Banning girls from wearing skirts to school

Hard for me to comment on why girls wear short skirts, cos when I was at school we had very strict uniform policy so no short skirts. I doubt I would have worn a short skirt cos I had huge legs. We weren't allowed to wear trousers, I wish we had been.

Do you think schoolgirls really are oblivious to the sexual side of how they dress?

I'm just not a fan of excessive bare flesh on anyone, really, whether it be schoolgirls in skirts or white van men with no shirts on! Yuk!!

Perhaps I'm just hopelessly old-fashioned.

yes, agree totally, redvelvet - whenever I wear trousers, I feel like my arse is twenty times the size of the moon, and everyone can see it.

Oh yes, that's what I should have said. Wearing trousers made me much more self-conscious about my body and frankly they are more arse-tastic than all but the shortest tightest skirt. Ankle length and bum grazers both had their day during my school time, totally independently of actual fashion trends if I recall!

And polyester trousers blee.

Skirts are not part of the uniform at our local high school. I'm a bit about it. We could wear trousers at my school but I didn't as they never fitted me once I got past the age of about 13 and had a 13 inch difference between my waist and my hips! I still don't ever wear them, they are uncomfortable and unflattering for me and the thought of having to buy a pair brings me out in a cold sweat. I see a lot of the girls in ill-fitting, uncomfy looking trousers and the kids all look far too hot in summer, why can't they choose a skirt or shorts if they want to?

I think there should be more choice for boys and girls. They can choose to wear trousers, long shorts or a kilt-style skirt, then it's equal opps for kids to choose what is most comfy for them. I'd bring back culottes meself! Practical and they feel so nice and swishy :)

The uniform posties wear would make a good school uniform template, they look comfy.

I'm not keen on the way uniforms are enforced, it's very petty sometimes, but obviously getting rid of it altogether has its own set of difficulties. And as a parent I must confess I am looking forward to the time when I can buy uniform, cheap and easy.

I'd say more peer pressure than attractive to men.
It's a kind of rebellion, isn't it? Older women were long, boring skirts, so teenagers wear short ones, because they're not boring.
long skirt = old lady
short skirt = young, cool woman.
that's how I saw it as a teenager - it had nothing to do with boys, because let's face it, boys were pests who we could do without.

Just wondering in that - do you think girls wear short skirts more for 'attractiveness to men' or more from peer pressure?

I'm wondering whether the ability of my DDs school to manage a pragmatic middle line with their uniform is helped by it being an all-girls school or if that's not really relevant. But thinking back I can't remember anyone when I was at school (mixed) being particularly interested in their attractiveness to boys. Not that our uniform (an A-line tunic!) left much scope for modification.

Why on earth do you think feminism's aim is to make women more like men, priest? If you do any actual research, you will find that feminism is about making sure women are not treated as being inferior to men. And that's the end of it. Feminists are free to act and dress as feminine as they choose.

As for banning skirts, well, as others have said, it's a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

I hate seeing short skirts on school girls. I hate seeing short skirts or other revealing clothes on any woman. To me, it just says that woman only sees her worth in terms of her appearance and her attractiveness to men. It's not about potential threat of assault, just self-respect.

Schools should just have better uniform policies and keep skirts at a modest length. Girls should be at school to get an education and make sure they have a future, not flaunt their bodies to get approval of their peers.

I see plenty of boys walking along chatting sociably. And the boys on bikes are generally in groups.

The schoolgirls might prefer walking to cycling because its more sociable - I often see groups of girls walking along chatting, boys less so. So - while the relative practicality of their uniform might be an issue - there could also be a rather more positive reason for the difference.

(Grumpla - but can you do it overarm? )

Are you in Cambridge by any chance Trillian? my friend lives there and when I visit I always notice the much higher proportion of female cyclists there! When I commuted by bike I was very much the anomaly, would regularly see maybe ten, fifteen other cyclists en route all of whom were male.

Everyone rides bicycles down your way though.

Loads of girls on bikes round my way. With giant wicker baskets.

The fashion is for big fluffy hair anyway so I expect a bit of bike-wind help :o

I like to set a standard of humanity in my home.

