Part III:

After discussing the many issues with the dress code amongst our group we all felt that the dress code had a massive gender bias that really contributes to how the dress code functions. Gender bias is behavior that shows favoritism toward one gender over another. Most often, gender bias is the act of favoring men and/or boys over women and/or girls. To test this theory, we created an experiment. Two male participants from our very group were to wear “dress-codable” items and go about their day as a student of Pasco High. Our first participant, a senior named Alexis Hernandez, wore both crop tops and short shorts. Over a three-day period, Alexis experimented with the staff and teachers around the school. A more in-depth passage on his personal experience;

Alexis- “During my time participating in the group project, I wore a crop top and really short shorts together for two days and on a different day I wore just a crop top. During my first day wearing my crop top and short shorts I received no reactions nor was I dressed coded. It was almost as if they didn’t pay attention to my appearance. I even did as much as stretch my arms out to show a portion of my skin to see if any security or staff would notice and I was not dress coded and did not receive any stares. On my second attempt of wearing the outfit, my goal was to walk in front of a group of staff or security and see their reactions. They proceeded to say nothing, but I did receive stares. This time I did receive a reaction from them, which was multiple stares, but no comments. It’s not what I was expecting, but I at least got their attention. On my final attempt of wearing the outfit, I only wore my crop because my legs sadly got cold. I didn’t have a particular goal that day but the moment I walked around the hallway I was asking teachers and I quote, “Hey Ms. you like my crop top?” I raised my arms to the point my whole tummy showed, and I received awkward stares and as I saw another staff passing by, I repeated the same question, “Hey Ms. you like my crop?!!!!!!” and I instantly received praise for my crop top almost as if the staff didn’t care. My favorite part of that day was when I went into the office, the last place I would think of going but yolo, so I went in. I repeated the same sentence, and I was just given the most awkward stares and received no comments. I was not asked to cover myself or was I asked to go home and change. My last stop of the day was when I was walking around the school and I saw a staff member and I walked up towards her and repeated what I said and she said “That’s not a lot skin anyways” and that’s when I walked to the security office where I also did not get asked to cover anything or was asked to go home, it was fun though.”

The next student who helped test the dress code is Juan Orozco, a senior here at Pasco High. While he didn’t do exactly the same thing Alexis did, Juan wore serval items clearly breaking the dress code, and here is what he has to say about his experience:

Juan- “I decided to agree to an experiment to break the dress code and see if I could get in trouble. I looked at the dress code guideline sheet, and basically took three things from it. I wore a jersey promoting alcohol, a chain that has the depiction of a weapon, and ripped jeans that showed basically all my thigh. All three were clear violations of the dress code. I walked around the school all day long and was not even looked at by staff. Security didn’t seem to mind, teachers generally didn’t care, and as a matter of fact, a staff member complimented my jersey when it was clear that it was breaking the dress code. My experience with the dress code is that guys will probably not get told anything unless they are wearing something over the top.”

Given the results of the experiment the conclusion is final. There is without a doubt a gender bias when it comes to the dress code. Not only where the test subjects allowed go on about their day undisturbed, they were also often complimented on the items they wore. The exact opposite reaction many female students have received over the years in regard to their physical appearance. The environment here at Pasco High School is unfair and biased and the experiment proves this indisputably. The young women of this school deserve just as much freedom, self-expression, and respect as the rest of this school. Until we are all treated the same the dress code will forever be an issue. A special thank you to our participants of the experiment.