Talia Roland-Kalb

According to senior Talia Roland-Kalb, an email conversation was started between teachers regarding an outfit that she had worn a few days prior to her finding out. She found out about this situation from a teacher that was not directly involved in the correspondence. Roland-Kalb said that, although her name was not stated in the email, the entire incident made her feel very uncomfortable. Roland-Kalb answered questions on this topic below.

Q: What did it feel like to be dress-coded?

A: I felt like people were making judgements about me based on something so superficial as what I was wearing. They did not know me or who I was or what I stood for. They only knew me as this outfit and a body underneath it. I felt pretty objectified and disrespected. For weeks after, getting dressed in the morning was hard because I didn’t want to give in. I stand so strongly for people being comfortable in their bodies and people loving themselves. Body image issues are something that I’ve had to work so hard to overcome. I finally got to a place where I was feeling really good about myself and to be shot down like that made me question everything about the way I was presenting myself. I found myself wanting to wear what I wanted to wear, but not wanting to be called out because it  made me feel really bad about myself and about my body. I didn’t want to cover up and let the whole system win.

Q: What do you wish for the high school dress code in the future?

A: My wishful thinking is that we won’t have a dress code and, instead, we’ll have a blurb in the handbook that says students are encouraged to be mindful with their clothing and encouraged to help create a productive learning environment. The words “productive learning environment” are actually in our handbook and I think that’s important. Respect is probably the most important of anything. Students should respect themselves and respect others with what they wear. There should be rules about profanity but the words “excessive skin” and “excessive undergarments” leave so much up to the teachers and that’s really hard because it’s so subjective. Teachers could call you out for anything and that’s scary. It’s scary to come to a place everyday and know that anybody could call you out for anything.

Q: What are your suggestions for others that were in the same position you were in, being dress-coded?

A: I think the most important thing is to be confident in yourself and to love yourself. We should be encouraging girls, especially, to look in a mirror and be happy with what they see and not be thinking about who is going to call them out for what they wear today. Being confident in yourself shouldn’t come with the toll of being dress-coded and being objectified in that way.