Post
by Coito ergo sum » Wed May 15, 2013 8:30 pm
I find it strange that this is considered a discrimination against women thing - a "slut shaming" thing. I mean, the reason why "girls" are being asked to tone it down a bit with the strapless, plunging, bare midriff and micro-mini outfits is because they're the ones wearing such clothing. Boys' dress and clothing options are and always have been far more limited, both culturally and under codes and laws.
The boys have to wear suits, essentially, to the dances and school functions. They don't have the option of being themselves and flaunting their personalities, so-to-speak, by wearing super-tight pants that show the outline of the head of their penis, or wear shirts that have no shoulders. If a boy showed up in a wife-beater t-shirt or a fancy shirt in a "tank top" form with a bare midriff, he'd be sent home. The reason that doesn't happen is because boys almost never try to show up in those kind of outfits.
Slut shaming? No. But, then again, in middle school, as much of the articles in the OP are referencing, we ought to be urging our kids not to be sluts in the first place. Boys or girls. I mean, is the real battle to be fought here the idea that our 13 year olds have the right to go to the prom half naked?
I think there has to be a way to craft a dress code that is reasonable. And, parents, I think, ought to be siding with the schools and not going off and urging their kids to lead the charge against "strapless dress" rules. I mean, really. This is the fight you want? You can't just tell your kid to wear straps? I mean -- if there were rules like that when I was a kid, and if I were a girl, my parents would just tell me to figure out a dress that complied with the code. I mean -- I think my middle school had a "no t-shirts rule" where boys could not wear mere t-shirts but it had to at least be a polo shirt or a button down or a sweater kind of thing. I thought it was stupid, but my parents wouldn't have wasted two seconds on it -- they would have said, "so wear a different shirt."
I think none of this would be taken seriously if it were a boy doing the complaining. I'd like to see some boys test my theory by trying to show up to school in super-tight "yoga pants" showing their packages prominently, and a bare midriff shirt. Does anyone think that there would even be a question about sending them home?
