...and won.
Ava Rheeve and Julia Going, two seniors at Wisconsin’s Cedarburg High School, protested — and won — after the school announced that masks would be optional, yet the dress code would persist. For Rheeve and Going, these guidelines brought to focus a blatant double standard: that spaghetti straps and skirts are more threatening than the coronavirus.
In an interview with The Lily, Rheeve called out the administration’s contradictory policies. “They say my shoulders are somehow a distraction to a boy’s education,” she explained. “Well, then, isn’t it also distracting to wonder if that person over there might be breathing pandemic germs all over me?” In choosing to shame young women for certain clothing choices while condoning possible exposure to the virus, it was clear that Cedarburg’s priorities were set in the wrong place.
Since long before the pandemic, dress codes have been highly politicized. In American school systems, most clothing regulations target women's bodies, shaming girls for showing skin on behalf of the “comfort” or “focus” of men, which inherently sexualizes them.
Despite adjusting Cedarburg’s mask mandate, Rheeve and Going exposed the contradictions of their administration. And since the start of the school year across the country, many states are beginning to rethink their plans of re-entry.The COVID-19 Pandemic Continues To Disproportionately Affect Women 5 Corona Mask Protests That Miss the Point
Olivia Simonds is a graduate of Clark University with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a minor in English literature and creative writing. Much of her work is inspired by long subway rides, her friendships, and the perpetual pulse of New York City, where she grew up and still lives today. Tags: masks , reopening , schools , dress code , feminists
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