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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU - Are school out of order?

83 replies

unisexforreal · 22/01/2022 16:37

School have recently stopped doing a girls blazer and a boys blazer. They now only offer a "unisex" blazer. This is actually a "boys" blazer, re-labelled as unisex. So it does up the wrong way. I can't help feel that this is wrong. It's taking away the choice from "girls" (and boys if they want to wear the blazer with the buttons on the other side). It doesn't need to be labelled "girls" and "boys", It could just be labelled Left button and Right button, but to take away the choice is just wrong. I'm someone who in my career in the early days had to work harder than all the men to be their equal in the workplace. I have fought hard for where I have got. I want equality for my children -whoever they choose to be and whatever they chose to wear and whatever gender or not they choose to be. But to me equality = choice. If unisex is so important, why not keep the "girls" blazer and re-label that as unisex. And by taking this small choice away, I feel is a step back. Am i being completely menopausally unreasonable?

OP posts:
onedayoranother · 22/01/2022 18:18

Our junior school had unisex blazer - easy to pass down between siblings or get second hand.
Senior school it was sex specific - girls more fitted. Meant I had to buy a new one 🙁.
Couldn't care less what side they button up.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 22/01/2022 18:19

[quote BeBesideTheSea]It is not about the blazer. It is about “unisex” = male.

Which is why surgical equipment is designed to fit the hands of male surgeons. Why seatbelts are designed to fit and so protect male bodies. Why running shoes are design around the anatomy of male feet. Why medics taught the symptoms of heart attack are actually taught the symptoms of heart attack in males. Why the needles used for covid vaccination were based on correctly delivering the vaccine into male upper arm muscles …

Read “invisible women” by Caroline Criado Perez. newsletter.carolinecriadoperez.com/[/quote]
Exactly!

onedayoranother · 22/01/2022 18:24

@Whatwouldscullydo
Love your user name but Scully would roll her eyes at you!
What girl would care? And as the range of ages is 5-12 I'm sure there are small enough for girls. And a bit of sewing to shorten the sleeves if needed is an essential skill all kids could learn.
I've never ever heard anyone say their child won't go to a certain school due to the cut of the blazer. Ridiculous.

Svara · 22/01/2022 18:26

Don't see the problem. Unless the girls' blazers have both different chest sizes and lengths available then they won't fit every girl anyway. A blazers shaped to accommodate breasts will look silly oversized if a girl is tall but slim. Boys' blazers accomodate more body types.

Original poster
unisexforreal · 22/01/2022 18:29

So menopause doesn’t make you not have a clear mind sometimes. God help me. We need honest conversations about it’s effects.

OP posts:
Shambleseya · 22/01/2022 18:32

I couldn't get worked up about this.
I work in a large organisation where men and women are treated equally. A few years ago they did a similar thing and made some parts of our uniform unisex. It makes sense for the men's to be the ones they use, as they're shapeless. Women look better in shapeless clothes than men would in fitted clothes. Now we all just look equally awful Grin

Original poster
unisexforreal · 22/01/2022 18:33

[quote BeBesideTheSea]It is not about the blazer. It is about “unisex” = male.

Which is why surgical equipment is designed to fit the hands of male surgeons. Why seatbelts are designed to fit and so protect male bodies. Why running shoes are design around the anatomy of male feet. Why medics taught the symptoms of heart attack are actually taught the symptoms of heart attack in males. Why the needles used for covid vaccination were based on correctly delivering the vaccine into male upper arm muscles …

Read “invisible women” by Caroline Criado Perez. newsletter.carolinecriadoperez.com/[/quote]
Brilliant thank you for that link.

OP posts:
Shona52 · 22/01/2022 18:34

The only reason why buttons are on the other side for women was because their maids use to dress them and it made it easier to them to do them up right handed

LookItsMeAgain · 22/01/2022 18:41

As soon as the girls start developing breasts, the blazer won't even hang properly on them. What they needed to do is as the OP suggests, keep the girls cut of blazer (and perhaps have wider shoulders for the boys).
It's wrong. The school should see that it's wrong and just have a section for school blazers and if some of the boys want the more tailored version (which I am guessing is for the girls as it would have darts for the chest/breasts and be tapered in at the waist) then they can get it but it shouldn't be forced on the girls that they have to take the boys only version, unless they are planning on redesigning that,

OfstedOffred · 22/01/2022 18:43

I wouldnt fuss about the buttons for same reasons others have said.

As for the tailoring, even in girls schools the blazers don't tend to be tailored to a bust etc! They are usually shapeless garments designed to fit a range of shapes and not look good on anyone. Girls with bigger busts have probably always had to buy too big a size, even of a girls blazer, in the same way that adult women with bigger busts often shop for tops in shops that cut specifically for their shape (bravissimo etc).

As long as there are unisex blazers available that are small enough/short enough sleeves etc for girls, I probably wouldn't be overly concerned.

OfstedOffred · 22/01/2022 18:46

It is not about the blazer. It is about “unisex” = male.

