Should skirt length matter in secondary schools?

In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, I went to an American girls’ school that had this issue. I never got in trouble over my skirt because it was hemmed to the right length and I never rolled it up. It’s easier here to follow the rules than it is to break them.

The school is probably trying to maintain a professional-looking atmosphere.

She's 14, not a baby. She doesn't need me sexualizing her skirt length and shaming her for having a female body. No one cares what her older brother wears
I'm sorry for you really, saying something like that. You don't know me at all. Don't crush your pearls

Again - what is liberating for a girl to wear her school skirt so short her underwear is showing?

Nowhere have I said that female clothing is responsible for male behaviour. That doesn’t mean that anything goes, especially in a school - and, as I think you need this spelling out, that goes for boys as well as girls.

It does everything for girls. No longer is it acceptable to ask a women in a rape case "but what were you wearing?" And it used to be.

Of course they will. I'm making the point that "don't look if you don't like" or "stop sexualising girls" is a thoroughly stupid thing to say.

The time wasted on this issue in schools infuriates me. Paid time that could be doing so much more instead with learning. Get rid of them and either have skorts or shorts for summer (good luck rolling those up) or just have universal trousers from one supplier for all year round. End of problem and it looks better. How many women these days wear a knee length skirt at work, not practical at all.

Her male classmates would feel and think differently

Ah right, you’re someone who’s abdicated being a parent to their child. Explains a lot.

Why am I? So weird to blame me for creepy men. We are not in Iran. Let the girls wear what they want and make their own choices. That's freedom

Oh come on - a college isn’t allowed to pull up children’s clothing! Imagine in we were walking around hiking up boys trousers at the skate park, please. Surely you’ve been in a high street and seen a group of boys boxers hanging out? It’s a popular fashion choice. No I don’t like it but I don’t judge their parents or their promiscuity or their class. No one judges them at all. No one says we need to keep them safe or that they are sexually vulnerable,

We can all be a bit shocked by kids choice of clothing, that’s also something kids have done for generations - worn clothing adults don’t approve of. When you are looking and judging school age girls in particular, ask yourself why ? - is your judgement of any benefit to them? Does it help keep them safer? Or is it a subconscious belief that they are ‘asking for it?’ Or that you are superior.

Reality tv, runways, celebrity premiers - all this trash we all see shapes what we wear and what kids like and find appealing, as a society we have to accept that if we peddle all this crap as adults, our children will aspire to look like it.

Again, by framing this as “policing other people’s bodies” you are doing stellar work for all the creeps and perverts out there.
And plenty have pointed out that many of these girls are NOT wearing tights, and their underwear can be seen. What is liberating about a girl doing that, please?
If it’s liberating for a girl or woman to wear what she wants, why not rock up to an interview in a wedding dress? Go to a funeral in a bikini? Wear a floaty dress as a firefighter? Liberation, ladies!!
Decency is a pretty decent word. Decency is thin on the ground in our individualistic, porn-soaked society and of course people like you don’t help, with your liberal fun feminism that does absolutely nothing for women and girls.

It's her arse. She can do what she wants with it, as can you with yours. She is not saying fuck me, and anyone who thinks she is has the problem. You can equate it to my character, or her's, if you like. But we are the same today in shorts and skirts as we were yesterday in trousers

One of my DDs had an ankle length skirt for uniform - all the girls loved them as you could wear what ever you wanted underneath - usually PJs.....

Personally I think school uniform should be trousers or a skort - that way there would be no knicker flashing...

It's pretty obvious, but it's liberating because she is doing what she wants.
Decently is such a terrible word.
No one is seeing flesh, because of tights
My son's trousers show more buttock shape than my daughter's skirt. My son is still decent when he has his top off. People need to stop policing other people's bodies

Sadly, I have seen far too many arse cheeks or underwear on display by teenage girls on their way to or from secondary school, even in winter. In any workplace I have worked, we would have been expected to change/sent home to change if we had turned up wearing a skirt that short as it would have been considered unprofessional.

Well - that’s your college. Who says other colleges don’t pull up boys dressing like this? I hate it just as much. I don’t want to see anyone’s underwear.

I worked in a college (south coast) where the boys aged 16-18 wore their trousers fastened under their bums so their pants were fully or half on display from the back, jumpers pulled up to reveal. We’ve all seen this look.

No one said a word, no one judged their parents or said they were doing it for the female gaze, it wasn’t practical, attractive (imo) or presentable.

We only police female bodies and clothing.

So you are happy for your daughter to go to school with her arse on show? You really believe that’s feminism and sticking two fingers up to the patriarchy?

No. Men are also expected to dress decently - the difference is that men and boys aren’t encouraged from every younger ages to bare as much flesh as possible, are they? Where are the teeny tiny shorts for little boys? The crop tops?

Please can you explain what is liberating for a girl to wear her school skirt so short her underwear is visible?

Are you joking!!??
Having to dress a certain way so your body doesn't upset people is absolutely the patriarchy and anti feminist. Rarely applied to men is it? I don't understand how you could think this isn't. Modest, decent, etc. All these words to equate dress with moral superiority. You're part of the problem, you just don't see it.

I’m happy that the girls you know only roll their skirts to mid thigh. Unfortunately there are many girls, as this thread clearly shows, that roll their skirts so short the bottom of their arses are on show. I don’t think anyone has an issue with mini skirts, the issue is with skirts so short they are practically belts.

sure, there are girls who roll their skirts. There are also girls with long thigh bones who have trouble finding a skirt that fits their waist and meets the length requirements. This is especially true of a specific skirt is required.

I care about girls whose bodies cause them to get caught up in uniform policing. If even one girl is shamed or has minutes taken away from her education because her body does not fit the textbook standard, that is a failure.

so if some girls get away with rolling their skirts, I don’t care. The damage done to policing girls for their real bodies is not worth it.

There’s also often mention on mumsnet of parents not wanting reception girls to wear shorts under their school skirts so as not to suggest we are sexualising them - so which one is it? We all know you see more knickers in primary school, with cartwheels and sitting on the floor.
Knickers are ok in primary and not in secondary? Children are children.

Come on mini skirts have been a thing since when, 1960?

My DD and girls I know (and work with) roll their skirts to mid thigh and wear Nike pros underneath.

The only bum showing clothing is the school enforced skort, which is obscene. The schools could easily change the uniform to shorts for PE or give girls option of trousers, but lots don’t.

Locally there is a school that has ankle length skirts - but outrageous skorts once a week in public field used by the school.

There is more to this than all our girls are harlots! Society sends very mixed messages and fashion and peer pressure also play a part, as it always has.

Congratulations?