Dress codes target marginalized groups

Dress codes are supposed to create a practical learning environment in which students’ primary concern is learning, rather than their physical appearance. By design, however, dress codes reinforce the patriarchy. 

Rules that prohibit displaying cleavage, one’s midriff, and shoulders explicitly target women’s bodies. Likewise, regulations that prevent students from dying their hair or wearing gender non-conforming clothing may make it difficult for Queer students to express their identity. Furthermore, restrictions preventing the display of naturally curly hair, braids, head wraps, and head coverings disadvantage students of color.

At the private Episcopal middle school I attended, I was frequently dress coded, or given warnings that my clothes were unacceptable for school. Teachers and other staff members frequently pointed out that my shorts were too short, my sweatshirts were not long enough, and that my shirts sat too tightly against my body. 

Because of this, I began to question if it was acceptable for me to dress the way I did with the body that I had. These thoughts made me uncomfortable about how I thought both staff and students perceived me in the classroom.

According to data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics, 42.6% of elementary schools, 61.6% of middle schools, and 55.9% of high schools in the United States follow a strict dress code. This limits the ways in which students can express themselves at school. 

Zoie Walden, a junior at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland, believes that dress codes silence creativity. Regulations that discourage students from wearing ripped jeans, t-shirts, or athletic apparel, for example, prevent young people from exploring their personal style. 

“You can’t dress how you want to. You can’t express yourself in the way that you want to,” Walden said. 

Dress codes can also impact self-confidence. They perpetuate the belief that to be accepted, you must conform to a carefully outlined standard. However, characteristics like body type, cultural significance, and gender non-conformity are not appreciated by this outdated viewpoint. 

“It’s really damaging that people are blaming themselves for how they look,” said Lundon Cruz, a sophomore at Cal Poly Pomona. “They’re like ‘why am I getting blamed for how I am physically?’” 

For example, clothing may fit differently on girls with differing body sizes. A skirt that is shapeless on a thinner figure will accentuate a larger girl’s features in ways that the dress code prohibits.

“A lot of other girls in my school would wear the same thing as me, but they would not get dress-coded,” Walden said. “I have more curves than a lot of other girls in my school, and I got dress coded for that reason.”  

Dress codes and uniforms also enforce the gender binary, and can make transgender and non-binary students feel nervous about expressing their identity at school. 

Jude Schroeder, a gender fluid junior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, loves to wear dresses and skirts to school to celebrate their feminine side, but after seeing another boy get dress-coded for wearing a short skirt to school, he is nervous about getting dress-coded. 

“Dressing the way I want helps me overcome my gender dysphoria,” Shroeder said. “But I also get scared because I think ‘what if I get sent home because I biologically look like a guy?’” 

Head wraps, braids and coverings that are traditional to Latino, African, and religious groups are banned in most private and some public schools, making it difficult for students who exist within those groups to express their culture. 

“I know a lot of students who love putting their hair in different braids and wraps. They see this as a means of expression and many think of it as a craft,” Shroeder said. “Prohibiting that would be restricting the freedom of something that is not harmful in the slightest.” 

Women, students of color and the LGBTQ+ community are disproportionately targeted by dress codes. Rather than establishing an equitable learning environment, dress codes take the focus away from learning and replace it with students’ bodies.

Dress codes are supposed to increase learning equality between the sexes, but this isn’t what happens. Instead, dress codes take the focus away from school and direct it on student’s bodies, publicly correcting them for their choice of apparel. 

Steps should be taken to abolish or reform dress codes so that students don’t feel as if they are responsible for how other people perceive their physical appearance. Dress codes fail to create an inclusive and supportive academic environment.