Student Shares School’s 'Creepy' Prom Dress Code That Doesn’t Include Any Rules For The Boys
Problematic dress codes like this are indicative of a much larger issue.
Egora_Shmanko | Shutterstock Problematic dress codes that target girls and women are nothing new. In fact, according to Education Week, 90% of dress codes ban clothing associated with girls. But one school took this to a new level with a prom dress code that many online dubbed "gross" and "creepy."
A student shared her school’s 'creepy' prom dress code that doesn’t include any rules for the boys.
"Look at these awful rules for prom," the Michigan high schooler wrote in her Reddit post. "It's creepy and really upsets a lot of us."
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The first two items on the list seem fairly normal for a school dance. "No plunging necklines" or "plunging backlines," the document states. The wording of the third restriction, however, upset many online.
"Strappless is fine, but it must 'contain' you without visible cleavage," it read. "Anyone who has been to a wedding will understand when we say the most common activity after dancing is the 'dress yank.' Remember, at a dance you aren’t standing perfectly still like you do in the dressing room!" While strapless dresses do tend to slip slightly when you rock out on the dance floor, many found issue with the phrasing of "contain."
Finally, girls were to have no exposed middrifts or prom dresses with slits. "Hemlines should be no shorter than three inches above the knees," the dress code concluded. Anyone who broke these rules would have three options: "tweak it, change, or leave."
The boys had no such regulations.
Unsurprisingly, there were no descriptive rules about what the boys could and could not wear to their prom. "[The] boy dress code just says: tux not required," the student added in a comment. "That's it."
Theoretically, the boys could wear dresses with plunging necklines, high slits, and short hemlines without problem. Some commenters suggested they do just that to spite the school administration; however, the Redditor said that they would be unwilling.
Still, students at other schools have protested their sexist dress codes in a similar manner. For example, in 2020, 100 teenage boys in Quebec wore skirts to school to fight against the gendered double standard in their school's dress code. "By wearing a skirt, we are united and together against the sexualization of women, and we’re sending a message against toxic masculinity," 16-year-old Zachary Pauli, who organized the protest, explained.
Problematic dress codes like this are indicative of a much larger issue.
Many teenage girls have been told not to wear tight clothing or spaghetti straps because they could "distract the boys" in class. However, the fact that we police what girls and women wear rather than teach boys and men to control their actions is a major issue. This statement is one small step away from asking a woman what she was wearing when she was assaulted.
Of course, outlawing shirts with offensive language and imagery makes sense in high school, but restricting what girls can wear for the sake of their male counterparts perpetuates the idea that women's bodies are inherently sexual, inappropriate, and requiring regulation.
Audrey Jaber is a writer and associate editor with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
