AIBU - Are school out of order?

[unisexforreal]

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?

I think blazers are utterly stupid as school wear anyway. Who the hell wears them on a daily basis in any other context? Much more sensible just to have.a sweatshirt or jumper.

As soon as the girls start developing breasts, the blazer won't even hang properly on them.

Pfft. I have size 36 EE/F boobs and regularly buy jumpers from the men's dept and could easily wear dh's jackets. Standard school blazers fit all but the most outsize of shapes. I have a 16yo dd and a 13yo ds. I have no clue whether their school blazers were sex-specific or not tbh. Ds certainly inherited one of dd's. It's a uniform, not a fashion parade.

It is 30 years since I left school but I dont remember that there was a girl's and boy's blazer. It has never actually occurred to me till this thread that there was such a thing and they weren't unisex anyway.

@Trilley

I think blazers are utterly stupid as school wear anyway. Who the hell wears them on a daily basis in any other context? Much more sensible just to have.a sweatshirt or jumper.

I agree. They are horrendously uncomfortable items of clothing, unless properly tailored and not made entirely from synthetic fibres (neither of which is the case for most school blazers). They are hot in summer, cold in winter and expensive for parents. And the argument that formal wear prepares children for the world of work no longer holds true in a society where many increasingly work from home or in offices with a casual dress code.

I'm 40 and had no idea mens' and womens' blazers even buttoned on different sides.

However I do get the rage when "unisex" really means "designed for men; women who use it can just like it or lump it". I get this rage every time I go to the gym. I'm a 5"2 woman and the equipment is clearly not designed to accommodate me. I have to lower the seat of the cycling machine to its very lowest setting and even then it's only barely usable!

I would definitely raise this with the school and point them to the (award winning) book Invisible Women for further reading. The default male enrages me.

@Trilley

I think blazers are utterly stupid as school wear anyway. Who the hell wears them on a daily basis in any other context? Much more sensible just to have.a sweatshirt or jumper.

I loved my blazer. It had many useful pockets. At my school (in the 90s) the boys had to wear them years 7-11, for the girls they were only compulsory to year 9. We has a pupil vote when I was 12 about changes to uniform and we all voted to keep the blazer compulsory for girls throughout too. Everyone liked them!

@teezletangler

I would definitely raise this with the school and point them to the (award winning) book Invisible Women for further reading. The default male enrages me.

Thank you.