I am 5’5 and have long lanky legs. So any pair of shorts will seem “short” on me. How can I help that I was born with long legs? Oh wait, I can’t.

When it comes to dress codes there are double standards. One double standard is within the female student body itself, and the other is between the girls and the boys.

Even as I’m sitting here writing this article, five friends of mine are sitting right beside me. Among us, no two are the same height or have the same proportions. Is that “wrong” or “bad,” one might ask? Well, no, it is not. It’s absolutely normal. No two people on this planet look  exactly the same; even a pair of identical twins have significant differences.

When shopping you have limited size options: Small, Medium, and Large. However, no one fits these molds exactly. With these limited sizes it is hard to find clothing that covers you enough to meet the standards of yourself, your parents, your school, and society.

Within schools, workplaces, and society, females have more expectations to live up to when it comes to dress code. From a young age girls are taught to dress modestly in order to not get “the wrong attention” from their male peers. Although I agree that people should dress appropriately, I disagree with the reasoning behind it. One should dress appropriately because that is the right thing to do.

When going to work, one will not be found in a bathing suit, for example. Is that because that female does not want the wrong attention from a male? No. It is because she knows that she needs to look professional in that particular setting. The same goes for school. Female students should not be told to dress appropriately in order to not distract males from their learning, but rather to maintain a certain image for the school.

Often you see your female friends getting dress coded. Sometimes the dress coding makes sense, yet other times it does not.

During my freshman year a certain style shirt from “Free People” became very popular. The shirt was a tank top, with two inch sleeves covering the shoulders and a high neckline. The school’s dress code states that the sleeves should be a minimum width of three inches. So every girl who owned that shirt wore it to school. One Tuesday morning, I walked into school wearing that shirt with some light washed jeans.

Before my first period class even started, I was dress coded, and I immediately became upset. I could not even focus on the history lesson that morning. I was upset for several reasons. The first was that I didn’t want my reputation to be ruined among the faculty and staff. The second reason was that out of every girl who had worn the shirt, I was the one to get dress coded for it. I know that I was the first, because when I told the other girls what I was dress coded for, their mouths dropped.

So why is that I was dress coded? Is it because that day my class was covered by someone who was not my regular teacher? Or is it because I am known as someone who won’t talk back to my teachers and mentors? Well, unfortunately, I will never know.

While I agree that the school should have a dress code policy, I also think that we as teenagers are old enough to know for ourselves what we should and should not wear to school.

Since we have a dress code, then the same policies must be enforced by everyone. When students know that they have class with an administrator, they will make sure to dress within the constraints of the dress code. Likewise, in a class with a teacher who never dress codes, students will not follow the policies because they know they will not have to face any consequences.

Students find other loopholes as well. For example, if someone wants to wear a spaghetti-strap dress, and they know a dean will greet them by the entrance of the school, they will wear a jacket as they enter and take it off immediately. This inconsistency causes students to feel as though they can wear whatever they want and not follow the dress code policies.

Students should know what is appropriate to wear to school and why they should dress that way. Along with this, faculty and staff alike must be consistent when it comes to dress coding.