The RHS dress code is a burden to all students on campus. It terrorizes many of us, mostly female, every single day. 

     The rules listed on it truly show how deranged whoever made it is. Apparently these days, showing body parts found on every single human being alive is far too risky for school grounds.

     A rule on the dress code prohibits exposed/bare midriffs. I have been a victim of this law multiple times. When I asked why this rule is enforced, I was told that it’s used to avoid “distractions.” 

     Because, in all honesty, my stomach is the most distracting thing on earth. Don’t even get me started on how attractive belly buttons are. I could speak on those beautiful specimens for hours. 

     But seriously, if a belly button is hot to you, I think the last thing you should be focusing on is our dress code. Why should I, someone simply trying to do my schooling, be accountable for the minds of creeps? 

     The only person I should worry about “distracting” with my clothes is myself. We should be required to wear what is most beneficial to our learning and not to the learning of others. Chances are, if I’m wearing it to school, I’m not distracted by it and it should be allowed.

     Not to mention the aggressive sexism towards women within the dress code. For example, some rules on the dress code state that short skirts and tube tops are not allowed.

     Because we all know that the males on campus just love wearing tiny, short skirts and scandalous tube tops. Those dang boys. Can’t let that happen because I wouldn’t be able to contain myself.

     Shoulders and legs. Much too distracting. 

     More than five of the rules listed on the code are clearly directed toward the female gender. 

     Pretty much all boys have to do is make sure they don’t wear shirts portraying hard drugs, which, in my revolutionary opinion, is not a very challenging task. 

     This is compared to the girls, who practically must show up to school in a hazmat suit in fear of the dreaded code. 

     As mentioned previously, the dress code is enforced to avoid distractions in our learning environments. Those “distractions” could be, as depicted in the dress code, a bra strap, shoulders, legs, cleavage, and stomachs. Oh look, I pretty much listed the female anatomy.

     I simply will never understand how something like a bra strap is so distracting. I am a female. I wear an undergarment around others to be modest. Yet, I am a distraction to students in that sense.

     Being dress coded actually creates more of a distraction for students than the violation itself. If a student is sitting in class and hears the word “dress code” ears perk up due to the controversy of the topic. Eyes immediately turn to whoever is getting busted. 

     The dress code brings more attention to the “violations”. If dress codes were not implemented, I highly doubt that the supposed “violations” would ever be noticed by other students. It’s all extremely contradictory and creates a distraction all in itself. 

     Teenage girls go through endless amounts of self-image issues. I have never met someone who’s never had self-confidence problems. And the dress code certainly does not help this issue. 

     From personal experience, being dress coded is extremely embarrassing. A serious confidence breaker. You feel that everyone in the room is staring at you, judging you. An adult is telling you things wrong about your appearance with no shame.

     When I got dress-coded, I went home and cried. Yep. I cried because I wasn’t wearing the “right thing” to school. 

     I was told my shirt was distracting. I continuously asked myself why I was a distraction. Me, a then 14 year old girl. I have now realized that I am not.

     My body and the clothes I wear are and are not, and will never be, a distraction, no matter how hard the dress code tries to portray it.

     The dress code is sexist, outdated, and needs to be changed.