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Kids’ understanding of gender roles is getting more and murkier, say parents, and school dress codes are to blame. For the past several years, dress codes have been under fire for blurring teens’ understanding of gender roles in the society. School dress codes are constantly advocating male dominance and gender stereotypes. Female sexuality is often portrayed in a bad light by these dress codes. It’s supposedly a girl’s duty to cover up because boys can’t help getting distracted. School administration pigeonhole their students in a narrowly defined description of what a girls should wear and what a boys is supposed to do.
Here are some shocking instances of how gender stereotypes in schools work:
Girl axed out of her prom because she was wearing pants
In an incident in North Caroline, a girl was curtly asked by a teacher to leave the event after authorities noticed she was wearing red skinny jeans. Shapher Rupard, who felt comfortable in this kind of outfit wasn’t accepted for who she was in a prom held at the town’s country club. Rupard’s mom says her daughter wanted to feel comfortable in her own skin but school authorities weren’t ready to accept her that way. She further said that the school admin had not provided prior instructions as to what the dress code was for the event.
14-year-old boy told off for wearing make-up
When 14-year-old Chris Martin decided to wear eye-liner, eye-shadows and lipstick to his last day at school, he never knew his gender expression would be rejected so badly. Martin, who had been bullied in the past for his gender expression, was asked by the school administration to wash his face. The principal told the boy’s parents that it was unnecessary and ridiculous for males to wear make-up. /Martin’s parents demand a safe and inclusive school environment for all students especially those with a different point of view.
8-year-old girl kicked out of school for not being ‘girly’ enough
Sunnie Kahle, an 8-year-old girl studying in Timberlake Christian School was expelled because she wore short hair, sneakers and t-shirts to school. Her legal guardians, her grandparents received a letter from the administration of TCS saying that Kahle was not girly enough. The ‘biblical standards’ on which the school was built on required her to dress and behave like a girl because God had made her one. If she failed to so, she was no more welcome to attend the school anymore.
Incidents like these define the narrow pigeonhole we are pushing out kids into. Our society has formed stereotypes about genders. Anyone who deviates is not only excluded but also bullied into discontinuing their way of thinking.