The Problem With Dress Codes and Locker Room Talk

For us women, ever since we were young enough to speak, we have been held accountable for almost everything we do, especially the way we act and dress.  Women are told to not be a man's locker room talk and not to put yourself out there in a bad light. Now at first this may sound reasonable, as of course we should all act in a manner that respects ourselves, but the issue is that men are not held to this higher standard either.  Instead of asking the boys at high school dances to control themselves along with the girls, women are objectified and required to conform to what society thinks. This thinking being that women need to sacrifice their own creative being for the comfort of men.

In a similar fashion, in terms of school dress code, girls are often required to not dress the way they wish because it is distracting their male peers' education.  In this case, as it commonly is, men are put above women in terms of priorities. Boys under a dress code almost never get called out for wearing tank tops, or shorts because in the eyes of this degrading system, the education of women is not a priority and thus making them feel as though they are inferior to their male peers, if we would even call them that.

This has an extremely damaging effect on the mental or even physical well-being of young women.  After being shamed for their clothing options or the way they act can make a young woman who is still trying to discover herself feel insecure and lead to various mental health issues, such as anxiety, body dysmorphia, and depression.  This in turn, can lead to physical harm to young women as well. For example because of the constant objectification of their bodies, these young women can develop eating disorders, which are some of the most dangerous mental illnesses and even leave some feeling so empty that it leads to things such as self-harm.

But of course, in the eyes of the system we currently live under, this is a small price to pay to ensure the comfort of men.  Well I hate to break it to you, but women are strong, powerful, creative, and unique. We deserve to be treated as our male peers and deserve to have a voice in everything we do, including our education, regardless of if, god forbid, our shoulders are showing.  And while women overall had made progress to be treated equally, we still must work to ensure that all women and young girls feel comfortable in their bodies, not to compromise to make OTHERS comfortable.

“Mary Km”