School apologises after 'sexist' dress code video
A school in Texas has apologised after being called out for filming a ‘sexist’ dress code video.
In the video made by staff at The Marcus High School, teenage girls are shown wearing shorts, with some close up shots of their bare legs.
The girls were then sent to a room for ‘dress code violators’ where a teacher asks them to recite “I will not wear athletic shorts” over and over.
After being shared to Twitter by student Cat Morning, the video quickly drew attention thanks to the fact that only female pupils were shown to be reprimanded despite the fact that the school is mixed sex.
Today my school was shown this video. So sad how ONLY girls are shown as the violators. I understand why my school has a dresscode, but what about the boys who wear shorts, or show their shoulders? It’s 2018…Why are we still over-sexualizing teen girls? pic.twitter.com/fCXymYAIEG
— cat (@catmoring) August 16, 2018
“Today my school was shown this video,” Cat Moring wrote on Twitter.
“So sad how ONLY girls are shown as the violators. I understand why my school has a dresscode, but what about the boys who wear shorts, or show their shoulders? It’s 2018…Why are we still over-sexualizing teen girls?”
Since sharing the video has received more than 1.9K retweets and thousands of comments, with many expressing their upset about the video.
Following the backlash the school’s principal issued a statement of apology admitting the video “absolutely missed the mark”.
“I’m a firm believer that when you make a mistake, you own it, you apologise, and you make it right,” the statement read.
“Please accept my sincere apology for not ensuring our video achieved its intended purpose – to remind ALL students of our dress code expectations.”
Cat also praised the school’s swift response, explaining that she had also had a conversation about the matter with the school’s principal.
I have so much respect for @Marcus_HS principal Mr. Skelton. Today he had an important conversation with me about the issues in the video, and was fully understanding of where the offended female student body was coming from.
— cat (@catmoring) August 17, 2018
She went on to say that the issue of sexism was certainly not confined to her own school.
“This problem is beyond just the four walls of my highschool,” she wrote.
“It exists in schools across the nation. If we work on better educating both students, and adults about how necessary it is to include diversity in all media put out by the school, along with the reality of the continuing existence of rape culture, we can ensure that problems like this never happen again.”
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