DESIGNER

Grace Patterson

PROFILE/DESCRIPTION

This project "Thinking With Type" explores the ways students feel about dress codes by having students experiment on adobe illustrator with the type tool. Personally, I think the dress code promotes sexist ideals, and while the dress code was not created to shame and embarrass young women for their bodies and clothing choices, ultimately that is the result of it. Women are taught that they should cover up and not be sexual while simultaneously being told that their bodies are the only things going for them, which is incredibly confusing as well as frustrating, especially for young women like me who are trying to figure out who they are. Getting dress coded is humiliating, and while dress codes do have a place in terms of making sure nobody is wearing anything offensive, a woman showing her body should not be seen as offensive. I chose to make the "A" in shame capitalized as well as red, to allude to "The Scarlet Letter", a novel written in the late 1800s about a woman who is forced to wear the letter "A" on all of her clothing in order to let everyone know that she was an adulteress, and was publicly humiliated for being sexual. While women are no longer forced to wear a physical scarlet letter, I would argue that women are branded with a "metaphorical scarlet letter" every time they are dress coded for showing "too much skin" and told to cover up. They are being punished for what they are wearing and the assumptions that are made about them, such as the assumption that boys will get distracted by them, which not only enforces the stereotype that men are unable to control themselves and that it is the woman's fault for a lack of self control, but that all men are straight and interested in women. While I don't think the dress code was created to be harmful, ultimately it enforces harmful stereotypes about young women and young men, shames women for their bodies, and is not particularly helpful or effective in making the school environment feel safe.