Style Theory: School Dress Codes Will RUIN Your Life!

I knew a girl who got sent to the office for "bleaching her hair" she had naturally bleach blonde hair and had literally never been seen with any other color of hair and had gone to that school disticet since kindergarten

honestly its impressive that matpat still kept his png science man holding clipboard with all these years

I have a large chest and have had to worry about being dress coded constantly. When I was in 5th grade I was told to cover up because my bra strap was showing. I was wearing a dark green shirt and the outline was barely visible. Plus, the teacher was pretty far away from me so she was actively looking at my chest at 11 years old. Grown adults really need to stop staring at children's body's, girl, boy, doesn't matter.

Them saying dress codes support individual expression while they limit how you can express yourself is completely absurd

I feel like schools should’ve stressed about hygiene way more than clothes. Kids PURPOSELY skipping out on deodorant BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THEY DID NOT SMELL was more distracting than some of the “inappropriate” clothing.

i had a girl in my class dress coded for “being able to see her bra”. she was wearing a long sleeve shirt with a neckline up to her neck. there was a light outline of the padding. it was in no way distracting and absolutely ridiculous, it left literally everything up to imagination

It’s not teenage boys who find girls’ bodies distracting, it’s the adult teachers who enforce dress codes.

I grew up in germany, and i was actually surprised that a thing such as dresscodes even existed. None of the schools i went to ever had any regulations on clothes, unless it was actually offensive, of course

My school doesn’t allow tank tops, doesn’t allow “short” shorts/skirts, and you can’t show any midrif. The school-issued cheer uniforms has tank tops, super short skirt, and shows a ton of midrif.

In high school, the girls kept getting dress coded for their shorts when it was hot out, and the boys protested by all coming to school in booty shorts 😂

My school recently introduced a new rule that long dresses are forbidden as it could be a form of "religious expression" because they think any MENA student wearing them is wearing a jellaba. Even though it isn’t a religious clothing item. My class consists of mostly Muslim girls who wear modest clothing and they’ve been dress coded multiple times. But the funny thing is, two girls were wearing the same dress just a different pattern. The Moroccan girl was sent to the principal’s office while the teacher said nothing to the Chechen girl, knowing she was muslim too. But that girl has blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin while the Moroccan girl was tanned with dark hair and eyes. Honestly such a silly rule because no teacher bats an eye at girls wearing skin tight SKIMS dresses or low rise jeans with their g-strings literally visible.

I’m glad matpat finally covered this topic, and in such detail. It’s seriously unfair what students have to go through just to stay in class. I’ve heard horror stories from so many friends about being forced to switch out clothing in front of school staff, among other things.

It also doesn't help that many dress codes are entirely open to interpretation. A friend's 8-year-old daughter got dress coded a couple of weeks ago. Two teachers said her outfit was "inappropriate" (no specifics offered), while her regular teacher and the principal said it was fine. The outfit in question was a charming blue floral romper that hit just above her knees, covered her chest, and had fairly thick spaghetti straps topped with bows. I've seen more scandalous outfits in a Southern Baptist church. She looked...like an 8-year-old girl.

I work at a school, and I find dress codes incredibly unfair. Targeting a kid because of what they wear makes them not want to come to school. Some can’t afford clothes that would meet the criteria.

My last school disapproved any crop-tops or make-up excluding light LIGHT make-up because "we should focus on our studies and not on our looks" so one day our whole class including boys came in with short skirts, crop-tops and full make-up. Let's just say our sterotypical teacher wasn't happy

I had a friend in school who would wear a thin strapped tank top and walk past multiple teachers without getting dress coded. A girl did it once and she was immediately dress coded. My psych class did a whole survey on it because it's such a problem at my school.

My middle school forced us to only wear clothes that are a solid color, because apparently having a shirt or pants or a jacket with more than one color on it is too distracting.

in my high school, one girl asked why she couldn’t wear leggings (in a class that was only full of girls) to gym class, our teacher (a woman) started off by saying “well, the guy teachers would be uncomfortable…”

11:20 Also for those that don't know and from outside the community, Durags are a tool used to help achieve a short cut black hairstyle called "waves" where our hair becomes a wavy texture which IS considered professional but those making the rules don't understand we need it to get that hairstyle and only associate it with pop culture or gang culture .

I go to school in a german gymnasium and as long as our clothes aren’t showing the “private areas” we are allowed to wear whatever we want (except hats for some reason). It doesn’t change our learning in any way and the students are extremely peaceful for the most part. Most of the teachers are even chill enough to just let uns get up in the middle of class to go to the toilet without saying anything. That said there are some weird rules as well. For example we are not allowed to sit on the floor during the breaks.