Why Monitor Girl’s Clothing When You Could Just Teach Boys Respect?

The Carter High School dress code focuses way too much on the female students’ clothing. The Knox County dress code mentions women’s clothing a lot more than they should. Item 2 in the dress code mentions low cut blouses and cleavage. Item 6 in the dress code mentions low cut dresses, skirts, and shorts. A lot of clothing made for women are low cut. People can say that the dress code doesn’t specifically say “girl’s clothes”, but the dress code states, “Low-cut blouses, shirts, or tops or extremely tight tops, tube tops, or any tops that expose cleavage are prohibited.” All these “tops” are women’s clothing. And this even specifically mentions cleavage. Item 6 in the dress code says, “Skirts, dresses, and shorts must be beyond mid-thigh in length.” Focusing so much on girls’ clothing means that they can get punished and hurt their education. Some people say that girls need to dress responsibly so boys focus on their education and aren’t distracted. This is, with every meaning of the word, unfair. If you want to hurt a girl’s education because she’s dressing the way she feels comfortable just so you can accommodate the boys, that seems sexist to me. Some people might say that these rules are here so the boys don’t take things too far; that just means they need to teach boys what’s respectful and what isn’t. If you don’t teach young boys to be respectful to women then what will they do when they’re older. You should always teach respect, consent, and appropriate things to say at a young age. They should already know these things in high school, but judging by the Knox County School’s dress code, this isn’t a concern to them.