Persuasive Essay Sample: Why Should Dress Codes Be Banned In Schools

Students are forced to wear specific types of clothes while other pieces are forbidden to wear such as ripped jeans, tank tops, leggings, etc. Women are often the ones who are more targeted than men which makes it unfair. Students feel limited, uncomfortable and sexualised. Why can’t people wear what they want? Therefore, I think that we should ban dress codes.  

Firstly, no one should have the right to seat rules on what is allowed to wear and not. According to the United Nations declaration of human rights article 19, “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”. Nobody should own your body and say that you need, for example, to wear baggy clothes instead of a tank top. Moreover, girls are often the ones who have more restricting rules than boys. Why can’t people mind their own business? Some people use their style to express themselves and should be able to dress how they want. It’s important to be comfortable with what you wear. Would you want to wear clothes that aren't your style? No, I wouldn't think so. 

Secondly, it’s hard for students to find stores with clothes that are allowed to wear in school, especially for girls. What if you need to buy new things because you can’t wear anything from your wardrobe? That will make students spend a lot of money and perhaps people don’t have money to afford these things. Many schools have, for instance, a fingertip rule which means that skirts and dresses need to go down to your fingertip when you hold your arms straight. That will make it hard for women to find dresses or skirts that are that long since the selection in stores isn’t big at all. Therefore, dress codes can make students feel stressed, pressured and insecure because they don’t feel comfortable in their skin. 

However, many people claim that it can make students concentrate more on their studies which will make them less distracted in school. Indeed, pupils can get more disciplined in school since it promotes a more serious atmosphere. Although, if a student gets suspended because of what they wear, it will make them miss a lot of their education since they need to change clothes. Moreover, girls are often the ones who get sexualised. In The New York Times, Sabrina Barndel, a fellow at the Nationals Women’s Law Center states: “Dress codes are definitely sexist, she said”. “They put the onus on girls to not be distracting or not call attention to themselves instead of putting the onus on all students to respect everyone's body”.Why are women always the problem? People can stop going to school because they feel limited and don't see the importance of education anymore. 

In conclusion, we should ban dress codes in schools. That will make students more self-confident, feel less pressured and limited. But I can understand why people think dress codes are good since they can make them less distracted. However, we can not take away their personal identity since it’s a part of who they are. The first thing we can do to solve the problem is to first take away the rules of the upper body like thin straps, showing your collarbone, etc. Then do it step by step before taking away all the rules.