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Original poster

Short school skirts "sending the wrong message"

142 replies

BeingFluffy · 18/05/2012 20:56

DD (13) at a Comp had assembly today for girls only. The woman teacher was going on about how some girls wear very short skirts and it "sends the wrong message". From what DD was saying she seemed to be making a link between girls' skirt length and sexual violence. I agree that some girls wear skirts that are no more than belts and it does not look particularly smart, but I really object to that apparently making them more at risk of sexual violence or paedophiles which seemed to be the suggestion.
I feel that I should complain about this but wonder if DD misinterpreted what she was saying, as I really can't believe a teacher said this. Should I just shut up and ignore it, or fire off an email?

OP posts:
Original poster
BeingFluffy · 19/05/2012 08:53

Yes thank you Raven - I should send that to the teachers!

OP posts:
TitsalinaBumSquash · 19/05/2012 08:53

Girls were doing this when I was at school! We'd roll out skirts up to bum length and yes it was always to look good for the boys school - sorry ladies but it's true!
They brought in the big pleats to make rolling them up look silly so we pinned them in places so it wouldn't matter then rolled them up anyway.

They brought in strict detentions for girls with skirts too short so we just did it before and after school on the way home or on the bus.

Skirts need to be banned and some nice tailored, girls trousers brought in. IMO.

AThingInYourLife · 19/05/2012 09:08

Banning skirts because girls will look too slutty in them seems a little creepy.

CailinDana · 19/05/2012 09:15

It's not because they look slutty AThing, it's because they won't wear them properly. A lot of schools in my area did away with ties for the same reason - children just weren't wearing them properly so there wasn't any point in having them.

Floggingmolly · 19/05/2012 09:24

I don't really think "sending the wrong message" was really implying inviting sexual violence Hmm. Get a grip, ladies.

Hopefullyrecovering · 19/05/2012 09:31

I tend to collude with DD in the matter of short skirts.

The girls all (and yes I do mean all) roll them over at the waist band which looks ludicrous, so I take her skirts up properly. They are 2/3 inches above the knee, worn with opaque tights and actually look rather nice IMHO.

If DD's head started a lecture about this inviting sexual violence, I would be having a word with the head.

CalamityKate · 19/05/2012 09:39

I don't really think "sending the wrong message" was really implying inviting sexual violence hmm. Get a grip, ladies.

Well said.

FGS Hmm

I have no doubt that in this case, "sending the wrong message" is another way of saying "when you roll your skirts up too high you look sloppy and ridiculous and your perceived IQ drops several points. The school would rather its pupils looked smart and workmanlike than idiotic."

AThingInYourLife · 19/05/2012 09:43

"children just weren't wearing them properly so there wasn't any point in having them."

That argument extends to the whole uniform.

If girls are going to be forced to wear uniform trousers, then the uniform should be rethought so it is not just teenage girls in cheap "tailored" trousers worn with the kinds of tops (short v-neck jumpers, ties, shirts with collars) that that were conceived entirely with boys in mind.

Sticking a skirt where a pair of trousers should be can, depending on the cut of the skirt, still look smart and not like teenage girls are dressed as liitle men.

Put them in trousers and they look horrible.

I don't know any grown women who wear tailored trousers with the kind of gear that comes with a standard school uniform. If girls must wear trousers (and I don't agree with that restriction) then it should be in the context of a uniform that is flattering and attractive.

Not chubby thighs and bottoms in horrible cheap material under woolly waistbands with tucked-in shirts.

Ick!

motherinferior · 19/05/2012 09:43

I do find it hard to get worked up about school uniform, I must say. Even though DD1 is about to go to a school notorious for the brevity of the girls' skirts. I really do not think it correlates to achievement.

I found going braless under my school blouse an even better way of flaunting the school uniform regulations, fwiw.

AThingInYourLife · 19/05/2012 10:06

Was wearing a bra part of the uniform? :o

The mind boggles at the issues that could cause.

