This issue of what girls should wear and what is appropriate for girls to wear, in my opinion, is very controversial. Although the school has given us a dress code in the student handbook, chapter three, page twenty one, under the subtitle "dress code". The second paragraph states and I quote: “Students are expected to dress decently and appropriately. It also states that senior members reserve the right to call any indecently dressed student to order."
The issue here really is what is appropriate dressing? My definition of dressing appropriately might be different from yours. So, if I put on an attire in a way of my choosing, instead of being told to leave the class, or chastised or spoken to offensively, people should consider the point of appropriate dressing and consider the fact that everyone has their own style, background and beliefs.
However, the process of defining what is considered indecent or inappropriate can get quite murky. When ladies in higher institutions are being cautioned about what is appropriate to wear, it could get a little one sided. Authorities who are in charge of making decisions on whether or not an attire is appropriate to wear is usually based on religious backgrounds. They come up with all sorts of rules and they make you feel like a sinner if you are wearing something short or sleeveless.
One key concern is the implication that women should be hyper cognizant about their physical identity and how the world responds to it. These “senior members” correct you only on the bases that you are “exposing your body’ which then leads to the fact that you are creating attention for your own self. And with this kind of mentality if a student is to report to school authority about sexual harassment, do you think they will be taken seriously? Or do you think they will make comments like “are you sure it is not because of what you are wearing?”
It is presumed that women are the ones who need to protect themselves from unwanted attention.
It really is not the issue of formal dress code by itself that is so discriminatory, it is the message behind the dress code. The kind of dress you wear attracts the kind of attention you get, but I do not want to be categories because of how I dress, and based on the law of attraction, I think whether long dresses or short ones, you will get unwanted sexual attention, and it is not even because of how you are dressed it is because of the nature of men. I am not a girl who is battling for the right to come to school in a bikini!
By Becky Sorgwe Enime
