Has this been posted yet? 'Dangerous' short skirts

[EauRouge]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15287760

[EauRouge]

Bugger, sorry www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15287760

[KRITIQ]

Oh good grief! So girls are "putting themselves at risk" by wearing short skirts? Why can't they just have a pop at students for violating the uniform policy without suggesting that their attire "gives out the wrong message." Gah!

[TenderlyLovinglyByAGoat]

at risk of what? Doesn't say.

Undercarriage catching a chill?

[Trills]

Have you seen the episode of Buffy where she is wearing a longer skirt for (I think) a parent-teacher thing for Dawn? And she has to rip it so she can do some running and some kicking-in-heads?

[messyisthenewtidy]

The headteacher "said often the girls were unaware that the way they were dressing could "give out the wrong message". She said peer pressure was also an issue."

Once again the "message" that is sent out by a woman's dress is decided by the observer and not the woman herself.

[KRITIQ]

Well yes, if someone's giving out the "wrong message" here, it's the Headteacher, to the BBC.

[DontCallMeFrothyDragon]

FFS. No item of clothing puts a woman (and definitely not a girl) at risk. Rapists put women at risk. Otherwise, going to the beach would be the most dangeous thing anyone could do. All those women in bikinis. How do the men hold themselves back?

And it doesn't matter what a girl wears, it doesn't give out the wrong message. The message is down to how the person criticising what she wears perceives it. They're usually the type who believe that a woman was asking for it if she was in a short skirt.

[margerykemp]

But as a feminist, I'm not happy with how short school skirts have become. Girls are being overly sexualised and I think that is a bigger problem than the headteacher's poor choice of wording.

[DontCallMeFrothyDragon]

Margery, I have a bigger problem with a woman, in a powerful position, perpetuating rape myths to the younger generation, as well as their parents/carers. But I do agree, the fact school skirts have become so short is problematic. But it still doesn't put women at risk. Otherwise, I'd have been putting myself at risk yesterday, the day before, last week, and on many a previous occassion.

AAgain. Women don't put themselves at risk. RAPISTS put women at risk.

[Rollon2012]

FFS. No item of clothing puts a woman (and definitely not a girl) at risk. Rapists put women at risk. Otherwise, going to the beach would be the most dangeous thing anyone could do. All those women in bikinis. How do the men hold themselves back? hmm

Oh I totally agree I hate people's hypocrisy about skimpy clothes in public my immeadiate response is , I take you must wear a burka to the beach then?...always shames into silence lul.

[KRITIQ]

Margery, I have difficulties with both. I'd prefer to see the school working with the young women on building self-esteem, media awareness, developing positive, healthy relationship and questioning gender stereotyping, so they don't feel they need to wear short skirts to be feminine, socially acceptable, etc. And, as Margery says, having the Head Teacher effectively parrot another rape myth is helpful to no one in the picture.

[BlitzMum]

teenagers put themselves at risk behaving slutty, not dressing like sluts.

[HandDivedScallopsrgreat]

. Interesting post there. 3 posts all of them in Feminism, none of them remotely feminist in origin.

"I'd prefer to see the school working with the young women on building self-esteem, media awareness, developing positive, healthy relationship and questioning gender stereotyping, so they don't feel they need to wear short skirts to be feminine, socially acceptable, etc." Totally agree with that KRITIQ.

[messyisthenewtidy]

I think there are two issues here: 1) that girls do not feel pressured to dress in a certain way in order to be seen as attractive or to fit in. The media has a lot to answer for in that respect, and 2) that girls's clothes choices are recognised for what they are - a fashion choice - not an invitation to any passer-by to sexually objectify.

As for you BlitzMum, pray do tell what "behaving slutty" is in your opinion?

[davedavidson]

Behaving slutty would be being a total cocktease and flirting non-stop with multiple men

[TenderlyLovinglyByAGoat]

we HAD to wear very short skirts for games at school, this was about three decades ago though and with big gym knickers of course

some schools still adhere to this dangerous policy I think

[DooinMeCleanin]

Dressing in short skirts, 'cock teasing' (bleurgh, what an awful phrase), rampaging naked down the highstreet does not put women at risk of being raped. Only rapists can manage to do that. Unless we are expected to believe that men, on the whole, are weak creatures who cannot be expected to control themselves when a little skin is flashed?

Besides which rape is about power and control not sex.

[messyisthenewtidy]

"Behaving slutty would be being a total cocktease and flirting non-stop with multiple men" - and of course teenage boys don't flirt with multiple girls do they? No, of course not because teenage boys don't like sex at all do they?

It is natural to flirt, both for teenage boys and girls, it's a way of finding out about the opposite sex - doesn't mean that you are asking to be sexually assaulted does it?

[davedavidson]

messisthenewtidy I don't think you read my post. Not once did I state anything about teenage boys not flirting, nor liking sex or asking to be sexually assaulted

Girls are more at risk however as they are more likely to be raped than boys. It's not like boys get into a lot of trouble for doing a lot of flirting

[KRITIQ]

Okay, so girls are more likely to be raped than boys, and boys are more likely to do the raping (legally, you have to have a penis to rape, but even in terms of serious sexual assaults - penetration without consent with any object, it's still more likely to be boys doing the perpetrating than girls.)

But, surely that means that boys NEED to fully understand and respect the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and NEED to be held accountable if they violate those.

[messyisthenewtidy]

Davedavidson - your post focused solely on girls -that they can be "cockteases" and "flirt with multiple men". My response was sarcastic.

"Girls are more at risk however as they are more likely to be raped than boys." raped by who Dave? please repeat this to yourself until you realise the complete unfairness in telling all women to modify their behaviour for something that is done to them by some men.

"It's not like boys get into a lot of trouble for doing a lot of flirting" - that is a privilege that we would like girls to have too.

[DooinMeCleanin]

Are you reading what you are posting dave? If men are really that weak that they cannot control themselves around a woman/girl in a short skirt flirting with them, then maybe we should lock the men up until they can be trained to act like humans and not rampant animals?

Why should a victim of a crime be held in any way responsible? If I forgot to lock my front door and I was robbed would people accuse me of asking for it?

[messyisthenewtidy]

Well you see I don't think that men are a bunch of neanderthals - maybe that's why I'm a feminist.

[davedavidson]

Some men are like that, not all

My point is some girls need to be more aware of what they do. I know it's fiction but watch the film The Accused to get what I mean