I speak on behalf of all female students that are involved in any and all public school systems and also as a wakeup call for the male students as well.

Three words…

School dress code. An unnecessarily over-enforced rule in the school handbook. No matter what, shorts are too short, shirts are too low, and thighs, chests, and shoulders are too bare. No teenage girl can go a school day without someone making a comment about their indecency. In order to keep young women “in line,” schooling systems have devised a set of guidelines for us to abide by and follow obediently. The biggest and main reason for these rules are to keep the young girls from being distractions to the young boys of the school. I know that if I wear a shirt that shows a good bit of my shoulder, it gives off such an amount of sex appeal that the boys cannot properly think or function in their classes.

It states in my school’s handbook, and I quote, “Bare midriff shirts and blouses, scarves worn as bandanas around the forehead and spandex are not permitted.” It continues with, “When wearing sleeveless shirts with straps, the strap must be at least one inch in width. Shorts of a fingertip length or longer are permitted. Platform shoes, high heels, flip-flops, need to be avoided for the child's safety,” and so on. In today’s society, sleeveless crop tops are in style and every girl owns at least one of them. Girls like them, especially if they have bellybutton rings because they can share with everyone their totally cute piercing, but since the school system doesn’t want boys getting excited by witnessing a girl’s stomach or shoulders, they have banned them from being worn, depriving girls of expressing their creativity through clothing. Another huge fashion statement in pop culture are the amazing leggings. Leggings are the favored alternative to sweatpants or jeans. They are comfortable and practical, yet girls are being sent home to change them because you can clearly see the outline of one’s buttcheeks. Since you can see every crease and bump and dimple while girls are wearing these, it is considered inappropriate. What goes through a girl’s mind when putting on a pair of these is not, “Oh, I can’t wait to tease all the boys with my extra tight leggings,” but simply, “I hate jeans” and then they proceed to put on their comfortable leggings, yet they still get pentalized for it.  

Rules in the public school system go hand in hand with rules of modesty within religions. I thought public school systems weren’t permitted to do any teachings of any kind about the spreading of religious teachings or having rules based on religion? That’s where the public school system has done each and every student of different religious backgrounds wrong.

I speak for every teenage girl when I say that the dress code for all public school systems is sexist. Little do you see a boy getting reprimanded for his bulky muscles pouring out of his Nike tank top that says on the front, “Every Damn Day.” Little do you see boys getting told to go home and change his form fitting running pants that show every crease of their thigh and calf muscles. Little do you see boys getting suspensions for carrying around a large bag or backpack. Little do you see boys getting suspended because they were wearing a colorful beanie that sags six inches off the back of their head.
Girls are way more sexualized than boys are just because we have boobs and butts. We are labeled by society by the length of our skirts and dresses. If it goes to your ankles, you’re a prude. If it goes to your mid-thigh, you’re a tease. If it goes directly under the curve of your butt, you’re a w****. Being girls, we deserve to not get punished by our freedom of choice of clothes.

Girls hear every day, “That’s inappropriate, you need to change.” Saying an outfit is inappropriate is like telling a sexual assault or rape victim that they were “asking for it” by the clothes that they were wearing. The statistics of rape among teenage girls is astronomical and we have men to blame for their disrespect.

Well, I have a dream.

I have a dream that girls will walk an empty street at night in a short skirt and tanktop and not have to feel vulnerable. I have a dream that men will stop looking at women and the way they’re dressed as just dumb little sex objects they can use and then throw away. I have a dream that women can wear their favorite crop top on a hot August day, and not have to fear being taken and raped. I have a dream that the statistics of young teenage rape victims will diminish and there will be trust among the sexes. We need to stop teaching girls that “boys will be boys” and “stranger danger” and stop teaching girls that they need to change their clothes so they don’t have to fear men, and we need to teach boys to control their hormones and grow up and be men and respect women. This is simply perpetuating rape culture.

We are women. We are not sexual objects. We are not s***s and w****s and prudes and teases. We are women. We deserve the natural born right to feel safe in the country that we live in. We need to teach girls that it’s okay to wear clothes that show skin. We need to teach boys to keep their hands to themselves. We need to teach boys to keep their eyes from lingering to places they shouldn’t be looking. For when all these things are learned throughout young women and young men, the world will know peace.

Thank you.