On the topic of skirts/uniforms, I have noticed and been pleased to see a veritable cavalcade of bicycles streaming down from the local secondary school every day.
It's only this week I noticed that it's all boys. Even the girls who are in trousers aren't on bikes, presumably it's not considered 'feminine'. Or those stupid "shoes" they're all wearing will fall off, or their hair will get messed up.

girls are girls because they are born that way

Girls are girls, yes, but "that way" is open to interpretation.

Feminism to me is about rejecting the idea that "girls are less good at maths because they are born that way" or "girls like pink because they were born that way" or "girls do less well in the workplace because they were born that way" or "girls say no to mens advances when really they do want to because they were born that way".

Far fewer of the traits that we associate with femininity are born that way traits than are social constructs. Where they are not innate we (women and men as well) should be able to choose to embrace them or reject them on an individual level and not have it assumed that just because we are girls (or boys) we must like or be good at certain things and dislike or be bad at others.

Why would you take that away from them by teaching them that being more like a boy will make them happier?....which is exactly what feminism teaches.

That's never been my understanding of it.

The point is simply not to be categorized and limited by gender (and this works both ways except obviously men are limited when it comes to reproduction.)

1. We can/will work in whatever field suits our talents and inclinations
2. We can/will dress in whatever way makes us feel good about ourselves (within standards of practicality and any applicable uniform).
3. We can/will talk just like the men (if we want to, but whyever limit ourselves to that).

As to the last para ... ridiculous. There were 'unloved, unprotected' girls before feminism. The difference then was they had no voice, no vote.

Standard--- A rule/principal that is used as a basis for judgement.

Femininity---the opposite/compliment of masculinity.

Girls are girls because they were born that way.....novel??

Why would you take that away from them by teaching them that being more like a boy will make them happier?....which is exactly what feminism teaches.

Society needs children who are content and happy with who and what they are, and seeking on ways to teach others how to do the same, feminism is so degrading to the status of woman, it tells them that they can be just like the boys and it even goes far enough to put those that would just be content to be traditional women, under a palpable guilt trip.

1. We can/will work just like the men.

1. We can/will dress just like the men.

1. We can/will talk just like the men.

1. We can/will copulate just like the men.

1. etc. etc. etc.

And here we are.... on the other end of this baneful project with girls who are unprotected, unloved, and fully degraded in the eyes of boys today, all because we have given audience to the notion that girls are not girls, and that they need none of the provision/protection of the "EVIL" patriarchal system.

Actually, now I think about it we wore skirts for netball etc but had to wear knickers only when we were doing gymnastics.

God I hated PE.

In fact I hated school.

that's awful.
we had the big PE knickers, but we wore the skirts too.

We had to wear big navy knickers for PE (I was at school in the early-mid 80s) and we did PE with the boys. Only allowed to wear your PE skirt if you had your period, which was obviously DEEPLY humiliating.

the stool thing is a good point I remember some horror storied of 'TOM' and very short skirts, these reasons are a more practical than 'she might look tarty'

And I remember my mum telling me she had to wear big black knickers as part of P.E kit in the 70's , seems hypocritical that schools whinge about skirts.

Where do low cut tops come into the mix? Or cropped tops?

Agree that the problem is not with girls but with the way schools and society SEE girls.

priest, what's a 'standard of femininity'? And, out of curiosity, do women have a 'natural desire for the male form' too or does that not come under the 'standard'?

Okay having taught in secondary schools, the problem is SCIENCE, in science girls sit on stools, if they are in short skirts, it is tricky not to flash their knickers (something years 7 and 8 on the whole don't seem to know how to do). It is also very embarrassing for male teachers, who also find it very embarrassing to bring up girls on skirt length, and who live in fear of being accused of being a pervert.
One school I know is trying to get around this by insisting on a set skirt, which has buttons down the front and so many buttons must be on show.

In my experience boys spend far more time being told off for uniform than girls. (Some do also prefer the gangster pant showing look, and do get told off for that too.)

I wish the salwar kameez would come into mainstream fashion - I feel culturally inhibited from wearing them or getting for DD - but I was always so jealous of my Sikh friend in her gorgeous 'Punjabi suits' as she called them. DD likes tunic/leggings type thing out of school, but they aren't so bloody lovely!