In Class Writing- "What do Dress Codes Say about Girls’ Bodies?”
The author of this article does seem invested in the article because she is also a woman. This article has everything to do with current issues in todays world, how women dress and their “image” is talked about world wide. School dress codes for girls have major controversy, this author could be motivated to talk about this topic in her article because this topic has so many different opinions. The audience for this piece can range from young middle schoolers to grown adults, school dress codes affects everyone from the children to the parents. Most know how telling young girls what is “appropriate” to wear is wrong and can mess with their self esteem and how they grow up to think of themselves. I picked this piece because I personally can relate to being told what I can and can not wear, I grew up in a private school and was told constantly what was to “revealing” or what would make the boys look at me in all the wrong ways; and as a young girl that makes you look at yourself very differently. For some it makes your self esteem lower and makes you question how you look at yourself.
They started this article by giving a personal example on what its like to hear your parent tell you that you are not leaving the house looking the way you do, it makes the reader personally understanding and involved in the article. Quoting an ordinary person, like a mom telling her young daughter she needs to change-just like I have heard my own mother yell to me the same thing. Having that connection personally made me more interested in the article, it wasn't just to read and respond I was generally interested to see what the authors opinion of school dress code was. This article is more logic heavy, because it is very logical to understand how telling young girls what their creative minds are thinking is “wrong” that the outfits they chose are not okay because of another persons prerogatives are different for example like young hormonal boys interested in these young girls. The word choice was very focused on stating how everything has the boys in mind and not the girls. I agree, this was a good focus because it is true- boys are distracted by girls so they have to change their image therefore their bodies technically are not their own. One last thing the author could have done to reach a specific audience like middle school or high school students is give detailed examples of how girls are sent home in private schools if their outfits are not “appropriate” all based on whether it will distract the boys or not.