I agree with this but I suspect the only difference between the "boys" and the "girls" blazers in most schools was the buttons, and availability of smaller sizes under the girls section and larger sizes under the boys section. So if they simplify by sticking to "boys" buttons (which are simply the ones easiest for right handed people) and make the full range of sizes available, its not really renaming the mens as unisex.

Where are these schools with nice tailored girls blazers?! I've only ever seen shapeless ones like the boys ones in state schools.

ViaRia · 22/01/2022 18:55

I agree with you OP, but it has nothing to do with which way the buttons do up.

Girls blazers are cut differently to boys to allow for the difference in their body shape (admittedly this may only become relevant in older years).

Of course I don’t think school uniforms should be highly fitted, fashion pieces, but they should look smart. A girl in a baggy boys blazer won’t look smart.

DrinkFeckArseBrick · 22/01/2022 19:00

YANBU

I am totally with you on gendered clothes. For example recently I bought a unisex size S t shirt and it was huge so completely fine for men and not women

But

Buttons on one side va the other is nothing to do with what's more suitable for one sez vs the other. It's more to do with what you're used to and left hand vs right

Svara · 22/01/2022 19:26

I am totally with you on gendered clothes. For example recently I bought a unisex size S t shirt and it was huge so completely fine for men and not women
School uniform will go down to a size that will fit an average ten year old or even smaller. I wear men's XS t-shirts and S hoodies as a (size 10 on top) woman and they fit fine.

BennysBingoBonanza · 22/01/2022 19:28

It’s news to me that any school has girls and boys blazers.

WhenTheyComeForYou · 22/01/2022 19:30

Caring about what side the buttons on is an extremely outdated view. I really don't think any child will care about this.

If it's ill fitting, that's an issue though.

The benefit of a unisex blazer is that people can reuse for siblings of any gender. I think this advantage outweighs the risk of a girl being upset her buttons are the "wrong" way round.

So in my view, YABU.

I wish no school did Blazers. Few people wear full suits to work anymore, why should children. Trousers and a jumper all the way.

yellowtwo · 22/01/2022 19:41

YANBU OP, not fair that unisex is actually male sizing.

Meandthesky · 22/01/2022 19:52

YANBU

it’s not about which side it buttons up, it’s that unisex is almost always really just the male version. They should keep the two different styles but allow students to wear whichever they prefer.

Hesma · 22/01/2022 20:48

My DD never does her blazer up anyway so this is a non event for me

SimonedeBeauvoirscat · 22/01/2022 20:53

I voted YABU because of your focus on which side the buttons fasten on. The wider issue however is valid.

ButtockUp · 22/01/2022 21:03

Unisex is fine for 11 year olds but certainly aren't for 15 year old girls.
I'd complain.

The button issue goes back to Victorian /Georgian days. Traditionally the upper classes had been dressed by servants but , at some point , men decided to dress themselves and so buttons were switched over to accommodate them.

This should not be an issue now. Bust and hip sizes , however, should be accommodated now.

DiddyHeck · 22/01/2022 22:43

@ButtockUp

Unisex is fine for 11 year olds but certainly aren't for 15 year old girls. I'd complain.

The button issue goes back to Victorian /Georgian days. Traditionally the upper classes had been dressed by servants but , at some point , men decided to dress themselves and so buttons were switched over to accommodate them.

This should not be an issue now. Bust and hip sizes , however, should be accommodated now.

Unisex is fine for 11 year olds but certainly aren't for 15 year old girls.

So the issue is the same either way isn't it? A blazer designed for developed breasts, will not fit the vast majority of 11/12/13 year olds. So there's still a big discrepancy there for the majority of the lower years.

DorothyZbornakIsAQueen · 22/01/2022 22:48

:33unisexforreal

BeBesideTheSea

It is not about the blazer. It is about “unisex” = male.

Which is why surgical equipment is designed to fit the hands of male surgeons. Why seatbelts are designed to fit and so protect male bodies. Why running shoes are design around the anatomy of male feet. Why medics taught the symptoms of heart attack are actually taught the symptoms of heart attack in males. Why the needles used for covid vaccination were based on correctly delivering the vaccine into male upper arm muscles …

Read “invisible women” by Caroline Criado Perez.newsletter.carolinecriadoperez.com/

I agree with all of this.

And to ^almost^ quote Tina Turner, what's a school blazer got to do with it?

crazyjinglist · 22/01/2022 23:21

YABU. School blazers are not very tailored to the male or female form. School uniform is never flattering. And I can't even imagine how petty you have to be to care which side the buttons do up.

I normally hate it when people say "I envy you if that's the biggest thing you have to eorry about', but....

Endofdaysarehere · 22/01/2022 23:29

This has blown my mind.

In the 90’s my school sold one blazer. If you wanted a boys one you bought it and sewed the right piping on it.
If you wanted a girls one you bought it, moved the buttons to the other side and cut new holes, sewed the piping on it.

It suited no one and was therefore fair.

If you want it to button on the other side you can make that happen.