Why Banning Yoga Pants From High Schools Isn’t The Answer
Yoga pants are amazing. They hug your body perfectly. They up your confidence by at least 50%. Putting on a pair of yoga pants is literally like receiving a hug from the warmest, most considerate person in the world.
But I have noticed that high schools are banning such beautiful pants for the sole purpose of adult men feeling less uncomfortable around underage girls. Could you imagine the phone call home? “Hello, yes, your daughter goes to school here and I am a happily married man with three beautiful children of my own, but your daughter’s ass in those yoga pants is too much for me to handle. Yes, I am sexually attracted to your daughter, and it’s her fault. So she needs to change.” Remember the male chaperones that sent girls home from senior prom for “excessive cleavage?”
And women can never be too careful, can we? It starts at such an early age. Little girls have to wear bras underneath their shirts to give the illusion to pervy old men that they are somehow more female than their male counterparts. In grade school, we’re not allowed to show even our shoulders. Our first day of college orientation is a bullet point list of how not to get raped. Don’t wear skirts, don’t go out at night, don’t walk alone, don’t drink, don’t have fun, and don’t do anything that a man would do without thinking twice about it, as if any of our precautions are respected anyway. The quick solution is to realize that women are human beings and not just sexual objects.
Banning certain clothes from girls is the first step in misogyny. And I know it sounds really far-fetched, because controlling children is what America does best, so why not tell girls what not to wear? Boys can’t wear gang-affiliated attire, so girls can’t wear tank tops, dresses, skirts, sweatpants, yoga pants, brightly colored bras, t-shirt bras, shirts that show their armpits, shirts that show cleavage, shorts, anything that will distract the boys from getting their education. It turns into internalized hatred of women, and a lot of people don’t even realize that it’s happening. When people see or hear a sexist joke, like telling a man he is a “pussy” or posting a meme explaining that if your boyfriend doesn’t fish or shoot guns, you may have a girlfriend, they laugh. What’s so wrong with having a girlfriend? Women are great. Where’s the insult? Being a woman has turned into the most disgusting thing a man could ever be. Rapist? Fine. Murderer? Fine. Slightly feminine? God forbid.
But it’s not only men. Women are becoming more and more uncomfortable with other women as well. When a confident lady walks into the room, short skirt, breasts out, flaunting her amazing body to people who probably don’t even deserve it, she will receive rude looks from the women who should be empowering her. Why would anyone ever want to show his or her skin? It’s only 90 degrees, you put that jacket on right now. If a woman’s bra is showing, another woman will point it out as if she’s doing her a favor. “Hey, that bra you paid $50 for is showing. You should put that away before anyone sees it.”
There are reasons to have dress codes in high school, I’m sure, but when they’re focused only on young girls, it becomes a problem. It gives men the idea that they can tell women what to do and who to be, and ultimately hypersexualizes women. It starts with clothes, but it never ends there.