Rape Culture

This is  a topic I am so passionate about that it makes me angry. Lets talk about rape culture for a moment, and the perpetuation of such in school environments. A lot of adults disagree with me on this topic but to be quite frank with  you I couldn't give less of a crap. so just read this and consider where I am coming from.
so lets set the stage- I'm on all the social media; twitter, tumblr, instagram, facebook, etc. and as a teenage girl in this culture I am constantly bombarded by feminist movements, anti rape campaigning, free the nipple campaigns, etc. and I LOVE IT. Go girls!  but unfortunately in this culture we are also faced with the social construct in place from years of oppression towards women. Clearly progress has been made, however there is still an unconscious perpetuation of shaming women for exercising the same rights as men or for being proud of their bodies.
I personally am very against the current in place dress codes in school. let me explain why- girls come to school AWARE (believe it or not) of how they dressed themselves that morning. Aware of how much leg, cleavage, or stomach is exposed. With this understood, how does a teacher or any administrator have the right to say that what we choose to wear is not "appropriate"? who defines what is appropriate and what it isn't? is not being appropriate exercising my right to freedom of expression? oh right, I forgot! in schools, where by law we have to be, our rights can be limited! How humane!
So here we are, bound by law to attend school, where the law says they can limit our freedoms, trying to be our individual selves, and then we get slut shamed by our own "role models". what is slut shaming?

Slut-shaming

In human sexuality, slut-shaming is the act of making, or attempting to make, a person, especially a woman or girl, feel guilty or inferior for certain sexual behaviors, circumstances, or desires that deviate from traditional or orthodox gender expectations, or that which may be considered to be contrary to natural or religious law

 

 When a teacher or administrator of some kind targets a teenage girl and tells her that her choice of expression is not appropriate or is harming the education of the male student population they are insinuating that girls should censor themselves so that boys can excel, rather then teaching boys to contain themselves because EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES INCLUDING TEENAGE GIRLS. Rape culture means that we teach girls how to not get raped rather then teaching men (primarily) not TO rape. The issue with this approach is that it perpetuates this mentality that's debilitating the female population by insinuating if someone does something to us, it is our fault.

If you are raped, it is not your fault.

you were not asking for it. no one ever asks for it.

I understand the need to enforce school code, I do, but I cant say that I will respect a code or its enforcement when it is out of date and supports a culture that oppresses women. we need to start teaching equal rights and humanity to children early on. teach them that you cant abuse someone else or their rights that way under any circumstances. I know its a difficult pill to swallow, teaching kids about this early, but in this day and age its clear that change must be made to the way these things are handled.