Most public schools in America have a system in place that dictates a certain way that students should and should not dress, more commonly known as the “dress code”. In some schools dress codes are not very strict and even sometimes disregarded. However, in other schools, dress codes are enforced and ruled with an iron fist. Many of these dress codes target girls in particular. Girls are more commonly called out on dress code violations than boys. Some people think that this is because girls have more clothing options, or tend to dress more provocatively, but this is not the case. A school in Staten Island administered more than two hundred detentions (ninety percent of them girls) within the first two days of school. Students were making attempts to beat the heat, by wearing tank tops and shorts, at their un-airconditioned school, while it was nearly 90 degrees outside. The school’s dress code restricts students from wearing tank tops, short-shorts, miniskirts, leggings, skinny jeans, headbands, halter tops, sweats, hats, hoodies, sunglasses, and more. The superintendent of this school stated that skimpy clothing is banned because it “creates a distraction, is dangerous or interferes with the learning and teaching process” (Hay).

One student reported that “I got dress coded at my school for wearing shorts. After I left the principal’s office with a detention I walked past another student wearing a shirt depicting two stick figures: the male holding down the female’s head in his crotch and saying ‘good girls swallow’. Teachers walked right past him and didn’t say a thing” (Bates). Many girls are offended by dress codes because they are the main victims. Sending a girl home or forcing her to change clothes because she is a distraction teaches girls that their bodies are nothing more than sexual objects, and it teaches boys that they are in no way obligated to control themselves around girls and they have every right to violate a girl’s body. These ideas promote rape culture. Rape culture is an environment in which rape and sexual violence is normalized in the media and culture. Sending the message that girls need to cover up because it distracts boys is a prominent example of rape culture and excused sexual violence. No girl should be led to think that a boy has more right to an education than her, and no girl should get the impression that her outfit is held in higher regard than herself.

Works Cited
"How School Dress Codes Shame Girls and Perpetuate Rape Culture." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
"School's Strict Dress Code Nets 200 Detentions and a Rebellion." New York Post. N.p., 14 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.