CailinDana · 19/05/2012 10:12

Ha that's great motherinferior - how could they say anything to you without
looking like complete perves Grin

I agree AThing, that if the girls do wear trousers they should be nice trousers that are actually well fitted etc. If a school really thinks the skirts are "sending the wrong message" then it seems a sensible solution to the problem.

seeker · 19/05/2012 10:17

"i have noticed some girls skirts are really ridiculously short and these are quite posh schools. surprised me as our local bog standard comp would not allow it"

seeker · 19/05/2012 10:20

"what ould the boys think?"

Well, what I hope my boy would think is "Mary is wearing a very short skirt today"

What would your boy think?

motherinferior · 19/05/2012 10:23

The thing is, school uniforms pretty well without exception look awful. And IME bear only tangential relationship to Office Clothes (which are usually cited as the analogy. Me, I wear a Charming Frock or skinny jeans to my really quite respectable job. Last time I wore a suit - to run the comms for a big charity - it was coral, with a quite short skirt Grin).

So I feel a certain sympathy (misplaced, obviously) for kids who play around with the rules.

IAmSherlocked · 19/05/2012 10:25

The problem is, we look at it from an adult perspective. From my experience of older teenagers, they don't bat an eyelid because to them this is what girls wear. There is no novelty or excitement to it particularly, because they are so used to the girls around them being in skimpy clothes: vest tops, short skirts, shorts over tights. When I've taken mixed groups on school trips, they haven't had the slightest bit of interest in what each other is wearing.

FallenCaryatid · 19/05/2012 10:33

One of the things I love about my children is they seem oblivious to the norms set by society. DS has a friend who is female, by the time I met her I knew quite a lot about her talents and interests.
But it wasn't until I met her in the flesh that I realised she's around 5' tall and a good 16 stone. Wasn't relevant to him. Smile
DD and her friends do swan around with many of them wearing revealing clothing, especially when cosplaying. Doesn't alter the relationships or the respect and affection they have for each other.
But for work, they wear more appropriate clothing.

ravenAK · 19/05/2012 22:21

The thing is, with uniforms, I agree they default to hideous, but if you made them all gorgeous & trendy they'd date & look ridiculous 3 years on.

School uniform should be sensible, affordable, readily identifiable, comfortable & so unremarkable as not to attract adverse attention or rebellion. What's wrong with just black trousers/skirt/leggings & a sweatshirt in the school colours?

Unfortunately, various surveys relating 'formal' uniform to 'high expectations' seem to have led Heads & Governors - including my own - to make the sort of predictable causation/correlation category errors that mean arguments about teenagers' skirt lengths run & run.

More worryingly, it's open to equally predictable exploitation once schools go Cackademy & start using uniform 'requirements' as an intake filter. Can of worms!

motherinferior · 20/05/2012 09:33

Raven, I think I love you Grin.

edam · 20/05/2012 09:39

Entirely fair points, Raven. I always think the chief use of uniform is to give teenagers something safe to rebel against - gives them a relatively safe outlet for anti-authoritarianism as opposed to dangerous stuff like drugs.

If schools really wanted to stop girls hitching up their skirts, they'd insist on hideous tartan kilts like I had to wear. Proper kilts that you have to wear with a kilt pin. Problem was a. they were hideous b. I went to school in Yorkshire, where the wind doesn't muck around with blowing round you, it goes straight through you, meaning the kilt pin eventually tore a hole in your kilt.

mumzy · 20/05/2012 09:43

I think a tailored pencil skirt an inch above the knee with a short back vent which I wore as a schoolgirl is far more flattering than the greyhound skirts girls wear these days.

seeker · 20/05/2012 09:46

Raven- when I grow up can I join your gang?

Bunbaker · 20/05/2012 14:13

What on earth is a greyhound skirt?

Kez100 · 20/05/2012 14:24

My son helped out at a school event yesterday. He is 13 and was sharing a role with another girl in his year. When I asked how it went he said very well but, unfortunately, the girl "was wearing a completely inappropriate outfit". Turns out this was a very short and tight skirt which was restricting her moving without losing some dignity which she hadn't realised when she dressed for the evening, so she agreed with him he should take over and she took a slightly less active role!

I would love to have been a fly on the wall to that conversation!

mumzy · 20/05/2012 21:10

Bunbaker - an inch from the hareGrin