Teen Boys Stand Up To Sexist School Dress Code In The Best Way
They found a clever way to protest the school’s ban on off-the-shoulder shirts
When their school suddenly started enforcing a sexist dress code that had been ignored for years, many students took to protesting. And it wasn’t just the females.
The boys at San Benito High School in Hollister, CA showed solidarity by wearing the very item of clothing their classmates are being punished for wearing.
A story on Yahoo details the response students had upon arriving to school for new year and witnessing many of their female classmates get in trouble for wearing off-the-shoulder shirts. Because, you know, a glimpse of bare shoulder is just so distracting.
Our eyes couldn’t roll any harder, seriously.
The school says the dress code has been on the books for years, but students claim it had never been enforced before.
“The dress code policy hasn’t been an issue the past two years I have been here,” one anonymous student told Yahoo Style.
On the first day of school, some 50 students were disciplined for the violation and sent to the principal’s office.
Many male students have donned their own off-the-shoulder shirts to protest the policy.
Not only does the ban on specific clothing not impact the boys at the school, students are pointing out the hypocrisy of the dress code when female students have been wearing off-the-shoulder outfits in their school sanctioned senior pictures.
“Off-the-shoulder is a very big trend in the fashion industry right now,” the anonymous female student said. “It’s not harming anyone physically… I think it is ridiculous how we have to fight against [the administration] to wear a shirt that is not harming anyone.”
Despite the fact that the dress code doesn’t affect them, the male students have stepped up to defend their friends and classmates.
“My guy friends think it’s ridiculous too,” that anonymous student told Yahoo. “Like, they make fun of it.”
One male student, Andrei Vladimirov, explained his motivations to the Huffington Post. “I felt bold and subversive, as I actually, physically oppressed something that I saw as wrong,” he said. “But this story isn’t about me, it is about those who are actually affected by dress codes.”
Good for Andrei, for joining his female friends and for realizing that he and his male peers are not the victims, or the focus, of this issue. Once again, it’s women who are being unfairly targeted by a society that continually blames women for the sins of men.
Feminism is about equality, and equality is something that should matter to everyone, male and female. You’d think the people charged with educating our youth would know this.
Thankfully, the male students at San Benito High already seem to understand. Better than many adults.
