“He just likes you”. A tale that has been reinforced since kindergarten. A translation for why this boy put glue in her hair or why he punched her in the arm was because he had a crush on her. These assumptions begin to escalate when children start to grow up and are pushed into an environment where girls, again, have to presume the male mannerisms as a code they must decipher and prevent on their own, especially regarding their choices of dress.

The intent of a dress code is to create a “distraction free” learning environment, understandably enforced. School is a destination where one comes to be educated, not walk the runway. However, when a girl is getting sent outside of class mid-lesson because her shoulders are not covered to further the goal of “distraction free”, her male classmate’s education is being prioritized over her own. A female is being penalized for not being able to control the unclean thoughts of her male company. This behavior starts to reinforce a mentality that has been around since any time prior to the 20th amendment.  A time where Alice Paul and other Suffragists fought for the right to just raise our voice, let alone wear halter tops. And even then, we were only graciously allowed that right because it favored him.

An Oklahoma superintendent, Ronda Bass, spoke to a student body, with her opening question being, “Have y’all ever seen any “skanks” around this school”, backing up her claim that  “[she] don’t want to see anybody’s ass hanging out of their shorts”. The desire for a “classy” representation of her student body is what she is priding herself off of and her own reputation is being represented through those who walk down her halls. But, there is a clear line between “skank” and sweat. When you expect a girl to wear jeans and a sweater on a 95 degree day, you may be putting a male’s education into consideration, but at the same time, the female’s health is disregarded, otherwise her education also suffers. All is equal, right? “We are trying to help students understand that if you dress [inappropriately] to a job interview the chances are that you’re not getting the job”, Phoebe Eligon-Jones, a New York high school coordinator states. Since when are spaghetti straps inappropriate? Since when are floor length dresses not considered professional? We’ve come a long way from the days of Hester Prynne, where collarbones and knees were viewed as pornographic, however, maybe only in terms of time.

Indeed, these rigid standards do prepare women for the real world. It prepares them for the reality that 1 in 5 women will be a victim of sexual assault whilst in college. This statistic, conducted by The White House, exists because of the prior guidance students have been put under whilst in lower education. Not deriving from the actual curriculum itself, but the condoning of the “asking for it” mentality. How am I supposed to feel comfortable enough to walk down the street when statistics like this exist because people allow them to? I mean, images of female nipples are being taken down from Instagram at the same time that shirtless males are being used as fitness promotions. They are the exact same anatomy and serve the same functions. If you blacked out every other portion of the body besides the nipples, they are non-differential.

Once upon a time in a proper wonderland not so far away, 16-year-old Gabi Finlayson was forced into a winter coat after her mid calf length, two-plus inch strap prom dress was flagged as inappropriate. Unless she wanted to go home and miss a night she had been planning for, she obliged, however recalls the night saying that: “It was hard for me because that was a night I was supposed to feel really beautiful and special. This was really hurtful and it made me feel like I wasn’t good enough”. A classic Cinderella tale, am I right? Not only are these standards influencing the feeling of priority in the minds of young women, but also their view on self-confidence. The persistent drilling that their bodies are dangerous and something to be conscious of ultimately stuns the awareness of these developing youth. Being constantly told that your excess skin is a problem and that the lengths you are going through to feel beautiful are what earn you labels like “s***.” Any attempt to feel comfortable in your own body as a female has completely vanished. The first and most basic human right like room for the freedom of expression and experimentation are non-existent and unavailable to us. This hesitancy surrounding the female body is promoting that diversity is something to be ashamed of and disgusted by. What’s next, covering acne with foundation makes you contemptuous?

Journalist Jef Rouner’s daughter went to school in a maxi sundress, which she was looking forward to wearing in the growing heat “…because it’s light and comfortable”. Hours later she was bundled into a t-shirt and even jeans underneath her floor length dress. Did I mention that she was 5 years old? The child hasn’t even come halfway close to going through the opening stages of puberty. Cut her hair and put her next to a boy and they are fundamentally, the same. What exactly is there that would ignite another child or teacher’s flame? The seductive hips in which the student has not yet developed? Rouner explains the result of this punishment that “Now I have this child… wordlessly accepting that a dress with spaghetti straps, something sold in every Walmart in America right now, is somehow bad. Wrong. Naughty. And most importantly that the answer is to cover up”. Another example of the school system “accusing a girl of being ‘provocative’… before she is even old enough to have learned how to correctly spell the word” (Laura Bates). Those are the real important lessons that children are coming home with. Not who was the 5th president of the United States. Not how to decipher long division. Not how frequently the earth orbits around the sun. But that it is scandalous for women to show remotely any kind of skin at any time.

A policy that is a staple for every school is zero tolerance towards bullying. However, an alternative for being sent home once being dress-coded is to walk around as an advertisement that one has violated their school’s rules. Isn’t humiliating your students a form of bullying also? It’s almost the same as wearing a “kick me” sign on the back of your t-shirt, just coming from adults who students are meant to look up to, admire and most importantly learn from.

Diplomas are being withheld, proms are being cancelled and shoulders are still being marked as provocative. Maybe we’re not that far from you at all, Hester Prynne.