Recently, Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines handed out a letter to their students with rules and regulations such as dress code requirements. The letter understandably had different regulations regarding dress code for males and females. However, the things in it aimed towards the females were sexist and wrong. For the boys, the letter said no facial hair or earrings were permitted, and to "Be classy". For the girls, the letter said things like "Draw attention to your face, not your chest" and "Your outfit should attract attention to your achievements, not your body. Choose an outfit that is pretty enough to show you are a woman and covered enough to show you are a lady" Dowling senior Betsy Pieper worded it nicely when she (regarding the letter) said "It kind of implies that you have to be pretty in order to be a woman, as if that's your worth"
The sad thing about this article (besides the obvious) is that there are probably hundreds of schools with sexist dress code regulations like this one, and maybe worse. I hope that with the outpour of complaints from parents and students, the school corrects the letter and makes it less sexist and offensive.
Link: http://wqad.com/2015/03/13/catholic-high-school-in-iowa-accused-of-having-sexist-dress-code/
I agree that these codes are extremely sexist, but because of the area which these are being made, tradition and often religion affect how women are compared to men in society and how they should belittle themselves.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately these implications and views are not all that uncommon, especially in educational facilities that are stricter and more 'clean-cut' in their standards. This does not mean, however, that those attending and the parents of these attendees cannot oppose these standards being applied. Certain schools of this type tend to focus on more than academics, but also mindset and morals. Hopefully the students and parents will voice some opposition to this very clearly sexist point of view..
ReplyDelete- Sophia Davison