Dress Code is So “Extra”

Sophomore+Nailah+Kennedy+takes+issues+with+the+school+dress+code.+

Jack Stenger

Sophomore Nailah Kennedy takes issues with the school dress code.

School dress code is extra and it has honestly got to be one of the most discouraging thing that a teenage girl could experience. Imagine being told as you walk in school feeling confident about yourself that you have to change because you’re disrupting your male counterparts learning environment. Having my shoulders out will disrupt your class? Wearing jeans with a few rips is degrading to myself?

For a young teenage girl like me who follows trends and takes pride in the clothes that I wear I find it truly ridiculous that you seeing a little of my midriff is going to disrupt the class. North Atlanta’s dress code is influencing rape culture and a male dominated society. I can’t wear my favorite dress because it falls a little above my knee or my favorite shirt because it happens to show my shoulders. They are trying to sexualize young teenage girls and they tell us that it distracts our male counterparts. They don’t realize how much that discourages young females. I feel most confident when I am able to truly express myself and my sense of style.

It’s a new time, just because a girl likes to wear crop tops does not mean that she is a “slut” or doesn’t know how to carry herself around men. Telling young girls to change out of their clothes also says to the young males that because they are dressed in a certain type of way that means that they want attention it becomes way easier to sexualize girls. I feel that as long as a girl knows how to carry herself she should be able to wear what she wants.

I understand that are boundaries and things that we should definitely not wear out in public but the schools dress code is completely unnecessary and creates a negative connotation on girls who chose to wear certain clothes. We definitely should not at this age discourage young girls and sexualize them based off of the clothes that they chose to wear.