(Photo Courtesy of Kyle Lima)
Editor’s note: A name in this story has been changed to preserve anonymity.
On a typical weekend at University of Colorado, the Hill is packed with students starting their nights. There are multiple houses on each block that blast music to show to their classmates that they are partying, and that you are welcome to come in. At these parties, many girls are seen wearing outfits that emphasize certain parts of their bodies, to show their individuality and, perhaps, what they want from the night.
However, what they want from the night may be different from what males assume based on their outfits. As these parties go on, more boys tend to approach the girls wearing the more revealing outfits. But the assumption that girls who dress revealingly do so because they want sex is not always accurate. This can cause girls to be misjudged for their outfits, and can lead to unwanted sexual attention.
These kinds of situations are seen all over campus. Many girls are judged, or seen as easy targets of sexual advances, because of what they wear when they go out. Victoria Lacoste, a sophomore, claims that she notices this all the time when she goes out to the Hill.
“You see how guys and girls act with each other,” Lacoste said. “Most of the time guys will be extremely pushy with girls. The girls would think that it’s a normal thing and play along with it.”
Some students believe that guys feel like it is easier to talk girls dressed in revealing clothing than to girls dressed more conservatively. Freshman Ashley Hershey believes that many men feel at ease talking to women wearing more provocative clothing.
This could be one of the main reasons why women dress revealingly, but it’s not the only one. Some women feel beautiful when they go out wearing a revealing outfit.
“There is a pride in dressing the way you want and saying I don’t care what anyone says or thinks about me,” Hershey said. “When I look in the mirror and I have some skin showing, I feel beautiful and I feel strong. I don’t have a problem in being brave.”
Jane said that when she goes out, she wants to wear something cute and feel attractive — something that makes her feel good about herself. Sometimes, this is a crop top or short shorts.
“Sadly, there is the line for being too sexual and being too sexy,” Jane said. “There is a line of getting judged because you are not showing enough, and…getting judged for showing too much.”
The dilemma of CU’s culture is that students feel like they have to dress revealingly to be accepted, but they also face risks for wearing too little clothing.
“It’s a weird thing that girls will display more because of appearance, but at the same time the consequences are bigger,” Lacoste said. “The guys think its okay to do certain things like being extremely [pushy].”
Hershey believes that girls in society admire people that strive to be attractive.
“I think we live in a judgmental culture,” Hershey said. “You look at magazines and who looks good in a swimsuit and who doesn’t. Girls….should be able to dress however they want and be able to go out with their friends and have fun without having to worry about being judged. We worry about giving off the wrong image.
“We aren’t dealing we people that see us beautiful; we are dealing with drunk guys that want to get laid that night.”
However, not every girl who goes out wears revealing clothing. Hershey’s main goal when she goes out isn’t to be part of the hook-up culture on campus, but to have fun.
“I have noticed that not many guys talk to me as much when I go out because I go out wearing a t-shirt and leggings,” Hershey said. “This definitely puts a strain on my social experience because I am not meeting as many people.”
But when Hershey does dress up, she is judged for it. She has friends who say that when she wears something revealing, she gives off the wrong idea — the idea that she wants sex because of her outfit. She also received the same criticism from her ex-boyfriend. One night, Hershey decided to dress up for him by wearing a skirt and heels.
“Right when he saw me, he was scared that my outfit would give off the wrong idea to men on the Hill,” Hershey said. “He was afraid that these men would do something unwarranted to me.”
Unfortunately, Hershey’s ex-boyfriend had a good reason to be worried. Many men at CU believe that if a female is wearing a sexy outfit out on the Hill, they are asking for a sexual encounter — an issue that journalists from the BBC documented in a video from last October. As one frat brother states in the video, “Girls dressing up in provocative outfits and drinking ridiculous amounts of alcohol and going to any part on campus are setting themselves up for a hookup of some sorts.”
Not every guy at CU thinks that girls are asking for it. Junior Jeff Silverstein believes that there are a decent portion of guys who think that, if a girl is wearing revealing clothing, they are asking for it, but he says that perception is not true.
“When I see a girl wearing more revealing clothing, my interest is piqued,” Silverstein said. “But I personally don’t assume anything on her part. I do not necessarily think that she is going to want to have sex.”
Although not all males at CU assume that revealing clothing indicates a desire for sex, girls still hesitate to dress certain ways on campus. Sophomore Tara Lynn always brings a change of clothes with her if she has a late-night rehearsal for the play that she is in.
“I want to wear something that if a guy sees me, that his mind just doesn’t instantly go to sex,” Tara Lynn said. “I just personally hesitate to wear clothing that could lead to something like rape.”
And although the fact is that incidents of rape and sexual assault do not depend on what the victim is wearing, the attention that girls get from guys when they dress revealingly creates that fear of sexual advances; when guys give attention based on a sexualized part of a girl’s body, it isn’t always the kind of attention that the girl wants, as Lacoste saw in her experiences on the Hill.
“Society has deemed it okay that men are dogs, and we shouldn’t allow them to be dogs,” Hershey said. “We need start teaching people we can’t treat women badly because of the way we dress.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Alex Myers at alexandra.myers@colorado.edu.
