It must have been a very slow news day at CBSLA. Teenagers at Pasadena High complaining about the dress code resulted in a story. In related news, students felt tests were still too hard, the math teacher is an old bag, and cafeteria food is disgusting.
Teenagers, particularly teenage girls, have been complaining about dress codes for decades. It’s always “much stricter for female students than male students.”
Administrators have only themselves to blame for the griping. Until the late 1960’s or early 1970’s students never thought to publicly complain about dress codes because the chance of changing a principal’s mind was infinitesimal.
Besides you only have to enter a shopping mall food court on Saturday to see for yourself that teenagers are the last demographic group to consult on proper wear in public.
Yet consult they did and the first time an educrat caved in on dress it only generated more complaints as teens wanted to see how far they could push. Skin, you see, abhors a vacuum.
The verboten list at Pasadena High includes: short shorts, tank tops with straps under 2 inches wide, sleeveless undershirts, strapless dresses, spaghetti straps, off-the-shoulder, cutout designs, sundresses, low-cut or tight shirts — and any jewelry that might be worn by Capt. Jack Sparrow.
Naturally, the rules received immediate pushback. “I’m against the way they presented it to us,” said sophomore Sophie Manoukian, “It’s like girls should be ashamed of their bodies.
"And even though they presented it like it was about equal opportunity for education, it was about how girls can be distracting and pulled out of class to change. Whereas the boys stay in class.”
Until relatively recently I was reasonably sure a boy wearing a spaghetti–strap top and yoga pants would be pulled out of class along with the girls, but be that as it may the point in the dress code is not shame.
Girls can be as proud as they wish regarding their merchandise; just don’t put it in the display case when you’re at school.
Another future valedictorian commented, “I think it really isn’t fair to females. That they are considered distracting. When we’re not teaching males that it’s not OK to treat women like objects of pleasure and sexual objects.” To which I would reply, great then don’t dress like a sexual object.
Both of these comments point out a glaring deficiency. In modern education there is almost no instruction regarding consequences, particularly that of Hefner’s First Law of Motion: Semi–naked women tend to spur men into action.
What’s required for these teenage girls is a bit of perspective. Something that would help them to realize the new dress code is a reasonable accommodation to the learning environment.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.