Reflection Essay on A Defective and Detrimental Dress Code

In “A Defective and Detrimental Dress Code” an essay by Hadley Reeder, claims that the dress codes that implemented by her high school fail to clearly state enforcement policy that led into a social injustice that is biased towards women. Reeder stated that the failure to clearly enforce the dress code equally between male and female students in her high school and the society led to destroy young girls mentally by making them always feel overly conscious of their body. In her essay, Reeder hopes for her high school to enforce equal dress codes toward male and female students that will not led to mentally affect female student in the longer term. To accomplish this goal, Reeder uses anecdotal evidence including personal observation evidence and personal testimonies, appeal to authority, and later in the essay she stated her awareness of her opposition point of view and address that she not against the dress code but instead she wants a dress code that is fair for all students by using appeal to the opposition. 

Firstly, Reeder starts off by using anecdotal evidence by providing evidence of observation she made about the dress code from her own high school and quickly points out its flaws. The evidence purposefully conveys to the reader her belief that her high school dress codes are failing to inform students how the dress code will be implemented, Reeder began her story by showing an actual example of her high school dress code that clearly states what not to wear but the policies does not imply how it will be enforced at all which she believes is the reason of “the failure of [her] high school dress code” (Reeder 299). by doing so, the author wants the reader to spot the shortcoming of the dress code policies from the actual dress code which will prove her points to the reader that it is really happening in her school, and it also can be used as a steppingstone later in her essay while she is trying to prove that these flaws will lead to the unfairness of the dress code “neither the dress code nor the student handbook identifies the dress-code enforcer […] how the dress code will be implemented to promote social justice” (Reeder 300) because there is no clear statement about how it should be implemented, which is her part of her main arguments.  

Later in her essay, Reeder uses personal testimonies which are her own experience and people around. The testimony starts with a comparison between a male student that violated the dress code and herself which show the reader that the gender discrimination is cause by the lack of statement on how the dress code is being enforced. She begins with a story about her male classmate that wore a “half-naked woman” on his shirt for “multiples days” which is clearly inappropriate but did not get any punishment at all but compared to her own experience where the teacher finds her clothes were inappropriate and give her a punishment in public that were not “listed in the dress code” (Reeder 300). By making this point Reeder wanted the reader to see that even though both students were in violation of school dress code she as a female were discriminated against because she is the only one that receiving the punishment “[the teacher] give me the option to change my clothes (which I didn’t have) or do detention” (Reeder 300). This help to validate her point to the audience that the dress code in her school is biased toward female student. Furthermore, in her essay Reeder uses appeal to authority by using credential source which is “Anna Kessel, athletic reporter and writer for The Guardian and The Observer” (Reeder 300) that stated that the social injustice toward the ways women dress led to mentally affected the young girl. In this case Reeder revealed to the reader consequences of the bias dress code toward women which drawn upon her main argument. As you can see Reeder has proven every point of her argument is accurate, through that Reeder can invalid all the counter argument that reader may have against her main argument. 

Lastly, Reeder acknowledged the opposition point of view toward her stance by using appeal to the opposition. Reeder want to used appeal to opposition to inform the reader that she is not against the dress code “students do need some limitation as to what they can and cannot wear to school.” (Reeder 301) but instead she wants a dress code that imposes equality to all students “without fair enforcement by the school staff members to all the students, I argue, this dress code fails in its goal” (Reeder 301). In this account Reeder want to target the audiences that has point of view that schools “need” dress codes to assure the best environment for students. by telling them that she agrees with them, and she is also working for the same goal but there are problems within the existing dress code that need to change to achieve the goal. By doing so, the target audience will not have any objections that will invalidate the author's main argument. 

Finally, Throughout the essay the author is consistently proving her main argument that her school dress code is fail to enforce fairly among students, and it will affect mental state of student later. She accomplished her goal using anecdotal evidence including personal observation evidence and personal testimonies, appeal to authority, and appeal to the opposition.