School Bans Yoga Pants, Former Student is Outraged

My middle school banned girls from wearing yoga pants in school. The staff defended the ban by saying that yoga pants distract from the educational experience by leaving nothing to the imagination. While I don’t wear yoga pants, I found the ban ludicrous and Puritanical for a few reasons. Firstly, it sexualizes girls and boys and then discriminates based on the rules it set up. The tender middle school years are when puberty is just beginning, and the ban sexualizes students’ bodies against their will during this crucial developmental stage.


The ban also implies that boys (and lesbian/bisexual girls) have roving eyes that need to be stopped not by punishing the lookers, but the objects. It is a classic example of victim-blaming. And then people ask why girls have body image issues. Perhaps yoga pants are distracting to some students, but in those case girls’ legs are a distraction they will need to deal with their entire life (starting in high school). Instead of banning yoga pants, the administration should punish harassers.

Secondly, the ban’s attitude towards “roving eyes” as something needing to be stopped in the first place is questionable. Tweens and teens are sexual creatures, and there’s not much anyone can do to stop kids from looking at other kids. I don’t think this universal tendency is a problem until it harms in the form of teasing, catcalls, embarrassment, harassment etc. The ban implies there is something harmful about having roving eyes in the first place, an implication that again makes kids feel bad about their developing sexuality.

These are pretty liberal views about clothing and sexuality. But people should not be punished for things out of their control, be it their bodies or other people’s bodies, especially if the punishment harms future development.