Boy and girl wear crop top to school. Boy gets nothing but girl gets a disciplinary note.

Dress codes in school are inherently sexist and enforced heavily on girls. The clothes that girls wear are used as a reason to slut-shame them. They even get sent home because they could distract the boys in class, hindering their education while their own education is not given the same importance. Even though there have been a lot of discourse and protests against these double standards, these practices continue to exist. Two students decided to put it to the test and see the different standards boys and girls are held to in schools. Drew Jarding and Kenzie Crimmins' social experiment has now gone viral on TikTok with more than two million likes and six million views.

For the experiment, the teens decided to wear crop tops to school. Jarding paired his crop top, which revealed most of his midsection, with shorts. Crimmins on the other hand wore a pair of leggings and a slightly less cropped top. The high school student from Illinois explained in the video that they were both wearing outfits that violated their school’s dress code. They recorded themselves at different points of the day in school and at one point even dancing “in front of five teachers.” The experiment seemed to be failing before the surprise twist in the end.

The TikTok concluded with Jarding and Crimmins walking out of the school as they revealed that only Crimmins was given a disciplinary note by school staff in the seventh period for violating the dress code while he was not. She was told that she violated the dress code because she "showed her stomach." Speaking to the Daily Mail, Jarding said, "This is a big issue because it breaks down these girls' confidence and sends the wrong message. Instead of 'trying to help' they’re doing the exact opposite. I would like to see the dress code change to something more reasonable and not at all sexist."

The teenagers' school’s dress code prohibits crop tops, ripped jeans, and spaghetti straps or straps that expose too much shoulder. The hem of shorts, skirts, and dresses must reach below the knee. Jarding explained to Buzzfeed that he had been doing a series for his TikTok where he broke the dress code rules but was not written up for violating it. In the comments, someone asked him to do it with a girl to see if she gets caught. And that's why he made the video with Crimmins. "I had known that dress codes had been unfair for a while, I just didn't know to this extent," Drew said. "I was wearing multiple outfits that were going against the code or whatever and they hadn't said a single thing to me all that week."

The double standards in dress codes could not be clearer than this. Crimmins said, "Honestly, it just makes me want to wear clothes like that more because the standards are so not the same." The school authorities told her that her shirt was really revealing and even told her to go to the resource room to change. After bringing this to light Jarding hopes there will be a change in the sexist dress codes. “Bring awareness and act! Don’t just sit on the sidelines, actually go to school, and when teachers and staff write up you or someone you know, protest,” he urged. He told Bored Panda that with his experiment, he would have been written up for violating the dress code if he was a girl. “Sadly, nothing has changed at my school, nor other schools. Albeit it’s great that we’re bringing attention to this prevalent issue,” he added.