Williamson County School Board Member: Science Says Boys Distracted by Cleavage

FRANKLIN, TN — Plunging necklines can enscorcell young men to their educational detriment, a Williamson County school board member claims, and she says science backs her up.

Beth Burgos, a doctor, read an email she sent to a constituent about the ongoing revision of the Williamson County Schools dress code at Tuesday's board meeting. The current revision — initiated by superintendent Mike Looney in an effort to create an equitable, enforceable and gender-neutral dress code — does not address cleavage, though it does specify strap width for tank tops, requires that students wearing leggings cover the buttocks and genital area and prohibits the showing of skin between the midriff and mid-thigh.

Burgos, however, said she is concerned by the silence of the code on decolletage, because, according to her, scientific research shows that cleavage is "one of the main distractions in a learning environment."

Her e-mail read, in part:

I am not a sexist nor am I relieving males of responsibilities for their thoughts or actions. My comments were based on medical fact and directed to the gender differences that exist in male and female brains when presented with visual sexual stimuli.
As a medical doctor I can tell you that it’s neuroscientific fact that male and female brains are different. It’s widely acknowledged in the medical field that there are definite gender differences in brain activation and audio visual sexual stimulation. Studies have been done using functional MRIs that confirm a difference in brain activity when visually presented with certain stimuli.
It has been proven that men are more prone to physical attraction whereas women are more affected by the environment and emotions related to a sexual partner. This difference has been confirmed by scientific studies, even on adolescent brains.
When adolescent boys were studied with functional MRIs, brain activity was very high in response to visual sexual stimuli. This was not the case for adolescent girls.
So you see my comments are not meant to be degrading in any way towards our female students. Nor do I hold male students in low regard. It is important, however, to keep these neuroscientific facts in mind when developing dress codes and when teaching our students about appropriate dress in the classroom.
It is never okay to say that a woman deserves to be raped because of what she’s wearing. It is all together another thing to teach our young ladies the sexual response that occurs in a male’s brain when he sees part of the female body exposed.
With that knowledge, I believe our female students would want to be more aware of how their dress could potentially distract their male counterparts and be willing to promote a learning focused school environment by dressing accordingly. This can and will be done in a way that does not shame our female students.

The board approved a first reading of the revision Tuesday, but it's likely the code will undergo several tweaks before final approval.

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