Ah, yes, the collarbone. The first thought everyone has when he or she thinks of “sexy.”
I don’t mean to be facetious, honest. Take a look at this photo of Stephanie Hughes, a female student at Woodford County High School in Kentucky. According to her mother, Stacie Dunn, Stephanie was sent home by her school for wearing this revealing outfit:
Now, my fellow readers, tell me. What is revealing about this outfit? What is “indecent” about it? What archaic dress code rule has it broken? If you’re confused–please, take a seat down next to me.
Stacie Dunn explains what had happened in a Facebook post, with the above photo attached:
So this is my daughter at school today. I had to come to the school because according to her school principal what she is wearing is out of dress code and inappropriate for school. When I got there I found a group of female students standing in the office due to being out of dress code also. This is ridiculous! WOODFORD County High School and the principle have been enforcing a dress code where as girls can not show even there collar bones because it may distract their male class mates. This is ridiculous! Parents are being called away from their important jobs and students are missing important class time because they are showing their collarbones! Something needs to change! PLEASE SHARE MY POST! Something needs to change!
Yep, you read that right. You’re not going crazy whatsoever (though, you might feel like it because, for whatever reason, these kind of oppressive rules still exist in 2015). Woodford County High School has a specific policy in place where girls are prohibited from showing their collarbone because the boys at the school might be distracted.
You know what? Let the f*cking boys be distracted. If they can’t handle a little collarbone now, I don’t want them running around on college campuses, business offices and the like. Dress codes like these punish women for merely existing and having a body.
Put it this way: if you’re a female reader, you sat in classrooms with your shoulders covered in late May and the middle of June because your shoulders were “scandalous.” Your male peers, however, were free to bare shoulders, legs, collarbone, you name it, while you sat sweating away trying to take notes on World History.
Yes, those were the rules and rules need to be enforced. I mean, who wants to live in a lawless, chaotic hell (think The Purge)? But, at their core, these are bad rules. Such oppressive, archaic dress codes, such as Woodford’s, perpetuate sexism, stating that women must be punished for presenting their bodies in a way they want while the boys who act inappropriately around the female body are left unpunished. On what planet is punishing a living being for having a body proper? On what planet is punishing the victim appropriate?
Apparently Earth.
Stacie Dunn sent her daughter back to school with a scarf to cover her “scandalous” collarbones. In another Facebook post, featuring Stephanie Hughes’ new, “appropriate” outfit,
she was sent home again. Stacie Dunn wrote:
“So steph got sent home from school for giving the principal an attitude when he told her the scarf I brought her to cover up with was still inappropriate and she needed to fix it! What did he want her to tie it like a noose around her neck!!!!”
Because, somehow, it’s far more productive for the school to take girls who break the dress code out of class, away from receiving an education, to police bodies that are not their own. Way to go, America. You’ve really done it this time.
This is not the first time that Woodford County High School has been scrutinized for the dress code policy. Earlier this year, a junior at the high school, Maggie Sunseri, produced a documentary called Shame: A Documentary on School Dress Code.
There is an upside to this story. The community, shocked by these dress codes, has put the high school under fire. There is a petition that calls for the school to overhaul the policy. The principal has agreed to meet with the students to discuss a new code.
Stacie Dunn, in a later Facebook post, wrote: “Received a call from the principal who agreed to meet with me and discuss the dress code even said he would be willing to amend the dress code if I was willing to put together a proposed dress code that was realistic, measurable and professional that everyone, including lawyers could agree too … Sounds like I have some work to do!”
Last Monday, Maggie Sunseri presented school officials with a suggested new policy. A committee will meet and report back on September 2 with a possible decision about a new policy.
You can watch Maggie Sunseri’s Shame: A Documentary on Dress Code below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDgAZO_5U_U]
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[Lead image and article images via]
