Dress codes have been a part of school for a while, but things including the climate have changed. Are they really that applicable? With weather in the 90s people are bound to show more skin but dress codes can make it hard for people to stay cool. But for many schools the dress code remains more important. School dress codes also commonly limit self expression.
Dress codes often target outfits that are more commonly worn by women and girls, with common dress code rules including no low cut tops, no crop tops, no shorts and skirts below fingertip length, no visible bra straps and no spaghetti straps. People often argue that outfits that go against these rules are distracting to young men but they fail to acknowledge that maybe those young men should learn self control. Also, some of these rules don’t really make sense, like the no shoulders or no tank tops rules, as most if not all people see nothing wrong with shoulders.
Another issue is the limiting of self expression. Many schools encourage self expression yet they still limit the types of clothes students can wear. Luckily our school’s dress code isn’t very limiting but many schools do have very strict dress codes. A common example of this that’s prevalent in many schools is the no hats rule, but hats are a very fun way to spice up an outfit. Another example is schools with strict rules on jewelry, and yes, I understand some jewelry may be a tad bit…impractical, but if it’s not hurting anyone so why ban it? While some dress code rules that limit expression do help with safety like no flip flops, many of these rules make self expression very limited.
I believe that our school does a very good job of handling dress codes; we are not insanely strict on our dress code and it doesn’t interfere with self expression. But many other schools are not as lucky as us because many schools still have very strict dress codes. Many of these strict dress codes masquerade as being for “safety” even though there is nothing dangerous about shoulders or a hat.
