I am a feminist. I believe in female empowerment and I believe in equal rights for men and women.

But what I don’t understand is why women put so much emphasis on their physical appearance or on how they dress. Even at my school, I hear girls complaining about the fact that the dress code is sexist and how fatuous it is that girls are not allowed to wear certain things or expose certain parts of their bodies. To be honest, the dress code doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers other girls at my school. In my opinion, the dress code at my school is very lenient and I believe that some restrictions should be in place in order to provide a comfortable learning environment. It puzzles me as to why some girls feel so strongly about the dress code.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think that women should be able to dress however they want. The way in which women treat their bodies is their own business. But in a world where everything from television shows to newspaper advertisements is oversexualized, and in a world where people have become far too materialistic, things like a “dress code” are the least of our problems. There are women in the world who aren’t allowed to vote, or get a driver’s license, or even leave the house without their husband's’ permission.

It frustrates me a little that so many girls my age are so caught up with their appearance.  It’s not entirely their fault, as the media is to blame for a large portion of the problem.  Social media is a very important part of American teenagers’ lives. A picture of Taylor Swift casually walking down the street in a crop top and high waisted shorts on Instagram, is all it takes to start a new trend in the way girls dress. And when girls are told that they cannot dress the way that they prefer to, it angers them immensely, leading to all kinds of backlash towards school dress codes.

But here is my problem. Why do girls care so much about the restrictions placed on their attire? Why are they so passionate about this particular topic as opposed to the numerous other ways in which women are discriminated against? The kind of attention that dress codes are getting is a little frightening to me, because it is showing that girls, and people in general, are becoming far too obsessed and far too reliant on material possessions, including clothes, clothing brands, shoes, and the latest technology. It is showing that their entire identity revolves around the things they put on their bodies or carry in their hands.What about their minds and their hearts and their voices and their personalities? Why does nobody seem to care about that?

Why couldn’t we be spending more of our time trying to shed light on the intelligence and the strength of women, rather than their right to wear certain articles of clothing? Women are facing many problems in this world that are much more iniquitous than restrictions on what they wear.

In this world, where so much joy and self worth is centered around material possessions, young people are failing to recognize the value of things that can’t be seen from the outside. They need to raise their voices and declare that they are not defined by their clothing. Their minds and hearts are so much more beautiful and powerful than the things they put on their bodies.