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Male students don off-the-shoulder tops in sexist dress code protest

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Everyday, a new story comes out of the US about the double standards implemented in many of the high school and middle school dress codes across the pond. 

At some schools, female students are presented with a list of extensive rules which dictate how long their sleeves should be, what length a skirt can be, and how much shoulder is too much to show. 

San Benito high school in Hollister, California is one such school, and as the school's girls returned to education after the summer, they were told that off-the-shoulder tops (one of the season's biggest trends) were unacceptable.

In protest, the male students at the school came in wearing off-the-shoulder tops themselves, to highlight the ridiculous nature of the dress code. 

'A lot of people want to emphasise the male students' part in this protest, which I respect, but the purpose of this whole thing was to protest sexism against female students,' Andrei Vladimirov, a student at San Benito  told Teen Vogue.

'Not being able to wear a certain type of shirt may seem like a minor problem to some people, but it is representative of something much larger in society — the fact that women are still, today, being subjected to the dominance of male ideology.'

'Women deserve to be treated with the utmost respect, and this entails being able to dress as one pleases.'

'Women should be able to wear what they want without being systemically objectified — treated as if they have no personal sovereignty,' he finished.

While it is unfortunate that it was only after the male students stepped in to protest the dress code that it gained attention, hopefully this will be a step in the right direction of dismantling sexist dress codes for good. 

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