to think schoolgirls shouldn't wear short skirts?

[cruelladepoppins]

I mean really short, barely bum-covering, as I saw at our local senior school open day yesterday evening?

It was just indecent. Even with thick tights. Do the boys (and teachers) just look in another direction?

How do the girls run around, bend to pick something up etc?

I was talking to the mum of one of them, and she says she's dreading when they do their work experience this year, she just can't get her DD to understand a pelmet might not be appropriate for a workplace. They think it's OK because everyone wears them to school. I'm not kidding, I didn't see a single knee-length skirt, nor even a just-above-the-knee one.

I'm the mother of boys (oh-oh) - any mothers of girls out there care to defend the teeny-skirt idea?

I think the difference, Jennai....., is that back in the day we weren't trying to look sexy , just a bit less dorky.

And I think sewing your tie down the sides to make it into a trendier "punk" one as opposed to early 70s kipper, is a far cry from flashing your thong at hordes of boys as you go up the stairs.

Oh good, juule :)

I always feel like a lone voice on threads like these!

Jedi there is indeed a disconnect. And the scorn poured on these girls is dreadful.

Saying girls in short skirts are dressing like hookers isn't a million miles away from people blaming rape victims for wearing "inappropriate" clothing. It's a dilute form of the same mindset.

gramercy - perhaps you're right. I don't know if we were trying to look attractive or less dorky - probably a bit of both. I don't think I ever knowingly flashed my arse though

By all means ban arse-flashing - for both sexes. Mooning doesn't make anyone look sexy though - it just makes them look stupid!

Sorry but I don't like seeing school girls in sexually provocative clothing and that is definitely what it is (having been a teenage girl once myself). I don't blame the girls for wanting to be 'sexy'. It's only natural in your teens to be rebellious and provocative but truly it is not a good look. The schools should definitely crack down on it.

A male friend of mine teaches in a posh all girls' school. He took the young ladies (around 13) on a day out to an art gallery for which they were allowed to wear their own clothes and said he felt truly ashamed to be out with them in public as they were dressed in minuscule clothing more appropriate for an adult nightclub.

YANBU,
I was forever being told to roll my skirt down when i was at school! I couldn't
help how short it was on me. The school had a certain type of kilt that you could only buy from the school shop and it barely covered my bum and i was a size 8-10 at the time.
So sometimes it can't be avoided if there is only one skirt the school will allow as i dont think there is a universal skirt out there to suit all shapes and sizes, but if its just a rule like skirts must be black then the parents of pupils should really be making sure that their kids look half decent before walking out the door in the morning!

Some schools I know of request 'business dress' for sixth formers. I think that this is an excellent idea. It gives them the freedom (and practice) in wearing adult office wear. I'd imagine that it has a good psychological effect on them too.

No disconnect here. My point was that they are not up to anything I didn't do. I did want to look sexy at 15, I still like to look sexy now but at 33 I have a different idea about what is attractive on me.

I don't think they look sexy, I think they look like little girls who are trying out life - same as I was. It isn't up to them to dress a certain way in order for men/boys to control themselves.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Oh Morloth I could kiss you. Great post :)

Seconded - Great post, Morloth.

"The more things change the more they stay the same."
so true. I would have hoped by now girls would be appreciated for their intellect and personalities but nearly everything bombards them with the message that only their looks count, and the less they wear the better they look. Thats why I support a trousers only policy. It removes the pressure a bit.

I must be ancient.

When I was at school length was not an issue. We all had straight skirts below the knee and spent much time unpicking the seam up the back...

The short skirts are very distracting and what about the often 'orange' faces you see on the girls. Our local comp apparently banned day glo type socks but its still Ok to wear micro skirts .

I really don't think trousers will solve the problem. Girls of that age are just trying to push the boundaries. I remember what my class was like back in the day. We were forever rolling up our skirts to the despair of our teachers and parents. My brother's school had trousers for both boys and girls, so the girls simply unbuttoned their blouse buttons as low down as they could without flashing nipples!

Why are so many people orange here? I don't get it, you don't like like you have a tan you look like you ate waaaaay too many carrots.

There is a poster in the window of a beauty salon that I walk by everyday that has a very orange woman in a sexy pose with the caption 'People don't usually look like this is real life...' like being orange is something to aspire to.

I'm with morloth. Girls (though not all) will always want to do this, and it's a tiny bit of self-expression when huge amounts of their time and expression in school is clamped down on. Anyone at one of our local schools who does their tie in a "self-expressive way" (or forgets it) has to wear an old lurid 1970's tie from a box in the office that teachers have brought in. I'm in favour of uniform but I don't think micro-skirts should be banned. Discouraged maybe but tons of women on these boards have worn short skirts as uniform and it hasn't harmed them. If the "thick tights" rule is enforced, there is no reason why they shouldn't want to look attractive wearing these.

I have no idea, Morloth. Claudia Winkelman was looking positively Tangoed on Film 2010 last night. Bizarre

You have to tell them off for it though, otherwise what is the point in them doing it? No fun at all pushing a boundary if there is no boundary.

But when telling them off/enforcing the rule I think it is better to think of girls dressed like this as girls sussing out life rather than as 'sluts'.

I don't think sluts at all. I was shocked at the bare girl in Plymouth city centre though. I'm surprised she wasn't arrested to be honest.

At least now people are entirely orange. When I Was Young faces would be orange but this would mysteriously stop at hairline and chinline...

Morloth, you have hit the nail on the head. They have to be told off, not banned from doing it. That way they get their sense of having rebelled . It would be useless if parents and teachers turned a blind eye. In fact, it could well push them into trying more and more "daring" things

I was walking behind a woman in Kensington the other day who had on tights and a shirt. That was it. It was very strange, she had a wedgy and her bum was jiggling about. She did however have quite nice boots. I figured 'That was the style of the day', she obviously thought she looked OK and it wasn't my bum out in the cold, so who cares really?

A few years ago my then 13 yr old DD used to tut as we drove past girls who had their skirts rolled up, fast forward a few years and she was one of them.

She left the house with a knee lenght skirt which amazingly transformed itself by the time she got to school. A few detentions later (school very strict) and she was more careful and skirt less short :)

She is now in the 6th form and they have to wear business clothes, she loves it but still tries to roll up a knee length pencil skirt on the odd occasion!

I think its more to do with what everyone else does rather than thinking about looking sexy. Its a rite of passage to alter or modify your uniform, well it was when i was at school

saw a group of girls, all dressed in pink bikinis (wasn't sunny at all) walking through the bus station. They were obviously dressed up for a charity thing. The woman next to me had a gigantic cats bum mouth and talked very loudly about them asking to get raped.
sorry,not sure what that's got to do with anything, but Morloths story jogged my memory.