Back in high school, most of us just grumbled resentfully at every dress-code crackdown. But one Canadian teen, busted for the terrible sin of wearing shorts on a hot day, decided to take a stand.
According to the CBC, Lindsey Stocker and her classmates were all told to stand and hold their hands against their sides for the old fingertip test, the arch nemesis of tall girls across the land. In front of the entire class, Stocker was informed she had to change. But she pushed back:
“When I started explaining why I didn’t understand that rule, they didn’t really want to hear anything I had to say, and it was in front of my entire class. I felt very attacked … and I wanted to tell them how I felt.”
When she outright refused to change, she told the National Post, “They said I was making a bad choice. They kept shaking their heads. In front of everybody.”
Calling the experience “very humiliating,” she added that, “They should approach it in a way that doesn’t target girls at least — for starters — because that’s the first problem. They don’t really care what guys wear. They just kind of target the girls first.”
Pissed, she left the classroom and, inspired by an image she’d seen circulating on Tumblr, printed off several posters declaring, “Don’t humiliate her because she is wearing shorts. It’s hot outside. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.” She was suspended for the day, but not before setting off a social media shitstorm.
The chair of the local school board insisted the rules target boys and girls equally: “The boys can’t run around with their belt buckle low on their bottoms so they have their underwear showing.” But it seems pretty clear that generally, dress-code rules for boys are generally about appearing “neat,” while rules for girls are about “not creating a distraction.” For another example, take the case of several other Canadian teens, punished for showing their bra straps. Put it this way: I’ve never seen a dress code that fretted boys in tank-tops might drive the young ladies wild with lust.
Besides—just imagine the things teachers might have time to teach if their classes weren’t periodically interrupted by shorts-inspecting school officials! Why, they might even have time for a couple of brief lessons about respect for women.