Teen Pens Perfect Response After A Halter Dress Lands Her In Detention

Tired of the dress code seemingly designed to treat a woman as a sexual object under the male gaze, a 17-year-old Canadian student wrote her school's administrator a letter that's rapidly gone viral.

BuzzFeed reports Moncton, New Brunswick resident Lauren Wiggins donned a maxi dress with a halter top for school on Monday.

The outfit exposed a large back tattoo as well as two bra straps.

The Harrison Trimble High School senior wrote in a Facebook post that an administrator called her bare upper back and shoulders a "sexual distraction" for other students before assigning her detention.

CBC reports with her parents' support, Wiggins wrote a lengthy letter to her school's vice principal and posted it to Facebook on Monday.

The note, which merited a one-day suspension, alleges male students should learn to control themselves rather than their female peers having to cover up.

According to Global News, the high school's dress code prohibits bare shoulders, backs and midriffs along with halter and spaghetti straps.

This is Lauren. She turns 18 on Friday.

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She posed for a snapshot of the full-length dress that merited a detention and posted the photo and a short message on social media.

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Today I received a detention because the outfit I am wearing is considered inappropriate and a sexual distraction to the young men in my school. Enough is enough. I'm tired of the unjust standards that we as women are held up to. I'm tired of the discrimination against our bodies, and I'm absolutely fed up with comments that make us feel like we can't be comfortable without being provocative. It's time to change the worlds mindset. Now.

Lauren also posted a copy of the letter she wrote to her high school's vice principal.

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Dear Sturgeon, I have a concern I would like to bring to your attention. In today's society, a woman's body is constantly discriminated against and hypersexualized to the point where we can no longer wear the clothing that we feel comfortable in without the accusation and/or assumption that we are being provocative. This unjust mindset towards women is absolutely absurd. The fact that authority figures, especially males, can tell young women they must cover up their shoulders and their backs because it's “inappropriate” and “a distraction” is very uncomforting. Schools are the social building blocks in an adolescent's life meant to teach them how to communicate and develop relationships with others and also learning about themselves and who they want to be. It's preached upon us to be individual, to be ourselves. The double standard here is that when we try, we are then told we're wrong. We may not truly dress, act or speak how we want because authority figures, and I use that term very loosely, such as yourself, tell us we can't. Yes, I understand there are restrictions to how much and how little of your body that shows, but that applies when people show up in their bikinis or bra and panties. Though I do believe women should legally be allowed to publicly be shirtless considering males are, it's mindsets like yours that keep that as something that is shamed upon. So no, Mr. Sturgeon, I will not search for something to cover up my back and shoulders because I am not showing them off with the intention to gain positive sexual feedback from the teenage boys in my school. I am especially not showing them to receive any comments, positive or negative, from anybody else besides myself because the only person who can make any sort of judgment on my body and the fabrics I place on it is me. If you are truly so concerned that a boy in this school will get distracted by my upper back and shoulders then he needs to be sent home and practice self control. Thank you, have a nice day.

Because of Lauren's post, people on the Internet are debating dress codes and feminism.

Citations: A Canadian Teen Wrote The Best Rebuttal After Getting Detention For Wearing A Halter Dress (BuzzFeed)