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Perfect senior yearbook quote slams school’s sexist dress code

Because women's bodies shouldn't be failed for others' bad grades.

 

Gabe Bergado

IRL

Posted on Jun 1, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 5:10 pm CDT

This is one for the books.

Frustrated with her school’s dress code policies, which often targeted female students, Chloe Cross decided to call out the unfair treatment in her senior yearbook quote.

Cross posted her quote for the San Mateo High School yearbook on Instagram and Tumblr, and it has since received quite a bit of attention. It reads: “I would just like to apologize to those who were unable to graduate with the class of 2015 because they were too distracted by my midriff and consequently failed all of their classes! xoxo”

https://www.instagram.com/p/23zq9FAD49/

Making a point about the hollow argument that women should dress a certain way as to not be a distraction for other students, Cross used her yearbook quote as the perfect platform to get her message out in a sarcastic, yet saliently truthful manner.

Cross told Yahoo! News Canada, “Girls are being objectified and sexualized every day by teachers and the administration, and even though people aren’t always talking about it I definitely think it is always a problem.”

Yearbook senior quotes have often gone viral around graduation time over the past couple of years, with grads doing everything from crafting an intricate joke with their besties to making politicized statements

Cross’ quote comes amid continuing controversy over schools trying to regulate young women’s bodies. It’s not prom season without students being asked to go home because of their dresses. And we can’t forget when girls were banned from wearing leggings at one middle school because they were deemed “too distracting” for their male peers.

Now, if only boys’ sagging shorts or exposed arms in tanks were treated the same way. Patriarchy, much? 

H/T Yahoo! News Canada | Photo via chloe_niccole/Instagram

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*First Published: Jun 1, 2015, 1:00 pm CDT