A North Dakota school bans yoga pants, and likens them to “prostitute wear”.
Dress codes in schools are nothing new. Even if you’re not relegated to a uniform, most schools outlaw various clothing items. I often hear about no spaghetti straps on girls, no short skirts on girls, no offensive language on shirts etc. etc. etc.
Let’s be honest, rarely, aside from the offensive language bit, do we hear about dress codes that would affect boys. Usually, dress codes single out provocative clothing because the school deems it inappropriate and, even worse, a distraction for boys.
Oh no! Boys are distracted by midriff! Cover up the girls!
One school in North Dakota has taken it further and to keep boys’ eyes on their books rather than on bottoms, has banned yoga pants.
Somewhere Chip Wilson has his face in his hands.
Super comfy yoga pants have been given the heave-ho by the high school because their body-hugging is deemed inappropriate, too distracting.
It’s amazing my leggings and baby doll dresses back in the 90s passed muster. I guess my junior high just didn’t care.
“According to [the] North Dakota high school, however, skinny jeans, yoga pants, and leggings are also ‘distracting,’ and are considered a violation of the school’s dress code. Such attire will also make young women look like sex workers, apparently.
Recently, Devils Lake High School began a crackdown on all three types of clothing because, according to school officials, they could cause boys to ‘focus on something other than schoolwork,’” wrote Jenny Kutner for Salon.
“The school’s assistant principal told Fox affiliate WGHP that in order to explain the dress code stipulation, Devils Lake had female students watch two clips from the film Pretty Woman and compared their attire to Julia Roberts’. As you might recall, she plays a prostitute in the movie,” Kutner said.
First of all, what on God’s green earth is a school doing showing Pretty Woman in school? It’s a movie about a prostitute! Who cares that it was awesome. Yoga pants are offensive but a movie about a prositute is a-ok?
But more importantly, explain to me why a boy’s need to focus on his work has anything to do with their female counterpart’s decision to wear her Lululemons to school.
Kutner questions what lessons are being taught by school boards taking a stand against a perfectly reasonable woman’s garment. What are we teaching our girls? What are we teaching our boys?
“Dictating that young women change their appearance because they are ‘distracting’ men inherently objectifies them, and it teaches girls to be ashamed of their bodies. Moreover, it sends the wrong message to boys: It tells them that they cannot control themselves or their desires; what’s worse, it also tells them that their inability to respect others is acceptable. No, not just acceptable — it’s worthy of protection,” she writes.
Men are not animals and women are not objects. Our children are never too young nor too old to learn to respect both themselves and other people. As a mother of both a girl and a boy I will teach them both to present their bodies with respect and dignity and to respect other people for who they are, not what they wear.
‘But boys will be boys.’
What does that say about my son? That he has no choice but to check out a girl’s butt when he should be focused on a chapter in his math book. Bull. People who think that enable that. Or, as Kutner said, protects a boy’s right to ogle. But I don’t buy it for a second.
Not only do I not buy they have no control, but I also don’t buy that yoga pants are evil from which anyone needs to be protected.
Maybe if we tell our boys to focus on what it’s important rather than tell our girls they shouldn’t’ tempt them we would teach them both that it is not a girl’s responsibility to get a boy to focus. Because it isn’t.
Why do we blame girls for unfocused boys?
Why do we blame pants for unfocused boys?
Why is it that we don’t blame the boys themselves?
Probably because we tell them with dress codes that we believe that they can’t control themselves.
How about instead of giving yoga pants all of the credit, we give our boys some?
Carly Link, a 33-year old mother of two toddlers. She is a parent and goes through a lot of the usual parenting difficulties herself. Carly shares all her experiences and knowledge about the best baby products through this blog.
