For as long as time can tell, it seems as people have been judged for what they wear. Simply a top at school that just shows a little too much shoulder can cause a student to be sent home. Job interviews, whether good or bad, judge the interviewee by their first appearance, which consists mainly of the clothing worn.

The good news is that today society seems to be getting closer and closer to accepting that anyone, male or female, can be able to wear whatever they want because it is their body and their decision. But still, young girls get sent home for showing ‘too much shoulder’ or ‘too much leg’ at school. 

Although it’s obviously not appropriate for a high school student to show up to school nearly naked, it’s also not appropriate for schools to enforce sexist dress codes on their students. Young girls are often told that their clothes aren’t appropriate under their school dress codes that are less strict towards their male counterparts. And some even argue that dress codes not only promote body shaming, but can also perpetrate rape culture. 

Not only do people judge everyday people on their clothing choices, celebrities are constantly bashed on for wearing too little, or even sometimes, too much.

On Oct. 27, Taylor Swift released a music video to one of her new songs, “…Ready For It?”, and got extreme backlash for wearing a nude bodysuit.

Swift should not have received so much backlash simply for wearing a bodysuit that is nude – many women in multiple action movies wear black leather bodysuits and get little to no hate for it, but somehow a nude bodysuit seems to have the opposite effect.

But although people criticized her left and right for wearing nude clothing, Swift did not completely ignore the comments, in fact she seemed to follow the advice of her own lyrics and “Shake it Off”.

“It truly warms my heart that [people] had so much to say about this body suit,” she said in an Instagram caption. 

To some, this incident means nothing, and most people probably don’t care what Swift wears in her own video. But if celebrities receive hate for what they wear, then those who look up to them will begin to believe that they can’t wear whatever they want either. If a celebrity can’t wear something that they like and look good in without receiving hate, then what message is that sending to their fans?

Society needs to stop judging celebrities for anything that they wear, because this brings down those who look up to them. Anyone should be able to express themselves, and for many, clothing is the main outlet for expression.

Halloween was a perfect example of people judging others based on their fashion choices. Social media was flooded with tweets and posts shaming those whose costumes were ‘too revealing’. But why do people care what other people wear? How is it affecting you? The answer is simply that it doesn’t. 

So if you are judged for expressing yourself, like Swift was in her new video, then how are you supposed to show who you are without any backlash? Stop judging others based on their clothes and let them express themselves however they want.