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

At least the ones around my way have decided it's autumn now and are wearing tights.

But they don't look comfy either. Crotch skimming skirt, tights and tiny ballet flats. Yesterday it was raining and they must have been soaked walking home like that.

Thank you! I was starting to feel like I was going mad and my eyes must have been deceiving me! It’s literally an unavoidable crowd of short skirts and underwear on show come 3:30 on my road!

The entire concept of a uniform is that it takes choice away. Women and girls choose to wear trousers all the time in everyday life - why is THIS not somehow symbolic of traditional male clothing being "superior"?

No one every seems to be up in arms that boys don't get the choice to wear skirts.

School isn’t the place to express their growing awareness of their sexuality and how to use it, or to express their gender awareness. And trousers and shirts for girls are fitted differently than for boys so they can still look feminine, same for blazers. School is actually for education funnily enough.

At least boys get on with it where girls need to have some existential crisis of how they look and how hard done by they are

The girls have brought the skirt ban on themselves. It’s all because they can’t be trusted to wear skirts that aren’t skin tight and about 10 inches above the knee. They look absolutely awful.

Away recently and saw school goers (secondary level it looked like) with jog pants and polo shirts. There was a crest on the polo shirts. Same for boys and girls, looked fine and very equal to me! Not sure about the footwear, but that could be negotiated!

Jog pants have elasticated waists and lots of room in the thigh/hip area so would suit most shapes. I'm a testament to that with my weird shape for trousers!

It's up to adults to explain to them why this might not be the best way dress which is why schools enforce a moderate skirt length
I think that's already been tried and hasn't worked, so trousers are the way forward.

Yup. Teachers are told by the senior leadership team that they have to enforce uniform and held to account if they don't. So instead of teaching exam content, they're busy arguing with Evie about why she needs to roll her skirt down OR go to her head of year who will decide what the consequence is.

Yanbu

Its okay to be female and like skirts

Its also okay to be female and like trousers

Wearing trousers doesnt make you any more worthy of respect than wearing a skirt does

I think its a kind of forced modesty - thats the way the country is going tbh

I was going to reply with the same thing! I hated wearing skirts, felt so alien and uncomfortable but females were forbidden to wear trousers.

Your original point was about skirts. Start another thread if you want a discussion about dresses.

Teachers have better things to do than look at girls arses.
No it's about teachers having better things to do than battle with girls who are wanting to show their bum. No one should be showing their bum in a school.

Problem is the trousers are going to be just some 'one size fits no one' offering from a single supplier. I have big hips and really struggle to find trousers, I have to shop around. The quality of my sons school uniform is appalling, the vast majority of boys are straight up and down but if I had a daughter I wouldn't trust the seams on the trousers to be structured for curves. Most of the girls wear skirts.

Why are they more appropriate. My DD’s skirt is long. Girls have the option of trousers and there are a few who do wear them but the majority chose a skirt. My dd hates trousers as she finds them uncomfortable.

They'd probably have kept them if girls wearing them didn't show their bum. It's a waste of teachers' time battling with girls about showing their bum so trousers are a good idea.

It’s not to do with oppression
It’s not to do with being active or otherwise
It’s everything to do with teachers not wanting to take up valuable headspace constantly telling girls to roll their skirts down

I’m shocked by some of these comments. Girls shouldn’t wear short skirts around hormonal teenagers? Teachers have better things to do than look at girls arses. What the actual fuck.

I'm with @SleeplessRoads. I saw exactly this today, 3 hours ago. It isn't cold mind, so no need for coats. But every girl I saw had a knicker skimming skirt level.

Even as a youngster, I was prone to massive bloating. I tended to wear a pinafore to high school (trendy!). Trousers only would have been horrendous. I'd have had to go to school starving and stayed starving for the full day.

Based on the drive to school this morning, I can completely see why skirts are being banned at secondary level 75% of the girls I drove past had rolled up skirts that were hovering at knicker grazing level. It was obvious it was due to rolling them up because the hems were uneven. It makes the whole point of having a skirt on the uniform untenable.

NOT from the POV of boys/hormones/male staff because those are all issues about men needing to be in control of themselves in a civilised society. From the POV of decency. In a professional / educational environment, it is inappropriate to present an overly sexualised image and the girls that flout the rules are the ones to blame for taking away the rights of others. The schools are just trying to circumvent the rule breaking.

The boys can't/won't wear skirts correct? Where's the equality in that?

If everyone wears trousers, it's equal. I bet if the girls were told tomorrow that there will no longer be a uniform, wear your own, the majority of girls will be in leggings, jeans, or whatever trouser variant is most current for their age group. I rarely see teen girls out and about wearing skirts now!

I'm all in favour of banning skirts at school. That's more like equality to me!

How ridiculous, it's totally inequality to force 50% into something they may not be comfortable in and it also means that someone identifying as a girl cannot express that feeling!