What is this suddenly absurd situation about teenagers' clothing?

It was as if I were thirteen years old and the principal tapped me on the shoulder in the hallway for the first time. He thought I was too exposed, my spaghetti strap top did not meet the school's dress code. They had to be wider and even better: the sleeve was supposed to have a cap. “After all, this is not a beach,” he shouted after me as I walked out of school to change at home (ten kilometers away). Furious, I was. And furious I am again.

More and more schools are setting rules about girls' clothing. Crop tops and hot pants are labeled as unsafe. I am perplexed and so is the Rutgers knowledge center for sexuality. They see it as a dangerous development that girls' clothing is labeled this way. Whatever it is.

After that first time I had to go home, I made it my mission throughout my entire high school career to come to school during the heatwave in a crop top or spaghetti strap. It felt like a victory when I managed to avoid the sharp gaze of janitors or teachers and only had to take my cardigan (I was smart enough by then) out of my locker to cover myself after two o'clock.

I was already so angry then because I found it a ridiculous signal. Why did I have to cover myself? I wasn't dressed provocatively at all, and even if I walked around in my birthday suit, so what? Was I responsible for the urges of other teenagers at school? Shouldn't they be taught that I was not a walking sex object? And how inappropriate was it if teachers got distracted by my appearance? I never understood it.

After the reports of the past weeks about schools with dress codes, I was back at my high school for a moment. I felt that injustice again as I was bickering with Mr. so-and-so about my so-called beachwear. Meanwhile, the boys walked in and out of class in tank tops without anyone saying a word. Just to be clear: this was twenty years ago. I already found it outdated then. Twenty years, and apparently we haven't made any progress.

Rutgers is sounding the alarm because they find it a dangerous development that girls are given responsibility for clothing in this way. While they are not the ones sexualizing it, but the adults around them. The only thing I want to say to those girls is: do not take that responsibility. It is never your fault if someone else sees something in your clothing. Let's wear what we want to wear for God's sake.