attitudes about sexuality. Targeting tight pants rests on the assumption that girls must work to prevent themselves from being ogled, rather than teaching boys they should work to avoid objectifying their female peers. The policy also links girls’ clothing to boys’ inability to control themselves.

“This kind of message lands itself squarely on a continuum that blames girls and women for assault by men. It also sends the message to boys that their behaviors are excusable, or understandable given what the girls are wearing,” the parents wrote. “We really hope that you will consider the impact of these policies and how they contribute to rape culture.”

Haven Middle School isn’t the first institution to struggle with these issues. Last year, a junior high school in Northern California banned tight pants to prevent girls from distracting the boys. More recently, a Boston-area high school enacted the same policy. And across the country, school dress codes regulate girls’ hemlines and necklines without putting equal restrictions on boys’ clothing — sending girls the message that their bodies are an invitation for sexual aggression unless they properly cover up.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/03/25/3418482/middle-school-dress-code-protest/#

[whathehell]

1. Good for them...They're right!.....n/t

[whathehell]

2. I'm glad these kids are speaking up..They're trying to make girls "responsible" for boys' actions.

"Last year, a junior high school in Northern California banned tight pants to prevent girls from distracting the boys"

Gee...Did they ask the boys to do the same so they wouldn't distract the girls?

[Politicalboi]

3. It doesn't go away after school

This is America in the 21st Century. Where some assholes religious rights trump everybody else's, and women are to blame for rape.

[arcane1]

4. This infantilization (is that a word?) of boys is a direct continuum to the Taliban

"Boys/men are not responsible for how they behave! Girls/women must all adapt to be responsible for them instead!"

Although to be fair, a great deal of female fashion is specifically designed to draw attention to, and objectify, certain body areas over others. You don't see clothes for boys and men that expose the body in that fashion. Indeed, their clothes tend to be more baggy and shapeless. But that's just another facet of the same problem, I suppose.

[ismnotwasm]

5. I agree

I was looking at old pictures of Led Zeppelin from the '70's, and men tended to show a little more back then.

Sex and sexual attraction is always going to be with us; fashions change, but the onus of being "sexy" has always fallen on women, although that may be changing a bit.

[Shivering Jemmy]

9. Robert Plant's jeans were painted on

Of course part of his job was to be a sex object. I think rock stars get a pass on that.

[Maedhros]

6. Hormones will rage in Middle School, regardless of what clothes the girls are wearing.

The answer is to teach boys to understand their hormonal urges and to take responsibility for controlling them.

[mercuryblues]

7. then when

they do dress in a way that is not distracting to boys, they get kicked out.

http://www.wset.com/story/25061872/little-girl-taken-out-of-christian-school-after-told-shes-too-much-like-a-boy#.UzFYnqKZ3wI.facebook

Timberlake, VA - Sports, sneakers, and short hair; it's what makes eight year old Sunnie Kahle unique. It's also what had her removed from Timberlake Christian School. Her grandparents pulled the plug on her time there after they said she was no longer welcome.

The family received a letter telling them that if their eight year old granddaughter didn't follow the school's "biblical standards," that she'd be refused enrollment next year. She's out and in public school now.

So what are girls supposed to do? What shall they wear to school to appease everybody. I know- burkas. When women fully succumb to how they can dress, when to speak, stop drinking beer, what will men have to blame their "oppression" on?


oops *some* men, for thet You can rely your message better if you use the term "some men" concern trolls.

[ismnotwasm]

8. Right?

I had no words for that one.

[One_Life_To_Give]

10. Needs a third alternative

Don't avoid dressing a certain way because of distracting boys. But avoid dressing like a Madison Ave. Pornified sex object for yourself. Your in school, Wow me with the depth and breadth of your knowledge.