Policing women’s clothes or reasonable expectation?

There needs to be a policy for girls and boys (and there is). Generally boys clothes don't get policed so much because they just wear trousers and a shirt/jumper blazer. I see girls with skirts so short and tight that they barely cover their knickers. If I saw boys wearing shorts so tight that their bums were hanging out I'd expect them to get told off too!

Why are you talking about random clubbing outfits on a thread about skirt lengths?

Your post makes me wonder if there is some sort of unspoken utility in repeating this ritual throughout the generations?

Perhaps annoying adults in the relatively safe space of the school system gets it out of one’s system before graduation?

See also: boys who insist on wearing a hoody instead of the uniform blazer and all the weird stuff teenagers of both sexes do with ties (eg wearing them backwards, so the skinny part shows, wearing them short and tiny with the majority tucked inside the shirt or wearing them long and dangly, unpicking some of the woven stripes to create a new pattern etc).

No i said some people looked like they were going clubbing after work, i never said they were wearing a mini skirt.

And those people look like they are going clubbing after work because the general assumption is that miniskirt = nightclub.

It doesnt prove anything. You might think mini skirts are not work wear but others disagree and wear them.

Sorry - I don't think this has anything to do with policing what girls wear. It seems the school police that pupils wear compliant uniforms. If any of the boys wish to turn up in skirts, I would expect them to be at the correct length too. Of course, if you don't wish to adhere to the uniform code at the school you applied for your child to attend, you are free to withdraw them and take your child somewhere else.

As for the workplace - plenty of workplaces do have uniforms or dress codes, and if you want to work there then that is what you do. Our workplace does not permit jeans (for either sex) but is generally relatively casual about dress otherwise. Others have little or no interest in what people wear. It would have been handy though if my last place had had a rule about necklines down to the navel, which would have saved me the fraught conversation with someone about appropriate work attire.

This show will run and run!

DD is at a school with the same skirt length rule. She, along with most other girls, rolls her skirt up shorter and shorter over the course of a term. Eventually the SLT has had enough. Cue emails and mass detentions. Skirts are rolled back down. Rinse and repeat.

It was exactly the same 20 odd years ago when I was at school except it was a letter rather than an email and the same about 35 years earlier when DM was at school. It will never change as long as girls can wear skirts to school.

I don't think that it's caused by a desire to attract boys or even peer pressure. We wanted to be seen as older and more mature than our age. This meant copying the kids who were a couple of years older than us. They rolled their skirts up so we did too.

I work in secondary schools. The skirts can be VERY short. Nobody really cares about knee length, but knee length is safe ground.

It is creepy for teachers to comment “your skirt is too short because I can see your bum”. Then teachers have then admitted to looking at her bum, and you can see the problem.

The policy of knee length leaves a bit of room for minor rebellion, and keeps the conversation comfortable for everyone. It is reasonable.

A balance can be struck but this issue is often polarising.

Skirts should be a certain length and this should be adhered to.

However, the school can't demand said skirt is bought from a specific shop, at a specific price. Factoring in growth spurts at that age, one girl I knew had to get three new skirts in one year as she shot up from average height in Y7 and just kept growing! If your teen becomes too tall for it to be the right length, you shouldnt have to spend £££ to replace - just from a supermarket should be allowed. They can't have it both ways.

The frogmarching and separation isn't really on either. Yes, ok girls roll their skirts up and have done for decades, but who knows what's going on at home that they haven't got a new skirt if they've genuinely grown too tall for it. It could be money, neglect or anything really, and they're being shamed for it.

I think uniform is a good lesson for the world of work though. OP, you might think women can wear what they want but they're there to 'work' - and even jeans/hoodies/trainers/too much skin showing aren't allowed in many workplaces.

Knee length is so much easier for the teachers to police. The trouble with ´no more than 3 inches above the knee’ or ´longer than fingertip length with your hands by your sides’ is that to check whether a skirt complies with these rules puts teachers in a crap position. No one wants to go back to the bad old days of teachers holding rulers up to girls’ legs to check whether the 3inches has been respected or not. Knee length is much easier to see at a glance from a good distance and there’s enough leeway that it doesn’t matter if you’re a bit lenient with the interpretation and only speak to the kids where the skirt is indisputably shorter than knee length - you can still skip the issue of skirts being so short that underwear is visible when climbing the stairs or sitting on a chair.

I did think maybe the Ball Boy & Girl uniform at Wimbledon might involve a short skirt but I just googled and it’s a skort.

My daughter's school does a similar thing at the start of the school year. They are less strict as the year goes on. The difference is that girls with skirts deemed too short or tight are put into inclusion for the day and prevented from joining lessons. A letter home feels far more appropriate.

Nothing to with the patriarchy, keep your ire for causes that actually deserve it.

I tend to agree with this view. The societal expectations that females dress to attract the male gaze, which (I would assume consciously for some, and subconsciously for others) leads girls to wear their skirts very short. I too struggle with my thoughts when I see school girls who are essentially wearing belts, and bum cheeks can be seen - its a totally inappropriate way to dress, but I don't think policing skirt lengths is going to solve the issue, it just brings a whole load of other problems with singling out girls and saying what girls can and can't wear which is also inappropriate.

I wish skirts were not the norm for girls at school - they are much less practical in my opinion and I can't really understand why so few girls wear trousers. I also wish there were some solid efforts made to tackle societal expectations of girls and women, sexism and misogyny. This is what is needed, not herding girls into a group and publicly calling them out for too short skirts.

I can’t think of any work uniform that includes a mini skirt - even Hooters staff wear shorts.

The fact that YOU thought they looked like they were going clubbing straight after work rather confirms my point rather than refutes it, no?

@FreddysSquishyBollock i used to work for an IT company (not a nightclub or a goth shop) with a mainly young work force, and nearly all the young women wore mini skirts. Some looked liked they were about to go clubbing straight after work.

Just because YOU dont wear short skirts to work or deem it acceptable, plenty of others disagree with you.

It's the desire to look nice that is probably behind most short school skirts not availability of decent clothes which fit or can be worn with a belt

Funny how the desire to look good which falls heavily on women and girls isn't challenged , just the need to learn to sew

I think school uniforms are handy, and there needs to be some rules if they're going to be, well, uniform, but publically hearding girls with inappropriate skirt lengths together to have their names taken is incredibly heavy handed, and does smack of policing of female bodies.

I think uniforms should be comfortable and easy to clean, so for me it'd be tracksuits and trainers every day for me.

@DisingenuousBatshitteryI can see that this is really annoying (and I would get rid of uniforms completely) but the solution is for you to learn to use a needle and thread, or teach your DD to. Taking in a skirt or adding belt loots to it is an incredibly simple task. The solution isn’t for girls to have too short akirts it’s for parents to learn some basic sewing skills and adjust the too big waist.

This task is going to fall overwhelmingly on women isn't it. Yet more women's work that men and boys don't have to concern themselves with.