Does imposing dress code on visitors for places such as hospitals, universities, government buildings, libraries and public spaces improve our society?

For example, visitors are dictated to wear formal attire in order to be served in governmental agency. Without formal attire, they will not be served or even bared from entry.

Universities in certain countries require all students to wear formal attire to attend lecture. On the other hand, there is no strict dress code in certain country's universities.

There are news recently reported in Malaysia whereby visitors are bared from entry to government buildings for wearing shorts/skirts and forced to don sarong before being served, which triggers me to think why does it happen.

My questions are

  1. What is the reasoning behind these strict dress code imposed? What are the gains from strict dress code?
  2. Is it right to say that wearing shorts/skirts are indecent or merely a perception of another person?
  3. To what extent a person clothes considered indecent?
  • 1
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it does not fall under the definition of philosophy as defined in the help center... – virmaior Jun 23 '15 at 12:18
  • Question 1 seems like a reasonable enough ethics question. I'd vote in favour of keeping it open, though I'm not wholly sure of any relevant reading. – Paul Ross Jun 23 '15 at 12:30
  • @kennykee can you narrow your focus and make clear what the philosophical problem is that you think we could address? if so, I will follow Paul Ross's recommendation and reopen. As worded, there's many potentially avenues that are outside the scope of this philosophy SE which I would like to avoid. – virmaior Jun 23 '15 at 13:52
  • @virmaior I have edited the question. If the question is off-topic, please let me know so I will remove it. – kennykee Jun 24 '15 at 9:38
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    Dress codes in schools and other academic/youth institutions are typically enforced to eliminate social class differences between students, that would have otherwise been obvious if they were allowed to dress freely. In most cultures, clothes that are too revealing or too informal (e.g. sports jerseys) are considered disrespectful in the same way that using a certain tone of voice or a certain vocabulary when speaking to strangers is considered disrespectful. – Alexander S King Jun 24 '15 at 13:10

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