School Sends Girls Home Because Their Visible Bra Straps Were Distracting The Boys Too Much

If the #YesAllWomen Twitter campaign taught us anything, it's that women shouldn't be forced to change their behavior, while men are encouraged to remain exactly the same.

Women shouldn't have to accept being seen as super-sexual objects by their male counterparts — instead, how about also teaching men to stop viewing women as something that needs to be coveted?

This is the lesson that someone needs to give the teachers and administrators at high schools throughout Canada.

Apparently schools in the Newfoundland and Labrador providence of the country have kicked out at least 20 to 30 young female students for wearing sleeveless shirts amid a heat wave because they say that the sometimes-visible bra straps pose a distraction to their male students.

Naturally, instead of telling the guys to be less focused on a normal piece of a woman's wardrobe, administrators are suspending these girls from school, sending them home so that they can't learn, and their studies suffer as a result.

Menihek High School was reported as having dismissed a group of girls just last week for visible bra straps, saying that their attire violated the school's dress code.

Although a smaller number of guys wearing sleeveless shirts was also suspended, many of the women who have been kicked out of school say that their wardrobe choices are being treated differently than those of their male peers.

Emily Connors, one of the students suspended, said that school officials asked her and her friends to leave "because of our bra straps, and that it was inappropriate because some of the male teachers, and male students found it distracting for them."

Another student, Danielle Matias, wasn't asked to go home, but said she still opposes the dress code for how its sexist against women.

We were actually given a presentation at the beginning of every school year, and they were telling us, 'Well, you can’t wear certain types of shirts because they’re afraid that male students will take it the wrong way.'

Violating a dress code is one thing, but having a dress code in the first place because school officials are afraid how the male students will react if there isn't one is an entirely different and more systemic problem.

H/T: ThinkProgress, Photo Courtesy: We Heart It