Dress Code

[Ryrin]

http://www.today.com/parents/utah-girl-asked-cover-over-dress-code-violation-felt-embarrassed-2D80453387

 

Gabi Finlayson had the perfect outfit picked out for the school dance last weekend: A lacy, light pink sleeveless dress that fell to mid-calf.

“It was everything I wanted,” the 16-year-old Utah girl told TODAY.com. “It was so perfect. It was really timeless looking.”

 

"School officials saw it differently. Upon checking in, Finlayson was asked by a dance chaperone if she had a shawl she could use to cover herself. School officials later explained the dress failed to meet a dress code rule requiring dresses to have straps at least two inches across each shoulder."

 

Both Finlayson and her mother believe the dress fully met that requirement. But because Finlayson didn’t want to draw further attention to herself, she went back to her car and retrieved her winter coat, which she wore over her dress all evening. I still stayed at the dance because it had been something I looked forward to, but I did feel really embarrassed and ashamed,” she said.

 

Here is the dress:

 

 

 

Her mother, Kristy Kimball, said what she finds more troubling is how the school's conservative dress code unfairly targets women, and also objectifies them. 

“The message is sent to her and other girls in this community that what they wear affects boys’ thinking, and that they’re somehow responsible if boys have sexual thoughts about them, and that boys will think you’re a slut if you wear certain things,” Kimball said. “There’s a hyper emphasis on dressing modestly as a girl because you don’t want to be responsible for what a boy thinks. It’s a subtler version of victim blaming.”

 

Dianna Larkin agrees.  “Dress codes cause girls to be sexualized and demoralized way more often than what guys experience," she said. "They make girls hypersensitive to their own sexuality. Whereas before, they’re like, ‘Oh, I look pretty today.' Now it's like, ‘Is my skirt too short? Am I showing this?’'"

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

[Wren of the Brown]

That's a flattering dress.  Some public school employes are just mean-spirited and squeemish.  Not all, but enough to ruin what should have been a perfectly wonderful memory.

[Wren of the Brown]

Were the chaperones volunteers or employees?  I don't want my initial assessment to be unfair but that article also highlighted the story of the "Dress Code Shame Suit."

[Ryrin]

It says "school officials" so I would assume employees.

 

I think the dress looks great. It's classic.

[Elaevia]

I think it's a lovely dress, and quite demure actually. Its not short at the bottom, or low at the top and has wide straps.

 

Personally though, I don't have a problem with someone wearing thin straps that show more shoulder.

[Guest]

i wouldnt care if somone was walkng around naked, isnt my business to tell anyone what they can and cant put on their body, only become my business if their acting rude toward me but thats the way their acting not their dressing. just one of the reasons i dont send my son to school, their many ridiculous codes that are aimed at makin someone insecure about themselves or stripping away their individuality.