Girls told to wear longer skirts at school because the boys are distracted and male teachers feel uncomfortable.

itsmine

Your dh works in an operating theatre. Seeing naked bodies is part of his job, is in a clinical environment and to be expected. Hardly the same thing as a teacher, who doesn't expect to see flashes of arse, pubes and fanjo.

itsmine:

Fair enough. But that's not exactly an answer. It's hardly unusual for boys to feign disinterest in the opposite sex in front of their mums!

OvariesBeforeBrovaries

I wouldn't be at all surprised if your gay brother is a little further along the slow evolution process rather than against the "laws of nature". I also wouldn't be surprised if over a period of time everyone will become asexual and reproducing in Petri dishes.

The talk is only about female clothing because it's the girls, who wear incredibly short skirts. Not boys. Retail outlets provide school skirts in mini skirt versions but boys school trousers don't come in skin tight versions, which would be inappropriate for school as they would show an outline. But still, it's an outline, not actual genitalia, which is displayed in some instances. Personally as a middle aged heterosexual female, I would feel very uncomfortable teaching girls with knickers or more on display. Let alone if I were a man.

The school already has a uniform policy that skirts must be knee length. Were the children abiding by the rules, there would have been no reason to talk to them. So why on earth is this some kind of victim blaming? The only victim would be a teacher accused of ogling at a girl, when in fact they're just going about their business and have a girls private area thrust in their line of vision. They are the ones, whose career could be ended.

As for the boys. I went to a rough school. There was lots of groping of girls genitalia, boobs and voyeurism from the boys. Skirts showing too much would have exacerbated this. The school is hopefully preventing such behaviour and as part of this measure is also informing the girls not to make themselves a target of the small minority of boys, who may be tempted to grab their crotch.

This is a scholastic environment, not a night club.

based on a rather atavistic idea of exposed flesh as the prime stimulant.

What do you mean, exactly?

NancyWake:

No, you said you found it concerning that I work in a school. You can think that if you like. But I think it is a horrible insinuation. I am doing my best to explain my thinking when we both know there is a difference between what I would do with a professional safeguarding hat on, and any private feelings of sympathy I might have towards someone who was fired because of a situation like this, particularly if the uniform policy was shoddy or not enforced.

I think the school is right to ask that girls don't wear skirts that are too short but not for the reasons given.
They should be asked to wear a decent length skirt appropriate to being in school.

If a person cannot control themselves sexually around teenagers, flashing knickers is a red herring.

It's based on a rather atavistic idea of exposed flesh as the prime stimulant.

*thong

itsmine:

Well, I am sorry you feel like that. But 'complete control' over erections isn't a real thing. I am conscious that what I am saying is an uncomfortable point (and I don't really like making it) but it is the simple truth as I see it. You can see something and find it attractive (even arousing) without being a paedophile and without ever acting on it. I feel sorry for men sometimes when they are expected to be able, not to ignore feelings that we all know they might have (which is reasonable) but to never have them at all.

I don't know if you have any sons, but consider this: if your son graduated university at 21 and went into a classroom as a student teacher to older teens, and lots of the girls had on very short skirts, and he told you he felt uncomfortable because he was worried about seeing something he might find arousing, would you believe he was a pervert? Really?

YABU - I've seen school girls in school uniforms. A lot of them wear a tiny skirt with thong or g-string. Completely inappropriate.

I can understand why anyone would feel uncomfortable. I don't want to see it but it's there in your face as they're walking down the street.

It wasn't long ago I was one of them girls. It was deliberate for your thing to be showing to get attention from boys.

Hell will freeze over before my DD will wear anything like that in school!

Why do people always suggest this is a male problem?
I guess it's just like everything else related to how females dress.

FWIW, irrespective of the male perspective, I'm a woman who used to teach and have lost count of the amount of knickers and back sides that greeted me while walking up stairs.

I find some skirts on girls absolutely disgusting for the length, they just cover the bum.
just put them in a decent length skirt, we don't all want to see tomorrows laundry whether male or female.

Horrible insinuations? Trifle

You're the one who 'insinuated' that a male teacher could get fired for being 'caught off guard' once in his career. I simply asked if you knew anyone to whom that had ever happened. I highly suspect not.

Because it is a law of nature that boys/men find womens bodies physically attractive

I'd better tell my gay brother that he's defying the laws of nature. I suppose it's nothing he hasn't heard before

Am I allowed to find women's bodies physically attractive too, or am I breaking the nature law as well?

OP I would be outraged and take it to the head.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace:

The issue is in the way the male teacher will feel. It isn't about anyone actually making accusations. It is about the concern that someone will make an accusation. People shouldn't have to deal with this worry at work if it can be minimised or avoided. And it can be.

'As far as you think you'll get away with' is the key here. It is all, always, about what you can get away with when you're at school in uniform. Vans shoes, earrings that aren't really 'plain studs', hair ornaments, wrong kind of bag, too much make-up, unnatural hair colours, even rolling up the sleeves on polo shirts when that was cool last summer... it's pushing boundaries, personalizing ....

I really dislike the idea that the only reason a girl does something is to be 'provocative'!

You obviously think boys should not be physically attracted to girls who areblatently trying to attract them.

I rolled my skirt up as a schoolgirl and it was fuck all to do with boys and everything to do with trying to flout the uniform rules. I don't say the rules shouldn't be there or shouldn't be enforced. But it was about the rules, not the fucking PENISES.

Why do you think teenage girls are so interested in 'accusing people of something?

Look how many people on this thread are accusing the boys and men of not being able to control themselves, with no evidence whatsoever. It's not too far a leap to assume that some girls will pick up this way of thinking from their mothers parents.

Because it is a law of nature that boys/men find womens bodies physically attractive. Women also towards men but to a much lesser extent.

True. When all is said and done, as part of the animal kingdom (and indeed true for all living things) our purpose on this planet is to reproduce and die. To do that males and females of the animal kingdom, of which we are part, attract and respond to that attraction whatever evolved mechanisms are in place to do that. As of yet, I have not seen any evidence that evolution away from this would be any more rapid than other evolutions.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace:

Well, some people are saying that tiny little skirts and tiny little knickers that give people a view of girls' bottoms on the way up the stairs shouldn't ever be a problem for a male teacher and should be easily ignored by male students. I have been to plenty of foam parties - the clothing element sounds about right to me.

Yes what a very odd thing for the school to have apparently said. Everywhere from the police force to hcps's etc have uniform regulations. To reinforce dress code is fine, to say because it distracts the boys is just so confused it would make me question the intelligence of whoever said it. Are you sure it isn't just 15yr olds embellishing the story as they are prone to?

It would obviously be a good idea for OP to double check, but for better or for worse there are clearly a number of people on this thread who think that the OPs account of what the school said and did is perfectly fine. Problematic as that opinion is, it's widespread.

Is it so implausible that some people who think it's acceptable to tell teenage girls to modify their clothes because of the effect on the males around them, also hold positions of responsibility in secondary schools? It's wrong, but I don't know that it's odd.