RICHMOND, Va. – School dress codes are emerging as the newest front in the “war on women.”
Earlier this month, a 17-year-old female, Clare, “was kicked out of her prom … because fathers attending the event thought her dress was giving rise to ‘impure thoughts,’” writes TheGuardian.com columnist Jessica Valenti.
The young woman’s dress reportedly passed the “fingertip” test, but was “riding up” while she was on the dance floor. One female chaperone said the dress was “right below” the girl’s “butt cheeks” at one point.
Such facts don’t matter to the left-wingers who are using Clare’s prom misfortunes – which have garnered a surprising amount of media attention – to make the larger point that school dress codes unfairly target girls.
“It’s not just proms that make for problematic interactions for young women,” Valenti warns. “Everyday school dress codes disproportionately target, shame, and punish girls – especially girls who are more developed than their peers.”
The columnist acknowledges that boys are also subjected to school dress codes, but sneers that those rules amount to little more than requiring males to keep their “pants up” and turn their t-shirts with drug references inside-out.
Valenti maintains school dress codes primarily exist to tell young women that their “outfits – their bodies, really – are too distracting for men to be expected to comport themselves with dignity and respect.”
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