By Harleigh Iarussi

The debate of something so controversial to the point of deeming the title sexist and inappropriate, while also being necessary, has been taking over the minds of teens and administrators every year. The culprit: dress code. 

Many students, both locally and nationally, find dress codes to be unfair, inappropriate or even sexist, while others find the dress code as nothing more than equal guidelines that keep clothing appropriate in school. 

A survey conducted of 51 students at McDowell High School shows that when asked to rate the fairness of dress codes for girls vs boys, about 28% reported they feel the girls’ dress code isn’t fair at all and no students rated them to be completely fair for females. 

However, in regards to the opposite sex, about 31% of students rated it to be completely fair, about 43% of students rated it a four for fairness, and only 2% of students rated the male dress code not fair at all. 

“I think it’s very geared towards the female students,” said sophomore Ashlyn Williams. “I see almost every single day at least one girl get dress-coded and I would be shocked to say I’ve seen one boy get dress coded every day – I rarely do – even though they might be wearing a tank top or shorts that aren’t fingertip length,” Williams said as she was explaining why she believes our dress code here at McDowell is unfair. 

One reason students may feel as though the dress code at McDowell is unjust is because according to a survey done, about 39% of students reported being dress-coded. However, out of those students, 80% of them are female. While many students lean towards saying the dress code is unfair and targets girls, that is not the point of view for everyone. 

“Everybody has a different body type. And so trying to fit everyone into one body type with clothing, you can’t do,” Williams said. She thinks dress codes take specific ideals and apply them to everyone without taking into consideration how certain rules may affect two people with two distinct bodies differently. She also went on to say another big issue is the lack of explanation for so many rules stated in the dress code that don’t necessarily make sense to students, like tank tops straps having to be four fingers wide. 

“We treat everyone equally when it comes to dress code,” said McDowell Intermediate High School assistant principal Briggita Anthony. 

While the dress code controversy ebbs and flows, some things are constants.  “Dress code is often brought to light with the ever-changing fashion trends of teenagers.” said Anthony, explaining her thoughts on why it is suddenly becoming something people are talking about so often. 

Williams said that she believes the reason for this is that the current students are more outspoken. “We have felt like we should point out the injustices of: ‘Well why can boys wear this but the girls can’t?’” she said. 

With both fashion and minds always changing, other things are often changing as well in order to accommodate the modern ideas and trends. In the same McDowell survey, about 76% of students believe that the dress code has changed over time, about 46% of those students think it’s gotten less strict, and about 53% think it has gotten more strict. 

And in the recent few years, with so many complaining about the dress code, this prompts the question of whether there is an ideal dress code. When students were asked in the McDowell survey, “If you could change one thing about the dress code, what would you change,” the most common answers were tank tops being allowed, adjusting the rule about shorts/skirts being finger tip length, and for it to just be fair and equal. 

“I would just allow people to wear shorts as long as they’re not booty shorts. You know as long as they’re wearing a shirt of some sort, even if it’s cropped or a tank top, they should be allowed to wear it,” Williams said. She eventually explained how she thinks it would be more fair if the dress code was able to accommodate everyone. 

Williams said she believes the dress code was created “without ill intent,” and how she understood the goal was to make sure people weren’t showing up to school in things that were completely inappropriate.