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Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Clothing doesn’t define a woman

this is an image

The clothing a woman wears has always been judged, pulled apart and discussed by other women and men.

No matter where a woman is, whether it be in class, at work or even at the club, there is someone who has something to say about it.

Shows like “Fashion Police” on E! Network primarily discuss what celebrities are wearing, and by celebrities, I mean mostly women in the entertainment business.

As a woman, I am constantly told what I should and shouldn’t wear.

Now even wearing certain dresses at a club are considered too “slutty,” now you can’t even come to class dressed in a crop top and shorts without getting looks. But on the other hand, coming to class in sweats and a sweater might make classmates judge a woman as lazy or make a male classmate think she doesn’t value her looks.

For centuries, women’s clothing has been held up to demanding, ridiculous standards.

What a woman wears should be entirely up to her. If a girl is happy showing up to class with her hair half done and wearing sweats, then so be it. I can almost guarantee that what she is wearing will not have a profound effect on your day.

We are lucky to live in a country that has laws in place for this exact thing, but what good are those laws when society, and now schools, are telling girls what makes a skirt too short all the way up to what shades of green they can wear?

Just recently, an eight-year-old girl was suspended for one day from her southern New Jersey public elementary school for wearing a shirt that was reportedly the “wrong shade of green.”

The girl’s kelly green polo shirt was considered unacceptable according to the school’s dress code as the shirt was not dark green like it should have been.

I grew up going to a Catholic private school until college and dealt with the pettiness from school officials that comes with having to wear a uniform.

I was allowed to wear our school sweats with Uggs but could not tuck in the bottom of my sweats— sweats had to be worn over your Uggs. On days where we had mass during the school day, we had to wear formal uniform, which meant the school skirt, white blouse and red cardigan. If you didn’t follow these rules along with many other dress code rules, you got detention.

I went to an all-girl high school and even if a girl felt uncomfortable wearing the school shirt, she had to on formal uniform days regardless.

I came to college with the impression that it wouldn’t mattter what I wore to class. That is not entirely the case. I come to class in workout attire every day. I don’t do my makeup or hair because my days are so busy that I don’t have the energy to wake up extra early to do it. I still take notes and participate in discussions, so why should what I’m wearing make a difference?

People will make comments if I come to class in sweats like, “Oh, you look comfortable today.”

My response is always “Yes, I am.”

I will go to class, the club and to work in what I am comfortable in. As long as I feel like I am not violating any rules and am comfortable, what does it matter?

There is more to someone than the clothes on their back.

Kristina Martinez can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kristinacsuc.

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