In the middle of an incredibly stressful day, I was pulled up to the guidance office and told that the skirt I was wearing, the one that my mother and I had so carefully measured with a dollar bill before I wore it to school, was too short. I had to stand there while someone I didn’t know measured my leg with a dollar bill. Imagine how demeaning it was to have someone touch my thigh with a dollar bill. I went through this humiliating ordeal only to be told that a skirt I often wore to church wasn’t long enough. I either had to change into someone else’s clothes from the nurse’s office or call my mom and have her bring me a change of clothes. I was angry, and I was upset, and I cried. I stood in the office and just wept.

I couldn’t stay at school, and I had to go home because I was so distraught. I missed my AP English, Dual Credit Pre-Calculus, and Dual Credit French III class because my skirt was measured to the wrong length on the back of my knee, and I was so upset because I felt I was being called a harlot by my school. I was devastated that they had decided that my worth, the education I was to receive, and how much they respected me was based on how much leg I was showing. I was upset that everyone seemed to think this was okay.

Let me assure you, it’s not.

Why is the dress code policy even in existence? It is to promote the right environment for education by limiting distractions. Except, whose education are we promoting? And who are the distractions?

Dress code policies in general are unacceptable for many reasons. To begin with, it teaches young girls that their worth is attached to their bodies. While boys have to obey the same dress code, the code itself is targeted at the female students. The female students are labeled as distractions from men’s education, which suggests that men’s education is more important. Young women are the ones who are often demeaned in public for wearing what, outside of school, is perfectly acceptable attire. This public demeaning teaches young women that it is alright for people to publicly shame them, and it teaches everyone watching the same thing. Every student watching a teacher bill a student, or tell her that her clothing is inappropriate in a loud and rather aggressive fashion, learns that it is perfectly acceptable to treat someone as lesser because of the clothes that they are wearing, and that if the jeans are “too tight” or the skirt is “too short,” they are not worth respecting, and do not deserve to be treated like a human being.

This treatment of women, that her worth is defined by her body and what she does with it, is a concept known as “slut-shaming.” It is the negative treatment of people because of their sexuality, trying to make them feel guilty and shame them into stopping. It is used to bash on women for wearing short skirts, or any clothes that could be defined as “provocative,” to justify rape and sexual assault, sexual harassment, and general abuse. Although slut-shaming can be used against men, it is most often used to justify negative treatment towards women, lowering their self-respect and self-esteem.

Instead of promoting self-respect, dress codes and their implementation makes young women ashamed of their own bodies and lowers self-esteem. How can she feel good about herself when administration tells her that her skirt is too short? Telling her that makes her feel dirty, like a harlot, and like she is not important. The administration makes her feel terrible about herself, which suggests they do not care about her, so she feels she is not worth caring about. This in turn leads to her not expecting respect from other people, and she accepts abuse from peers because she feels that she is not worth better. Is this what we want to teach our young women? If not, something needs to change, because this is what our young women are learning.

The code targets what females wear because, in the eye of the policy maker, it is the male students that are easily distracted. Even if the male students were distracted by shoulders or the inch of skin above the knee, by pushing it onto the female students, we teach the male students that it is not their responsibility to control themselves, but rather that females should not be so distracting in the first place.

This mindset that women should not be so distracting adds to a couple of dilemmas prevalent in society today called “rape culture” and “victim blaming.” We live in a society where rape and sexual violence is everywhere, and it is because men have the mindset that women are just “too sexy.” If a beautiful woman is walking down the street in a pair of tight jeans and a man gets “turned on,” he has learned that it is not his responsibility to control himself. Women who have been raped that have come forward are often asked, “Well, what were you wearing? What did you do to provoke him?” Women who are victims of sexual violence are often treated like they were the ones who caused it, and they are often slut-shamed, while the actual rapist gets everyone’s sympathy.

Let’s look at Steubenville. A young woman, sixteen years old, was raped at a party. She was video-taped while they did a barrage of awful and humiliating things to her. When she tried to step forward, the town covered it up. When Anonymous, an internet hacking group, got their hands on the story and brought it to life, the boys were finally prosecuted. But wait, there’s more! While waiting for the verdict, CNN, who was covering the trial came out with quotes such as, “…incredibly difficult to watch as these two young men. . . literally watched as they believed their life fell apart,” from Poppy Harlow, and “I cannot imagine how emotional the sentencing must have been,” from Candy Crowley. Neither of these reporters said one word about the victim, but instead gave sympathy and pity to the rapists.

CNN was not the only perpetrator in this slut-shaming and victim blaming. Here are some of the tweets that were posted about the verdict: “The girl asked for it and wanted it… They gave it to her. No crime,” posted by Michael Crook, “I’m not saying what they did isn’t wrong, but it’s not rape. It’s the girl’s fault,” posted by KPS Jake, and my personal favorite, “I feel bad for the two young guys. . . They did what most people in their situation would have done,” posted by Josiah.

The rapists in this situation were high school boys. They were taught that it was the young woman’s responsibility to not entice them, and so when they were enticed, they took advantage of her and sexually assaulted her. This sick story is not even an anomaly, and dress code policies, like the one implemented in our school, further the problem. That last quote, that they did what most people in their situation would have done, is startlingly accurate. It probably is what many high school boys would have done, because it is what they are taught is acceptable starting in elementary school.

School is supposed to be a place of learning, a place of safety, and a place where students are free to express themselves without being afraid of being publicly berated. Teachers should be focusing on educating their students, not worrying about enforcing the dress code. Maybe if teachers stopped shaming their students, the students would trust the teachers and develop actual relationships with them. Perhaps the administration would be able to actually mentor students, helping to raise their self-esteem instead of smashing it down. Perhaps students would learn to respect themselves and dress accordingly instead of the school trying to shame them into dressing appropriately. Perhaps students would learn to control themselves, the way they will be expected to do in the real world.

The time that we students spend in the walls of this school is so short in comparison with the rest of ours lives, but the negative effects of this environment may never go away. The dress code is insulting to both male and female students, suggesting that both genders are dirty lowlifes with no self-respect, and that men cannot control themselves, and it’s women’s responsibility to cover up in order to not distract them with her bare shoulders. It’s time that we take a serious look at the dress code and ask ourselves, what is it really doing to our students and to society? Honestly, aren’t there better things we could be doing with our time than measuring the lengths of girls’ skirts because of “distractions?”