From here:
Dress code policies have become a flashpoint in school districts in Ontario and the Maritimes in recent weeks.
Dozens of students at A.B. Lucas Secondary School in London, Ont., rallied Wednesday in support of Grade 12 student Laura Anderson, who was sent home earlier this week after wearing a loose-fitting, sleeveless top and ripped jeans to school.
An online petition said the school’s dress code is premised on the “outdated” notion that female students should “cover up” because they could distract male students.
“The sexualization of a teenage girl’s body is not her problem, it is the problem of those who choose to sexualize a 17-year-old’s body,” the petition said.
A culture that is infused with Christian values – as ours used to be even though its members may have frequently strayed from them – understands that modesty is, in and of itself, a virtue. Specifically in the case of women’s clothing, as St. Paul said:
I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. 1 Tim 2:9-10
I would like to try that out on the girls in A.B. Lucas Secondary School if only to see how gustily they would laugh at the notion.
The sad truth is, Christianity and its understating of right, wrong, vice and virtue has not only been abandoned by Western civilization, it is actively ridiculed and suppressed so there can be no rights or wrongs in this mess only outdated notions.
Although, as the article goes on to note, there is at least one virtue left: experimenting with identity. Preferably immodestly:
“If you ask me, high school is not only a place of learning, but a place to experiment with identity.”
As a young man myself once………and only once……..I can attest that young guys don’t need a lot of extra visual overload.
Please excuse the crudity of this comment but…
The girl wants to dress like a slut but it is everyone else’s fault if the look at her and see a sex object, and this in a society that celebrates all sorts of sexual perversions and a complete lack of sexual inhibition. We have our teenagers being taught all sorts of things about how great sex is, and that it is to be enjoyed and indulged in. But don’t look at the slutty girl and think that she’s easy!!!
Truly this “it’s my right to express myself” crap has gone way too far. School is supposed to educate, not indulge. Part of the education should include preparation for the work-force, and that includes dress codes (sometimes uniforms) that are enforced by employers. We as a society would be doing our children a favour by enforcing a dress code in our schools. Instead we are inflicting a disservice upon them by allowing them to be completely irresponsible.
The problem isn’t that boys stare, the problem is that some boys go further. And I’m finding it difficult to countenance the argument that boys have no agency in how they handle the female form, and therefore it’s the girl’s responsibility not to arouse them. Men are not dogs.
If a woman walks around entirely nude, you may have all kinds of opinions on her morals or lack thereof, but if you grope her, it’s still your fault.
Certainly we must take responsibility for our own actions. So a boy sexualizing a scantily clad girl would be responsible for his own actions, and rightly so.
But let us also consider the actions of the girl. She has also acted, by dressing in a sexually provocative way, and in doing so has projected a particular image of herself. She should accept responsibility for this.
I fully understand that it is politically incorrect to assign any blame to a woman who has been sexually assaulted, no matter how she has dressed, where she has placed herself, nor by how she has behaved. But lets have a reality check here. If a woman dresses like a slut, behaves like a slut, and hangs out at places where men expect to find sluts, than it should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone when she gets treated like a slut. Understand that I am not saying “she asked for it”. What I am saying is that when a person places themselves into a high risk situation they should not be surprised when something bad happens, and by their actions of willingly going into a high risk situation take on some of the responsibility.
Put another way…
If you play with fire then don’t complain when you get burned.
This is what should be taught in our schools, and not that our society has become a sexual free for all without consequences.
You _are_ saying that men are “fire”. Without agency. You _are_ saying that the outcome of the “high risk situation” (“dressing like a slut”) is getting “treated like a slut” — groped, abused, raped — because… men can’t help themselves, I suppose, that’s the only way I can understand your argument to make any sense.
You are, in fact, saying that rape is bad, but it’s not really the man’s fault if he was provoked.
You qualify it a bit by adding “behaving like a slut and hanging out in places where men can expect to find sluts” — which still implies that men are dogs who look for this, but in any case, that’s not what this post is about, is it? We’re talking high school kids, in high school. Are high schools places where men expect to find sluts these days?
I find it bewildering that you would use the canard “Understand that I am not saying “she asked for it”” — that’s precisely what you are saying.
I foresee that this point will be moot after the law suit reaches the Supreme Court to eliminate gender from the birth certificate, (being launched by the little Californian girl,(boy), who successfully sued to have her gender changed on his/her Birth Certificate, as he/she is living as a girl). This is also being brought before the Saskatchewan Humans Rights Commission by the mother of her boy living as a girl. The extreme expression of “Gender Fluity”, no gender at all, pick from the shelve, help yourself. Now that’s fluity baby! So why would your choice of attire matter.
I surrender.
Wonder where “progressive” Christian churches stand on this one.
If you look at what she was wearing when she was sent home, it really wasn’t bad. No bared midriff. There’s a photo here: http://london.ctvnews.ca/dress-code-in-question-after-lucas-student-sent-home-1.2392265
She was in no way dressed like a “slut.”
My daughters all went to a school that mandated uniforms and was strict about how those uniforms were worn. If all schools did this, a lot of problems would solve themselves. Also, it’s a money saver.
School uniforms solve all these problems. I wore school uniforms in Hong Kong in the 40s and 50s.
For what it is worth ‘we’ collectively have laid bare………no pun intended……..the premise that ‘rights’ trump ‘ responsibility’. The law business has perpetuated this .