I’m on a journey to change our dress code.

For ten days straight, I broke the code: I wore crop tops, strapless shirts, and spaghetti straps. Every day without fail, I was called down to the athletic office where I was inspected head to toe for any violations. I would then be handed the Bag of Shame to sift through. I’d pick some God-awful wrinkled, stale smelling shirt and change. This daily process unfolded, of course, after I debated (challenged, argued, whatever) my way up the hierarchy. Of course, there was no avail in, what I thought to be, pretty solid arguments. I was threatened with Saturday Schools and detentions, but the most I received was a seemingly eternal grimace.

Why go through this daily process? Why subject myself to the eternal grimace? Why deal with the Bag of Shame, day after day after day?

My qualms with the dress code reside in the politics: the way it is publicly enforced, its implied attitudes, and its values. Often in middle school and high school, young girls are publicly shamed by authority figures for their dress and told blatantly that their bodies are a distraction to boys. Other times, these young women are told that strict dress codes are preparation for the professional world.

First, by publicly telling young and impressionable women that their bodies are distractions, we are instilling a feeling of uneasiness within them when it comes to their bodies. Suddenly, their bodies are an object under a microscope for boys and grown men to critique or be distracted by.  We are teaching these young ladies to be ashamed of themselves. In addition to our young women being taught to be ashamed, we are simultaneously teaching our young and impressionable men that it is acceptable to objectify, sexualize, and critique the female body. Publicly excusing the shaming of these girls by saying it is preparation for the professional world tells young men that in the professional world, the woman is inferior because her attire and body are the scapegoat for a man’s behavior.

This attitude of superiority in men and inferiority in women manifests in our society in many ways, two of the most prevalent being rape culture and slut shaming. Rape culture is anything in society that trivializes, normalizes, or eroticizes rape and sexual assault or the reactions and attitudes associated with these events. Robin Thicke’s song, “Blurred Lines”  explicitly condones taking advantage of a female despite her consent. The message is subtle, but definitely present. In the much publicized Stubenville rape case, the victim was blamed for casting a harsh light on her school’s football team and town, while her rapists (yes, multiple boys were charged with the rape of a minor) received far less public reproach and far more public sympathy. That is rape culture: her rape was obviously trivialized and treated as a “rite of passage” rather than a crime.

Slut shaming is, essentially, the act of criticizing a female for supposed promiscuity. Girls are often labeled sluts because of their dress, which I see as a term of subjugation; these men (and women) using this word are using the slanderous term and its negative connotation to push her back into the mold our culture has formed for her. The “slut” is shamed into silence by peers and superiors alike. Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a whore for, essentially, being an advocate of birth control, is slut shaming. Since when does wanting to have safe sex totally equates in promiscuity?

Both rape culture and slut shaming stem from the ideas instilled in boys and girls during high school. Because females are not allowed to dress in a way that could distract boys, we are teaching the boys entitlement, which is a characteristic of rape culture.  Our men are also taught that it is okay to shame the female body, because body shaming is also normalized in high school. This is a characteristic of slut shaming.

I believe the prevalence of rape culture and slut shaming in our society stems from the attitudes and values taught with high school dress codes.

I’m not the only young woman who feels this way. Young girls across the globe are fighting the policies that promote the objectification of their bodies and the suppression of their sexuality. In Quebec, 15-year-old Lindsay Stocker began a protest after being called out on her short skirt in front of her peers. In Florida, 15 year old Miranda Larken was forced to wear a shame suit in front of her peers because, according to her school’s administration, her skirt was too short. When interviewed, she said: “Too often, dress codes are less about making students appear professional and more about singling out young women (especially those who are more developed), treating their bodies as sexual objects with the potential to force boys to misbehave.”

I truly believe the way the female and her body are regarded in society is an issue. Dress codes are an even larger issue that need to be reformed and reevaluated. Our handling of gender, power, and sexuality say a lot about us as a society, and the message being sent isn’t a good one. This all begins here.