Schoolgirls face ban on skirts.

[Gruach]

Personally, I appear to have lost all power of speech ...

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f08d6f1a-7ca5-11e8-8ce4-0bcac63244b2

your average comprehensive school has girls with thick wedges around their waist and the lower edge of their knickers showing

Unlike those nice gels at the private and grammar schools who wear nun's habits eh?

Don't know where you live but none of the comps around here match that description.

As ever "gender neutral" = "male default"

But they don’t fit everyone that is the problem.
Uniforms generally have one pair of trousers shaped for the female ideal/ or average female.
And the rest of us are supposed to work around it.

School trousers are so itchy and uncomfortable. I'd much rather where tights or leggings (Maybe my skin is too sensitive?)

Would the world end if only trousers were on the gender neutral uniform list and girls could not wear skirts? No but everybodies freedom of choice would face further whittling away.

Would the world end if skirts were on a gender neutral uniform list and all boys - not just trans could choose to wear them? No but everybodies freedom of choice would be slightly expanded.

Just requires everyone to be less judgemental and more accepting.

Are trousers really male though?

I live in the UK, I don't see many men wearing skirts although Scots posters may find different.

If there were no difference then the uniform guidelines should equally be skirts for all. Do we have any schools anywhere with that rule on grounds of gender neutrality?

I used to think that I was a very tolerant person but I am beginning to doubt myself. Banning skirts is a step too far and I will defend anyone's right to wear one. God help us - women have fought so long for our rights and they are slowly but definitely being taken away from us. I'm away to seethe now.

Nothing new there then. Unisex or gender-neutral = male.

It’s insane! I hate wearing trousers - I much prefer skirts. How dare they take away our choices to appease some loud, misogynistic men.

I did wonder if this was also a virtue signally way of hiding the issue of policing girls skirts, upskirting and all that. Rather than by promoting choice, inclusivity and appropriate behavior between the sexes.

This default is male orientated, not gender neutral. I say that as a woman who hardly ever wears a skirt.

Such a stupid approach for schools to take.

It actually shows them to be very narrow-minded and not remotely supportive of trans / neutral / fluid students.

“Someone who looks like a boy wearing a skirt? Pass the smelling salts! What can we do? Oh, BAN SKIRTS!”

Didn’t a school in Brighton introduce a Skirt Uniform and a Trouser Uniform, giving all pupils the option to wear the uniform of choice?

A choice of uniforms rather than dividing pupils by sex and gender seems a better way forward than banning skirts.

DS school responded to the ‘trans’ issue by removing the reference to girls/boys on the uniform list. It’s the same list for everyone and includes trousers or skirts. you can buy them from anywhere as well, so different shaped people can find something that suits.

Hopefully in these schools the students will rebel and ALL, including boys, turn up in skirts.

Surely the sensible and 'gender-neutral' thing to do is to let all students choose between skirts, trousers or shorts in uniform colour. Accommodate a variety of preferences and body shapes while still keeping the idea of a uniform. Short skirts aren't any more of a problem than too-tight trousers. If some people are breaking the rules, the solution isn't to remove choice for everyone.

I had to wear an ugly tartan skirt as part of my uniform. Of course I didn't like it at all. I'd have hated trousers more, because I had a tiny waist and very large hips/bum/thighs from age 12. As a teenager I was horribly self-conscious about it. Standard sized trousers do not fit me at all. I'd definitely have picked the ugly skirt, no matter how disliked, over uniform trousers if there had been a choice. As an adult I can buy flattering skirts and dresses and actively avoid workplaces which would require me to wear ill-fitting trousers.

Some people, I know, feel the opposite way to me and would choose trousers over a skirt every time. Why shouldn't uniform policies allow a reasonable amount of choice?

I don't understand the whole issue of senior school uniforms really, why do they have to be so strict? At my DD's junior school they can wear whatever they like really as long as they wear their sweatshirt, and it's great, most of them wear city shorts or skirts, boys wear shorts or t-shirts as long as they are black or grey.

I would much rather there was a choice of shorts/squorts/skirts/trousers that all kids could chose from and maybe a polo shirt with school crest on. I find the whole notion of blazers and ties really antiquated, hardly anyone wears that kind of thing to work now.

acceptable to religious fundamentalists

That depends on the religion. Christian fundamentalists don't put girls in trousers.

A school in New Zealand has long shorts, trousers or a kilt as its uniform it was in the news for its gender neutral uniform.

My school didn't allow girls to wear trousers. I would have actually hated to wear trousers, due to being tall/long I find it really hard to find trousers that are comfortable and look nice. I'm sure I'm not the only girl/woman that feels like this. So I live in skirts and shorts. I also find tights warmer and comfier. Will the girls get a say on this skirt ban, I doubt it.

It does also bite that at schools like mine girls fought for the right to wear trousers with no fruition, but now they change the rules to make boys happy.

Perhaps if girls wore longer skirts then it wouldn't be an issue, and no I'm not victim blaming. I just think they need to understand that certain entire is not suitable for everyday wear.

My eldest is at high school and the head teacher makes a big song and dance about what they can and can't wear, for example they can't wear boots and have to wear court/smart shoes which you would wear to work and yet nothing said to the girls whose skirts barely cover their backside and would not be able to wear work.

I think that the "gender neutral" is just PC bollocks to cover the fact that schools are pissed off with girls rolling up their skirts to a level that they look like they've forgotten to dress themselves.

Ironically when it's a non school uniform day the girls dress far more sensibly (and stylishly): capri pants, skinnies, etc . It's those goddamn stupid polyestery skirts that look so frumpy the poor girls roll them up to avoid looking like they're about to go into a convent.

The real answer would be have trousers during the winter and skirts during the summer. For boys and girls.

I have abdominal problems and suffer terrible bloating. Trousers are very uncomfortable. to the point of being painful. Loose skirts are better and loose dresses better still.

I would favour more choice. Or even banning school uniform and just have rules about length of skirts and shorts instead.

I agree with Cough and also FlyingElbows. I can see why schools don't want the hassle of skirts. It's a minority of girls who do modify skirts so that they cover very little but what the schools expected to do about that? There's scant support from the parents in getting school children to comply.

I think on this issue, we're more a nation of "But I can't because..." rather than "We'll make it work".

I just can't get exercised about skirts being banned at school; children have many hours when they're out of school to wear what they please.

Slut shaming school girls for their skirt length isn't the answer either.

Why is choice taken away from girls when the problem they say they are trying to address is the lack of choice for boys?

I know why

good golly the world has gone mad.
so once again girls have to give something up.
girls should be able to wear what they want.

I'd be really annoyed if I had to face this. I rarely wear trousers as I find most of them uncomfortable. School trousers would most definitely fit into that category.
One of the few things to be grateful for being a women for, is being able to wear skirts (and a hugely wider range of other clothing than men).

I wonder if it will lead to school trousers that actually fit girls being available . Long enough for tall girls. Waists that don’t gape for curvy girls. Etc etc.