Girls told to wear longer skirts at school because the boys are distracted and male teachers feel uncomfortable.

[Exercisejunkieforlife]

My DD is 15, yesterday all the girls were kept behind in assembly and told they must wear skirts from the official uniform shop.
I have no problem with this as this is where we get DDs skirts, my problem is with the reasons given.

They were told that it distracts the boys when the girls walk up the stairs and makes the male teachers feel uncomfortable.

AIBU to think that the girls should not have to modify their behaviour / what they wear so the 'boys' don't look up their skirts and that the male teachers are responsible for their own feelings. ?

I don't think you've understood, Shatners

There are many independent schools, prep and senior where trousers are not a uniform option for girls. At DD's prep, there is a cord skirt, blouse and cardigan in winter and a floral pattern summer dress from after Easter up to October half-term. At DS' senior, no girls wear trousers so I'd assumed that was the policy.

As I said earlier, it would make no difference if the school simply stated, "this is policy" because it's bloody obvious why it was ever policy in the first place.

Why should girls have to wear boy's clothes?

A lot of girls quite like wearing trousers. At our school, girls were allowed to wear them in the winter when it was colder and the vast majority did. I just don't see why "trousers" = "boys' clothes"

If you allow girls to dress how they want, you have a decent chance they will choose a different way to "coolness". But if you force girls in a sexist, male-gaze oriented culture to wear school uniform with skirts, you really have it coming.

Absolutely this. The rolled-up / ultra short skirts are directly related to kids being required to wear uniform, imo. Teenagers have always wanted to find ways to show their own identity. This is one of the few ways in which they can in schools with uniform. When they're allowed to wear their own clothes the novelty soon wears off.

School uniforms are completely ridiculous. If they must have children all wearing the same then it should be something totally comfy and practical. Leggings and tunics or joggers and t -shirts or whatever.

Talking of girls having to wear boy's clothes - wtf do we make school girls wear ties?!

wtf do we make school girls wear ties?!

Why do we make anyone wear ties? :)

At DS1's High school both boys and girls wear ties, at DS2's only the boys do.

No idea why.

Well yes I personally wouldn't (and don't - the men in my team don't have to) - but what people normally say about uniform is that it's like you would need to dress in the workplace.

Well I am a lawyer and I see zero women wearing nylon skirts with a shirt tucked in! I imagine people who are surgeons, brickies, zookeepers, till operators or astronauts see even less correlation between "professional attire" and school uniform. It's such bullshit.

I don't think it's because of the workplace thing. It just looks smart. Nothing wrong with that.

I really think this problem is caused by the British obsession with uniform. In theory, uniform is supposed to make clothes less competitive, less of an issue, but in practice I think it focuses British children's attention on clothes, conforming, breaking rules, gender stereotypes, etc.

I don't think US and European schools (no uniforms) have these problems.

I know Shat and Bert, let's make them all wear kilts. A totally unisex garment. If made following a traditional pattern, they are past knee length, so no thigh problems. Although if we follow tradition then a flash of thong will be the least of anyone's worries.

I only have 18 months left of having a DC going to school in uniform. In total I will have been doing uniform for 15 years. I have never had a problem with it, and neither DS has ever complained either. It will be weird to never venture into the uniform shop again.

I can see their point re short skirts being inappropriate BUT the reason is shameful! Yes the girls need to keearn appropriate length of skirt for school/work environment but equally the boys need to learn appropriate behaviour towards this otherwise it's another generation of males believing they have any say in how women dress or even blaming their behaviour on a woman's attire!!
As for parents making sure the girls wear appropriate ones I know some girls roll the top of their skirts to make them shorter. In this instance it would make no difference what skirts they are wearing.

I dont think bertrand thinks that trousers are boys clothes

Unless she has been taken over by pod people

That could've happened..honest!! I saw it in a film

Ive had several arguments with my DD about her skirt length. In fact I have been in contact with her school to express my frustration about their lack of enforcement of their uniform policy. No one wants to see a students underwear and no one should have to. To those who say that girls should wear what they like without being looked at by the opposite sex, yes within reason. Equally male teachers have the right to carry out their job without having girls knickers flashed at them and without having to worry about being called a pervert for not constantly averting their eyes.

As a female teacher Ive had to tell girls to unroll their skirts, replace them not because of any distraction experienced by males (student or teacher) but purely because they are inadvertantly showing their backsides off.

Whether its distracting anyone else is almost irrelevant its about dignity, self respect and appropriate dress.

Nobody's saying girls should be able to wear what they like to school. They're saying the reason they shouldn't should not be because they'll be forcing men to look at their pants and feel uncomfortable.

Trousers aren't boys' clothes. Girls happily wear trousers out of school. I'm wearing trousers right now and they are not from the menswear department. I don't think many boys would happily wear a skirt. That's a silly suggestion.

Branleuse and Soupdragon have it.

Let'a stop pretending that there is the same pressure on females and on males to dress in a revealing manner. The wider issue is why do only females play this game in society. Agree reasons given in school were unacceptable. Should be about reference to professional attire /policy only and be gender neutral. Reference to self esteem also good. I feel sad when I see the pupils flashing so much, and wonder why it is usually girls doing it. And I simply don't believe they are doing it "for themselves". When I dress for myself it tends to be for comfort. As for fashion - again, naive to suggest that fashion doesn't tend to involve a disproportionate amount of flesh visible for women. Just open your eyes. Question is, why, and why do women comply?,

the reason they shouldn't should not be because they'll be forcing men to look at their pants and feel uncomfortable.

Why not? If boys were showing their underwear and causing female students and teachers to feel uncomfortable i can't imagine there being much uproar over addressing it. If males are uncomfortable though it's "boo hoo" and "tough shit" and "poor menz" or in plenty of cases "perverts".

"Why not? If boys were showing their underwear and causing female students and teachers to feel uncomfortable i can't imagine there being much uproar over addressing it. If males are uncomfortable though it's "boo hoo" and "tough shit" and "poor menz" or in plenty of cases "perverts"."

Yes, because society always puts the comfort , convenience and opinions of women over the comfort, convenience and opinions of men.

I think the reason is the biggest issue here! Fair enough they want you looking buissnes like and professional, as they are preparing you for working life (my schools stand on girls uniform and hair/make up)
But even suggesting that women and girls are somehow responsible for men and boys behaviour is wrong!!

It really annoyed me at my school, that girls skirts and trousers were monitored for how tight they were, but not boys!!
Skinny fit trousers were in and most boys wore them.

I once had to spend the whole day in the height of summer in my jumper. Because my white bra had a small amount of lace on it and it could be seen through my shirt! Shock, horror, a 14 year old girl wearing a bra!
And not at all embarrassing the male teacher pointing it out in a full class. I did offer to take it off, but that got me sent to my head of year!

Business, even!

I think that dd and her friends wear short skirts because that is the fashion . Schools (well, definitely in my time, anyway) were always trying to ban what was considered trendy. Plenty of girls at my school straightened their skirts into hobble ones instead of having to wear a big A-line number.

Boys try to bend the rules in different ways, mainly through shoes. Boys are frequently frogmarched to the Deputy Head's office to choose from a nice array of sweaty old school shoes if they come in wearing trainers.

The problem with the short skirts is, imo, not girls looking like Britney Spears and tempting hapless male teachers. It's the fact that it's just not savoury to see someone's knickers - anyone's knickers. I'm sure we all think it gross if we see a big hairy builder's bum. We're not going, "Corrrrr," but wishing he'd wear a belt. If all girls had to wear big navy bloomers, perhaps that would be better. We had "knicker check" at school to see that we were wearing "navies"