High School Student Challenges Her School's Dress Code During An Assembly — 'Our Bodies Aren't Distracting, You're Disgusting'
The high school student raised good points about the unfair way young girls in her school are targeted by the dress code compared to the boys.
@anastasiaskits / TikTok If you've ever been a teenage girl in high school, you're more than aware of the outdated dress codes that many school administrators would try to enforce, even though they are incredibly misogynistic and only seem to target a specific group of students — young girls.
However, one high school student named Anastasia decided to challenge her own school's dress code, which she labeled as being incredibly "sexist."
She called out her school administrators for enforcing dress codes that only seemed to affect the girls at her school.
"Why is this school so persistent on telling girls to cover up when really guys should just keep it in their pants?" Anastasia questioned at the start of her video.
The teenage high school student was adamant about trying to get her school administration to understand why she and so many of the other female students at her school felt slighted by the dress code.
Anastasia pointed out that the young girls in her school are constantly told to cover up their shoulders and stomachs, despite those being natural parts of their bodies that shouldn't be sexualized and labeled as "distracting" for the boys in their classes.
She even provided examples of the school's sexist dress code, acknowledging that she's seen many young girls come to school in the same outfits, but the girls with larger chests are almost always called out immediately by the administration for breaking the dress code, while the girls with smaller chests are allowed to get away with it because their bodies aren't being looked at and sexualized by the staff.
"I've heard more girls with the bigger cup sizes get dress-coded more than the smaller ones," Anastasia insisted. "It's completely sexist and not okay."
A follow-up video featured the response from Anastasia's school's administrators who were in the assembly, and claimed that they were only trying to follow the rules printed in their handbook about the appropriate attire for students.
"It's on there, it's in the handbook," one of the school's administrators can be heard telling Anastasia and the group of girls who had attended the assembly. "Majority of people do get it, but there's some people who want to challenge it."
The school's administrator went on to claim that other staff members feel "uncomfortable" with the way that certain girls will dress. Following that comment, another student who was off-screen interjected after finding it odd that a staff member would admit to feeling uncomfortable with the attire of some of the young girls at the high school.
The administrator was quick to correct that he meant staff members in the years past have expressed their uneasiness, but many of the other female students were already flabbergasted at the insinuation that there were adults in their school sexualizing them, especially since they are all underage.
Many young girls often feel alienated and shamed by the school dress codes put in place.
High school dress codes have often been a source of extreme debate and controversy, as many people have argued how oftentimes the dress codes put in place seem to only target girls' attires versus boys.
According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, it was found that about 90% of dress codes prohibit some form of clothing typically associated with girls and women, including short skirts, tank tops, crop tops, leggings, and other form-fitting clothes. That's compared to the 69% of dress code policies that target clothing traditionally worn by boys, including sagging jeans and muscle shirts.
It's understandable that school administrators would want their students to dress in the appropriate attire for school, but if that's the case, then that same energy needs to be kept for both girls and boys, instead of just unfairly targeting girls and shaming them.
As Anastasia even mentioned, most of the time, the young girls who have curvier body types, including bigger chests, are often sexualized more than girls who have body types on the complete opposite side of the spectrum.
The only thing this does is send a message to these impressionable girls that their bodies are only serving as a distraction to their male counterparts, which is just another form of victim-blaming and most likely follows them into adulthood, where they may be less hesitant to speak out about gender-based violence or assault.
Instead of school administrators calling out girls and making them feel as if their bodies are nothing more than an object to be looked at, they can instead advocate for a more inclusive and respectful environment where students, both girls and boys, are educated about the importance of respecting each other and the importance of professionalism as they enter into adulthood.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.