No one likes it. No one follows it. And no one enforces it.

It’s the dress code.

Every year, new rules are added. And every year, they are ignored just as steadfastingly as dress code classics that have been around for years (i.e.,”Shorts and skirts must be reasonable and appropriate length”). Since the yoga pant craze swept the nation the past few years, the most recent installment has been the illegalization of “tights” without a top that covers your butt (and/or is “fingertip level”). Again, nobody cares enough to even acknowledge that the rule exists.

The question I’m asking is this: what is the purpose of the dress code? To make students dress professionally for forced attendance to an educational institution? To avoid having a uniform while still restricting students’ rights to fashion as much as possible? Or, my personal favorite, to help the hormonal males in the school stay focused on their equations?

If the first option is true, then I suggest the second option. If the administration really feels that women dressing in their comfortable, form-fitting leggings is inappropriate and unprofessional, then they should bite the bullet and force every student to comply to their idea of professionalism, as it obviously contrasts to what teenage ladies think. The expectation that 800 fourteen- to eighteen-year-old girls will come to the same dreary building for 180 days out of the year at a ridiculously early hour wearing a wholesome and appropriate outfit every day is unrealistic, especially with stores selling what they do.

Because, let’s be honest, the dress code is only for the women. You can yell at men because their far-too-loose boxers are bagging over the top of their jeans all you want, but they’re just going yank up the pants and walk on by. The female body, for some reason, is a thing both admired and feared. Since ancient times, female dress has been heavily dictated by the culture. Even now, I wear tops that expose an inch or two of my midriff and I receive disdainful looks on the street from my peers.

Here’s the situation. Both men and women appreciate how a woman’s body looks in a specific way. If a girl feels that the way she can best express herself is through a form-fitting, skin-exposing, figure-complimenting outfit, I say that we tell men to stop staring and do their work instead of telling women they can’t feel beautiful.