Disclaimer: This is written by a girl who honestly thinks that if the dress code is going to be so strict, we might as well have a uniform. It would save every girl from the stress that apparently comes from trying to impress everyone every day.

The Deerfield girls’ dress code is meant to be “classy” and conservative (because my shoulders and lower back are not classy, but rather deeply inappropriate).

Saying that the only “acceptable” way to dress is a J. Crew sweater and a knee-length skirt only adds to the exclusive culture that we so often claim we are trying to ameliorate. Instead of shaming girls for wearing shorts to class in the spring, we should rather stop over-sexualizing a universally possessed part of the body.

The Deerfield dress code implies that every girl should look more or less similar. Should it not be more important that a girl feels comfortable and happy and HERSELF in what she’s wearing?

High school should be about finding yourself, not getting lost in whom everyone else seems to be. Deerfield is indirectly telling you who you should be through this dress code, and that’s simply not okay for us easily impressionable teens.

I believe that either the dress code should be more free or we should officially become a uniformed school—it wouldn’t be much of a jump because it already looks like a uniform anyway.