am I over-reacting to make a complaint?

Have they changed the photo?

To be honest, I can't really see what the issue is. It's boys and girls (OK the boys are behind the girls), and the skirts are above the knee. They're not at pelmet level, are they?

TBH from your thread title I was expecting something over-salacious and titillating - all I see is school girls dressed as school girls dress - it doesn't even look as if they've hoiked up their skirts like we used to do at school.

I'm a real supporter of this topic, but I do think you're being a bit over-sensitive in this, and complaining is a bit silly.

Unless they've changed the picture ...

the photo is still up?

thanks i've made a complaint now

So the photo is still up... they've had what 4 complaints about it?

Perhaps we could complain once a day to them about it until they take it down? After all it is still irritating me today. But now I'm irritated at the BBC as well as some photo editor who clearly needs to reconsider how he/she evaluates visual imagery.

how do we do a complaint?

I'm not keen on phoning

anyone had any kind of response yet? I haven't yet - will let you know when I do.

Psst I have also conveyed my opinion to them. It really is a very easy feedback process...I may actual go back and compliment them.

I have phoned the Beeb to complain before and their phone staff are just marvelous. I found myself desperately trying not to swear (which was interfering with my ability to get a sentence out coherently) so the nice young man said "just swear Madam don't worry I won't take it personally".

Although (pain) at being a Madam.

I seized the moment and did a formal complaint. forgot to copy the text before I hit 'next' so I can't paste it here, sorry.

I smiled grimly when I selected 'no' in the box that asked if I had ever complained to them before.
you're not sick of me yet, I thought to myself....

btw they make it v quick and easy to do a formal complaint.

It does seem a strange photo to use.

I stopped reading the Sunday Times for that reason (pictures of scantily clad women to accompany a lot of articles, usually completely irrelevant to the topic) and I even had a letter published when they used a photo of a woman from the waist down in a short skirt and apparently no knickers to illustrate a story in the InGear section about changing a tyre.

Another story about boot sizes was accompanied by a photo of a woman, standing by a car, from the waist down in a short skirt with the skirt being tantalisingly blown up at the back.

Of course women never buy cars....

Definitely worth complaining about these things!

not unreasonable at all. that picture is very wrong.

actually given that you said they were short skirts I shouldn't have needed to see the pic to know!

I didn't know whether you were over-reacting or not till I saw the picture.
No you were not over-reacting; it's the fact that the skirts are well above the knee that makes them a bit St Trinians.

when I was at school there were girls who wore their skirts in the proper A line style just on the knee, and girls who took the skirts in to make them straight and took them up till they were above the knee like those. The pic is not a pic of random schoolgirl legs, it is a pic of legs of the girls who are wearing their skirts to be sexy. They may nor may not have the faintest idea of what they are doing; they may be doing it merely to fit in with the crowd or they may be completely self-conscious about it. But the point is it is irresponsible to go along with the eroticisation.

good on you for complaining. Will try and do so myself.