Whispered Thoughts and Screaming Lines

a letter to dress code

This is a letter to the school dress code

I remember, my freshman year of high school

the P.E teacher told us to stop wearing leggings or workout shorts because we would be "asking for it" if a guy looked at us or touched us

Of course the males did not get this talk, or at least that is what i assumed when the next day a guy was running around the football field with his shirt off

i found out later, that the boys had also not been informed to keep their hands to themselves

I remember, my sophomore year, when my friend texted me one night scared to wear a dress to school because she was sick of being touched and looked at like a prize by the guys in our grade

It is now my junior year, and in a hoodie and jeans i get catcalled and groped in the hallways because they have been too busy telling the females what to wear instead of teaching the males not to objectify us

I have been shown that my education is not merely as important than a males, when I seen multiple females get sent home or to ISS because their bra straps where showing when the guy next to them had on a shirt with the playboy bunny on it

I will not sit in silence and watch females be objectified, sexualized, and treated like a prize for the males to touch when they feel deprived

I will speak up until you show me that our education means more than our style and how a man perceives us.

I will speak up until my male teachers stop telling me that I am dressed "inappropriately" when I have a flannel on over a tank top because you can see the upper portion of my chest

I will speak up until my voice is heard.

I will speak up until I am treated like a human.