Why is this a protest?

Other than a joke by the ht, is their uniform actually gender neutral?

Because quite often they're not. So this protest is only for the boys which is fine not everyone has to fight for everyone else.

But the obnoxious bit is that they're wearing skirts to embarrass the school. Because oh my god, boys in girls clothes!

Here have been many threads where the op's daughter is not allowed trousers. It'a pretty common still and for some reason still legal.

Anyway, I thought I would lighten the thread with this fun link Men in skirts

2 of them are just kilts but Kanye West , the other rapper and Vin Diesel are unquestionably wearing skirts. They look good.

French bus drivers are doing it too.

Why men who can't wear shorts are wearing skirts instead - www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-40366316

It's a 'protest' because when the boys weren't allowed to wear shorts, but sarcastically offered the option of a skirt, they did so. Apparently they were quite relaxed about it, but the fact that the HT was evidently blinkered by gender stereotyping and hadn't considered this possibility made the action subversive. And therefore funny which is why the papers picked up on it, I think - a 'skateboarding duck' story amid the prevailing gloom.

Yes, the boys were not breaking any uniform rules, they were attending in correct uniform. So it can only be interpreted as a protest if there is another reason that boys shouldn't wear skirts. The reason being that skirts are embarrassing for boys to wear. The fact that that these boys seemed fairly unembarrassed is a noteworthy and newsworthy occurrence.

Is it a protest if girls wear trousers?

By telling the boys 'to wear skirts then', the school was hoping to humiliate them into silence. The boys refused to be humiliated and wore skirts, highlighting the stupidity of the policy

This.

And there's nothing at all demeaning about men wearing skirts. Think:
Scottish soldiers
Most men in the Middle East

for a start.

I don't find wearing a skirt demeaning, as a woman.

It's not the actual clothes which demean me. It's the patriarchy which attempts to demean me because I've been born female & socialised as a woman.

I understand the OP.

If wearing skirts is allowed, as the teacher told them, how is it a protest?

What??? They were wearing a school uniform ffs. If the girls were allowed to wear a school dress as part of their uniform I suspect some would have worn them but it wasn't.

People can protest within their rights and they did in their own way without breaking any school rulings. Does everyone have to break rules or rage against the machine to protest? No they don't.

Elendon you have been rude to other posters and now you are policing the thread as to who or who can't post.

You are the one who is introducing "demeaning" "humiliation". What an extraordinary leap to assume the no doubt flippant comment " wear a skirt" is an invitation to humiliate themselves.

Goodness knows I see often enough on here statements that people should be able to wear what they want. Not much chance of that happening if these boys are demeaned and humiliated.

The whole disagreement rests on the interpretation of women's clothing as demeaning or not. Both one's own opinion, and that of other people.

If everyone agreed it was not demeaning and the boys just wanted to be cool, everything would be fine.

If it was quite clear that the boys didn't think it was demeaning, again the only people to blame are the media reporting it as such.

Either way, I think everyone agrees that it is not intrinsically demeaning to wear female clothing.

To my mind, attitudes should be based on that. And any other attitude should be challenged on the back if it.

I see it as an opportunity, rather than something to be judged unfavourably.

By telling the boys 'to wear skirts then', the school was hoping to humiliate them into silence. The boys refused to be humiliated and wore skirts, highlighting the stupidity of the policy.

It should be the school that you're cross with Elendon, they're the ones saying that boys wearing female uniform is abhorrent.

I don't see that in this thread. But each to their own with regard to interpretation. The poster who wrote this also has never had been subject to sexism ever

Well you are the one going on about how "demeaning" this. And that "the media" are saying it is demeaning. There is nothing in the Guardian article which leads to that conclusion and the boys look pretty pleased with themselves.

OK, don't think of it as a protest so much as a witty riposte to a silly rule

I know. I really don't follow why it is so important to the OP that the boys should have turned up in shorts.

OK, don't think of it as a protest so much as a witty riposte to a silly rule

Anyway, I thought I would lighten the thread with this fun link Men in skirts

I'm really not following a few of the arguments on here. Is it just me?

So the fact that most newspapers & broadcast media, and the boys themselves, say it was a protest against a rigid interpretation of the uniform rules - so this doesn't make you a teensy bit less adamant about your assertion?

That's hilarious, actually. Are you this stubborn about most things?

My dad said men feel they cannot adapt what they wear to work, that it would be a distraction in the workplace and not appropriate.

Say what?

Here's the Guardian coverage.

Guardian article

Plenty of shorts suits: www.google.co.uk/search?q=short+suits&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj80s6vmtTUAhVHF8AKHficDvkQsAQIpQE&biw=1643&bih=905 (google image search for short suits if you don't wish to clicky)

In Oz shorts are male school uniform right up to 18+ in some schools.

We just don't have the weather for it to be an issue here apart from those 3 or 4 days a year.