Recently in the girl’s bathroom of the Wild Rose School of Breton in Alberta, a note written by students appeared in response to the ongoing frustration regarding how the school’s dress code interrupts the education of female students.
The note displayed in the toilets read:
‘When you interrupt a girl’s school day to force her to change clothes, or send her home because her shorts are too short or her bra straps are visible, you are telling her that making sure boys have a ‘distraction free’ learning environment is more important than her education. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects!!!’
A note found shortly after in the boy’s bathroom responded:
‘When you wear little to no clothing and dress provocatively because it’s ‘too hot out’ or because you think it’s ‘attractive’, you are putting boys at risk of having a distracting working environment and saying ‘Your clothing is more important than their education’, instead of dressing like a THOT, value the male education and dress conservatively.’
Whilst this response is obviously juvenile, and both notes were taken down shortly after and the offensive language was addressed by teachers, it does highlight the subtext of an incredibly important discussion that we need to be having in regards to the dress codes that we impose on students in lower and secondary education.
In this instance, the school district has said that students must dress ‘in a respectful way’, but when the weather is incredibly hot it seems unreasonable to assume that young girls should dress in potentially uncomfortable clothing just to cover up their skin to prevent ‘distracting’ male students.
Another interesting part of this debate is how these enforced dress codes often seem to penalise some body types over others. Young girls grow and develop at different rates and they shouldn't be made to feel guilty for this. A young girl at school wearing a bra should not be sexualised, regardless of whether or not you can see her bra straps, especially because she is not a sexually mature or sexually active person yet.
The Wild Rose School Division Superintendent, Brad Volkman, said to CNN that regarding this story: ‘It’s a teachable moment for our student body. We do not want to shut down good conversation, we want to help kids on how to have a proper discourse on controversial issues in a respectful way.’
He also added the school’s dress code was developed with the school’s student government several years ago, but called this an opportunity to revisit the policy. Additionally, he mentioned how although there was not a specific event that sparked this particular incident, every summer female students inevitably get frustrated with the dress code and that this time they decided to write about it.
This isn’t the first time that young girls have taken a situation and put the power back into their own hands and created an important dialogue amongst their peers. Similar stories can be found all over the internet and highlight a trend whereby young girls have been made accountable for the unwilling sexualisation of their bodies and retaliated by pointing out the absurdity of the situation.
The good thing about dress codes and school uniforms is that they act equalisers for students within schools, but when those uniforms become another way to punish or sexualise young women? Then they definitely need a rethink.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.