Butterworth 1

Taylir Butterworth
Mr. Salow
Research Rough Draft
03 January 2017

Research Outline
A Lot of people, mainly current students, speak about their feelings towards
gender restrictive dress codes. Most are against the idea and rules of gender restrictive
dress codes, but there are a few that are for it due to religion or believed tradition.
Out of all of the articles that are against gender restrictive dress
codes, there was one that was mainly from the perspective of males. The rest of
the article are very strongly noted from females. The article begins like this,
High school boys wearing dresses strike a pose with big smiles on their faces.
They know they're breaking school rules, but they hope their gender-defying
outfits will spark change. (www.nytimes.com) This article has opinions and
situations that male students have said and been in. With this article having a
strong male opinion, that could be a convincing factor to some readers. The article
starts off getting into detail and opinions over the male students rebelling
against the gender dress codes. Then moves into other accounts of situations from
all genders.
A lot of the other articles i had found were based off of the
opinions and actions of female students and employees. Beginning with "Maggie
Sunseri was a middle-school student in Versailles, Kentucky, when she first
noticed a major difference in the way her schools dress code treated males and
females. A middle school student in Versailles, Kentucky feels that dress code

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restrictions are sexist towards females. These policies can perpetuate
discrimination against female students, as well as LGBT students. This article is
based off of the opinions of students that are still in middle and high school and
students who just recently graduated. The writer of this article is just writing
about negative opinions and using negative examples of school dress codes and
regulations. A second article stated, Last year, Anna Loisa Cruz, a seventhgrader at Irvington School in Portland, Ore., was among four students who
testified before the Portland Public Schools Board of Education to talk about
school dress codes. (http://neatoday.org) This article is based off of one group of
girls who are fighting back and arguing for the dress code to be changed and not
to be sexist against the females enrolled at the school. They follow the girls on
what theyre doing to fight back. The article is trying to convince us about the
dress code being sexist by giving examples and many situations the group of girls
have been in and witnessed themselves.
A few articles bring and focus on the law aspects. The first article
begins with, Like many of the educational controversies in this list, issues over
gender-based dress restrictions in school invoke the U.S. Constitution, in this case
the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment, which ensures that laws will
protect all individuals equally, and requires a public school to protect its students
from discrimination because of their gender. (www.topeducationdegrees.org)
The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the U.S. constitution
ensures that laws will protect all individuals equally, and requires a public school
to protect its students from discrimination because of their gender. The author is
also on the side of no gender dress code restrictions. They use a few different

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examples and realistic scenarios. The second article says, Dress code conflicts
announced the beginning of the school year with a bang. Usually, Id provide an
example, but it makes more sense to talk about the Missouri Legislature, where a
few weeks ago, a dress code for interns was proposed, to much dismay and no
small amount of ridicule (www.huffingtonpost.com). The majority of high
schools have a dress code and enforces them. The author of this article is trying
to prove for the side of being against dress codes. They focus on the aspects of the
Missouri Legislature and how they proposed a new dress code for genders. Not
only for students but for other groups in the workplace as well.
One article even has a parents input, BY now, most high school
dress codes have just about done away with the guesswork. this article not only
has the opinions and examples of students, it also has the opinions of adults and
parents who have seen these kids and situations the kids have gone through. The
article really tries to convince the reader to go against the gender dress codes by
focusing on one story of a female student who went against the schools rules and
wore a tuxedo for her yearbook picture. The school tried to ban the picture but the
student fought back.

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Works Cited
1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/every-reason-yourschools_b_8147266.html
2) http://www.topeducationdegrees.org/30-most-controversial-education-practicesin-u-s-history/
3) http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/school-dress-codes-areproblematic/410962/
4) http://neatoday.org/2016/01/06/school-dress-codes-gender-bias/
5) http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/25/living/dress-code-protests-irpt/
6) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/fashion/08cross.html