AIBU to think school skirt bans undermine choice rather than equality?

We were soooo happy when trousers were allowed. Most wore them.

Around where I live I would support unless there is a way to get teenage girls to stop rolling their skirts up!
But I would make uniforms ugly as in everyone wears slim fitting joggers and a cotton polo shirt and a sweater or cardigan and basic black trainers !
I know the uniforms are supposed to look smart but tiny rolled up skirt aren’t, so.

IMO you’re right, and the same principle applies to other things, too. E.g. actresses wanting to be referred to as ‘actors’, as if they think the male descriptor is superior - so implying that the male role itself is somehow more worthy than the female.

IMO it’s anti-feminist!

I only wear natural ones (cotton, bamboo, wool). But having the choice means everyone can choose what's comfiest and most practical for them!

Absolutely! DC’s school brought in a skirt ban after a term of horrific upskirting incidents.

banning skirts (after having previously banned trousers 🙄) made the girls feel like they were the problem rather than the boys behaviour.

The school hadn’t thought of it that way. They were trying to help girls feel safer.

the school compromised by keeping the skirt ban but increasing the range of acceptable school trouser styles. Many girls choose to wear leggings now and as long as they’re not sports fabrics (unless in PE), it’s gone rather more successfully and has been hailed as a ‘CoL change’ rather than a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude. They’re doing more work on challenging misogynistic attitudes as well.

It's tights I can't bear wearing.

Where is round here?

I agree with you. I own one pair of jeans as I find them restrictive. Skirts/dresses and tights (or bike shorts in the summer) are far more practical.
If short skirts are an issue now, tight trousers will be one in the future.

For roughly 190 days a year, for a few short years, it’s fine.

Think of the decades of skirt wearing ahead.

Many of them round here.

I'm a nurse. It may vary from trust to trust but where I work (NHS Scotland) there is no option to wear a skirt or dress as part of my uniform. I wear a tunic top and trousers.

Uniforms aren't about choice, they are (funnily enough given the name) about uniformity.

"banning school skirts reinforces the opinion that to be equal, women need to be more like men."
I wear trousers or shorts most of the time. At no point has doing this made me feel like a man.

Also, skirts are not universally the traditional attire of women. Ever heard of a kilt? I think calling this a "removal of women's rights" is quite a stretch.

And why do they only do it wearing their school skirts? Why aren't they wearing other skirts that are ridiculously short?

It seems to be all about pushing boundaries and breaking rules, to me, which is what kids have always done, except we give them so few boundaries these days they have to be outrageous to break them.

What are the reasons behind turning then into a short skirt?

Boys just wear uniforms girls feel a to perform and aren't happy with themselves as they are and this is all ok?

Trouser or skirts which aren’t so short they can’t bend over without revealing their underwear are the answer. Some young girls really do love to make a spectacle of themselves. They’re indecent.

Well some schools try to enforce skirt length.

Do they might say knee length or level with fingertips when standing straight or similar. This takes up a lot of time and energy - a bit like getting kids to tuck shirts in; they roll it up as soon as they are out of sight and it leads to cars where a pupil might say "what are you looking at my skirt" to a male member of staff who enforce the rule which would be required an immediate safeguarding referral by that member of staff taking up more staff time.

A few schools do not enforce skirt length at all which means you can see the arse cheeks etc. it might mean a year 7 of either sex feels uncomfortable going up the stairs behind a year 10 or 11 but Some people might feel this should be allowed if that's what the girl wants to do.

Some schools ban skirts which removes the skirt length issue but some people don't agree with.

You can always change schools if you feel strongly about it and the others extra cost or travel time etc is worth it.

Hopefully none. But you just don't know, hence the safeguarding.

Then there are the hoped for consequences which are not necessarily actually desired because it's pre teen/teen girls.

Then the unintended, which I think nobody thinks is acceptable but that's a separate battle. Y7 boys are oblivious, latter years and people outside school are not. It's not a debate over whether is should be considered provocative, to some boys/men it will be.

If everyone wore a skirt no more than a couple of inches above knee this would not even be a point of discussion.

The way the girls roll the skirts really isn't appropriate. If they were knee height and the girls a bit more civilised looking then yeah I wouldn't see a reason to ban them. But honestly it's not appropriate to run around as a 13 year old with your bum crack showing, so ban is fine for me and I voted YABU

I've never seen it where I live (the girls' uniform is a long calf length skirt, or shorts and trousers, and no one rolls), but no one decent wants to see children walking about with their bums (almost) on show, making an immature attempt at either sexually signalling to the boys, or impressing the other girls.

It's inappropriate (especially in a learning environment), and distasteful, just as I wouldn't want to see the boys in too-tight shirts unbuttoned to mid-chest in some childish attempt to peacock.

Children trying to display their bodies in what is essentially their 'workplace', often in an attempt to show how grown up they are and keep pace with their peers, just isn’t appropriate, and the self-objectification by the girls makes me deeply uncomfortable. If they can't dress to reasonable standards, then there's nothing wrong with the option of either trousers or long skirts.

(Although frankly I think all uniforms could be more comortable and practical, while still being smart.)

Does it? Should children have the opportunity to display their buttocks in school? I think we should be safeguarding children who make such poor choices until they are of an age where they have the ability to understand the consequences of their choices. By taking away their opportunity to do it. Adults are not allowed to show their buttocks in the work place. Is there a reason this should be allowed for underage girls?

I think girls are being blamed for rolling up their skirts and showing their underwear. Nothing more, nothing less.

And they're doing it so males look at their underwear and bums.

When a girl chooses to roll her skirt up, the motivation is often at least partly because they would like male appreciation as well as fitting in with friends. That may be an unpopular opinion but lots of girls and women do a lot of things seeking male approval and teen girls are complex beings. Whilst it's sad that it does sometimes get unwanted attention, I think education is important for moth males and females, from parents and schools.

I personally think girls should be able to wear what they like and what they are comfortable in, but it must be a bit of a nightmare in a school full of teen hormones at times.

I am with you. I hate to see schools claiming to have made the uniform “gender neutral” when actually they have just removed the feminine options. I know plenty people on this thread have already said there’s nothing inherently male about trousers, girls can wear them too. But the point is there is something inherently feminine about skirts/dresses and these are items being removed.

It’s the same as people who think “gender neutral” toys means no blue or pink toys, when actually it should mean all children play with all toys regardless of their appearance or connotations.

I genuinely don’t think some of them know what they’re doing! And that’s even sadder that they’re not aware. They’re just following “fashion” because the other girls are doing it.

I’m a feminist, I’m a mum of teenage daughters (and a son) and I still understand why schools are doing this and I don’t think it’s anything to do with the “asking for it” / blaming girls message.

I’m a straight middle aged woman and I don’t want to see girls’ bum cheeks, it’s nothing to with sexuality and everything to do with appropriate clothing. I would say the same if the boys had their arses hanging out of their trousers and schools brought in mandatory belts (or whatever equivalent analogy you want to use).