When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I think about is what I am going to wear. Once I have an outfit in mind, I ask myself if I would get dress coded for it.

When I looked at the Dress Code, many of the rules apply strictly to females:

1. See-through or fishnet fabrics, halter-tops, off-the shoulder or low-cut tops and skirts or shorts shorter than mid-thigh, bare midriffs (the stomach area should not be exposed). Clothes shall be sufficient to conceal undergarments at all times.
2. Strapless tops; torn or ragged clothing.

Why is it that females are targeted for showing their shoulders, their midriffs, or even wearing shorts? I recognize that see through clothing, low cut tops, mini-skirts, and an over excessive amount of rips is not appropriate.

I don’t understand why girls get dress coded for showing our shoulders or wearing spaghetti straps. This is not one of the dress code rules and therefore does not violate the dress code. The rules state that we are not allowed to wear strapless shirts, which spaghetti straps are, by definition, not.

Furthermore, showing our shoulders does not disrupt the effective functioning of the school. Some might say that boys and their hormones are out of control, especially in high school. But girls (and women) should not be reprimanded for showing a patch of skin that will “make them go crazy”. Boys (and men) should be taught to respect women regardless of what they wear.

On the other hand, males are not reprimanded for sagging their pants for the whole school to see their underwear or for wearing plain white t-shirts. If a girl sagged her pants and showed her underwear, people would lose their minds.

This double standard forces girls to be unfairly penalized for our sense of style and the clothes we choose to wear. It’s rare to see a boy getting dress coded for showing too much skin. They might be dress coded for the colors they wear, but rarely for sagging their pants and showing their underwear (which nobody needs to see).

On campus we “are not allowed to wear college attire,” but prohibiting students from wearing college sweaters doesn’t allow students to be able to visualize themselves in such a setting in the future. Just because the colors of certain colleges and universities correlate with the colors of certain gangs, it does not mean that we shouldn’t be able to wear them. Furthermore, colleges and universities have started to sell their gear in different colors, not just those that represent them.

After taking all these factors into account, supervisors and staff should realize that if a dress code is in place there are a couple of rules they should follow as well. One, that they should not dress code someone for wearing colors that resemble red or blue, that the only colors to be dress coded for are in fact RED or BLUE. Two, make sure the reason why you are dress coding someone is because they are breaking a legitimate rule of the dress code. Last and more importantly that the dress code should be enforced equally and across the board for both genders. Yes, we can look professional and appropriate, but still have a fun twist to our outfits because at the end of the day who are my shoulders actually distracting?

By Esther Martinez