Pop Culture Tuesday - I Am More Than A Distraction

It's no secret that dress codes are pretty much a necessity for every school even they don't have a uniform. It's also not a secret that these dess codes and 'uniform policies' police women's bodies. It seems to be every other day that I read some article about a teenage girl sent home in disgrace becausue her shoulders were showing and that would 'distract the male students'.

Here's why that's problematic:

1) It enforces the idea that 'boys will be boys' and can't be held responsible for their actions if a girl is wearing revealing clothing and she is sexually assaulted. This promotes victim blaming.
2) It promotes the concept that what a girl wears is more important than how she uses her brain. This objectifies women.
3) It's humiliating - especially if you're a teenage girl. You're going though puberty - breasts are developing for one thing and a top you wore 2 months ago when you were still an A-cup now just accentuates your chest and some 'teachers' see that as inappropriate and vilify you for having a body that is going through female puberty and is a fact of life.
4) IT PROMOTES THE IDEA THAT A BOY'S EDUCATION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN A GIRL'S.

It is blatant sexism and everyone knows it. It's gender discrimantion in most cases, a typical male versus female debate in which the man almost always comes out on top because society is so deeply rooted within the patriarchy that we value a boy's education over a girl's.

My favourite reason though has to be when a teenage girl at a public high school in America got sent home after her t-shirt was 'distracting' to male teachers because it was deemed 'too revealing' and by that they mean 'it didn't cover every part of her bare skin'. Surely a teacher is professional enough not to be distracted by a teenage girl's body?

In retaliation to these incidents, a twitter hashtag #IAmMoreThanADistraction was trending and set tongues wagging - because girls are more than a distraction. We are human beings with developing bodies, a brain like any other person on the planet and a voice to speak out on any discrimination - gender or otherwise.

Pop Culture Tuesday: Body Objectification

This is my first PCT post and today I'm going to be looking at Chris Pratt's comment that “I think it’s appalling that for a long time only women were objectified, but I think if we really want to really advocate for equality, it’s important to not objectify women less, but objectify men as often as we objectify women.”
Slight problem there Chris. Equality doesn't mean objectifying people more, but less. Equality means to stop treating everyone like they're a piece of meat to be savoured. Equality is fighting to stop valuing others based on just looks but personality, intelligence etc. We need to stop placing so much on face body value and concentrate on what's really important: the people we are and the people we hope to become.
I mean, let's face it, while men haven't been objectified as much as women (not by a long shot). they're still objectified. We need to stop admiring people based on looks and physique and concentrate on spreading the word of feminism and fighting towards the common goal of gender equality. Objectification is inequality because the person being objectified doesn't really have a choice on whether they're objectified or not (no matter what they're wearing) and the power is in the hands of the objectifier.
What do you guys think? Do you think Chris was right or wrong? Comment below.