Girls wearing skirts not allowed into school - could only be Brighton

[Kit19]

www.theargus.co.uk/news/17886600.lewes-priory-gender-neutral-uniform-protest/

Apparently “gender neutral” means trousers aka the male default. This is utterly insane. I mean I wouldn’t have minded the choice of trousers or skirts for either sex but only trousers?

We've had threads many times before pointing out that a lot of girls find skirts easier when they're on their period.

This is ridiculous. Police ffs. The obvious solution was a choice for any pupil to wear a (reasonable length) skirt or trousers. The school seems to have particularly fouled up by first saying the yr 11s didn't need to buy new uniform and then change their mind. A lot of girls have pretty much stopped growing upwards by this age so it's a completely unnecessary waste of money and clothing.

I'm am so proud of those protesting. Good, fucking rise up! It's not about skirts or trousers, it's about choice, and women and girls are allowed a CHOICE

My girl has nasty eczema on her leg. Trousers send it crazy. Also she is tall and very very thin. Finding trousers that fit is so so difficult.
I think this is disgraceful.

boys are allowed a choice too to be fair

if they want to wear skirts let em I say

society would work a lot better if certain parts of it could get over feeling squeamish when they see a male doing anything considered feminine

The police!!!! Why on earth is it so important what female children wear that the police are there.

From the local paper

"The students, some wearing skirts, then tried to get into the school past the teachers and police officers who were standing guard at the entrance checking uniforms."

"Police Officers...."?! What in sweet hell are the Police doing there?? Firstly, I'd have thought they have far better things to be doing with their time and secondly, there is absolutely no way a school girl turning up to her school wearing a skirt is committing a crime! The day that is a crime would be a terrible one for Britain.

I would have hated to only have to wear trousers

Skirts are better in summer, when you have your period and I found it really difficult to find a pair that fit at that age.

I don’t see why it’s the girls who have to make allowances.

Also, why is it that the teachers get to wear skirts?

This isn’t right.

Wouldn't 'gender neutral uniform' be boys being allowed to wear skirts and girls being allowed to wear trousers?

I think as a teenager I would have preferred to wear a skirt rather than trousers.

Trousers only uniform is fine as far as I’m concerned. Imposing new uniform rules for year 11s at the lat minute so they need to bin their old skirts and buy trousers to wear for one year when you’d previously said you’d allow a changeover period is not OK.

Trousers haven't been the "male default" since the 1920's.

I actually love this solution. Trousers are so practical.

It really is a war on women and girls.
Gender neutral should not be defaulting to male clothing. Girls and boys should be allowed to wear trousers or skirts - that's gender neutral. Enforcing the wearing of trousers on girls is not a neutral act.

Practical for you, Qcng, not n it for everyone.

Why not let the girls decide what they want?

all these people loving a solution that led to a school calling the police to keep pupils out

I'm boggling round my kitchen

Not just pupils, keep girls out.

SarahTangredi
Funny isnt it really, one group of people get to sue schools to wear the skirts and get in the papers. The others get the police called on them and locked out

This is a really good point.

all these people loving a solution that led to a school calling the police to keep pupils out
Obviously I don't like the way the whole thing was handled.

I never wear trousers because skirts fit my body shape much better. My school had a policy of skirts-only for girls and I still joined in the campaign to let girls wear trousers, because I could imagine what it would be like for other girls who disliked wearing skirts as much as I disliked trousers. It's not about which you personally like best, but recognising that different girls and women have different shapes and preferences. A bit of empathy, maybe?

Getting the police involved was beyond ridiculous.

I wear skirts/trousers depending upon what I choose to wear on the day. I like both, but find skirts easier to fit.

I am sick to the back teeth of women and girls having their options limited to fit in with boys and men.

Apparently dd’s school sixth form boys complained that girls had more choice in their sixth form dress code. So what did they do - campaign to increase choice for boys? Nah - to change the girls dress code. And the school only went and bloody did it! And this is a girls school up until mixed sixth form!

I’m livid because actually it’s fucking hard to find matching suits for girls/women - wall to wall coordinating clothes/separates because that kind of reflects what a hell of a lot of women wear in a workplace.

But so long as the boys are happy 🤦🏻‍♀️

This is beyond stupid. There was no need to ban skirts at all, many people find it more comfortable to wear a skirt. My daughter has a sensory disorder, she can only tolerate certain skirts and very few trousers. She wears skirts to school.why should everyone be forced to wear trousers. Its the same rule as before just switched which garment is being forced on them. Or they are trying to cover up they believe skirts are for girls so banned them to stop boys wearing them, possibly.

Trousers as others have said can exacerbate thrush

Also an issue with girls who have developed adult woman body shapes struggling to find ones that aren't too tight / feel exposed / are comfy etc

Boys and men will sexualise the girls whatever the uniform is, it's not the uniform that's the issue it's male sexualision of female bodies. It's never actually been the 'short skirt' that's the problem, that's a sleight of hand, it's the body underneath. Boys in too tight trousers or shorter shorts don't get those sorts of comments etc.

Also those saying trousers aren't male well sure but in a school uniform situation skirts are certainly female and round here most girls choose a skirt rather than trousers. And all the boys wear trousers. So in that context yes it is male as default.

I assume they don't leave both as they don't want boys wearing skirts. Why the fuck not.

Whole thing seems trivial but it's microcosm of attitudes etc in wider society.

I don’t find trousers terribly practical personally. They rarely feel comfortable apart from a few pairs of jeans that I live in when not wearing skirts.

Schools can deal with skirt lengths as they do with other uniform infractions. To ban skirts full stop is disproportionate and weird.

I find it really telling that rather than deal with the possibility of boys turning up to school in skirts, as may happen if you had a truly gender neutral uniform policy, schools would rather mess girls about

truly, the sight of males being 'feminine' upsets the establishment no end

they'd much rather pretend that slipping on a blouse makes you change sex

'Apparently dd’s school sixth form boys complained that girls had more choice in their sixth form dress code. So what did they do - campaign to increase choice for boys? Nah - to change the girls dress code'

I've had this in office jobs!

Men whining on about how it's not fair women are 'allowed' to wear lots of different clothes.

I always point out that they can wear different clothes if they want to, some men do, it's not a problem.

It turns out of course they don't actually want to wear xyz, they just want to stop women being 'allowed' to.

Why do so many men and boys have chronic sour grapes syndrome?

Same as the ones who want things like women only gym sessions stopped. They don't ever want a male only session. They just want women not to be allowed to.

Yeah calling police to girls protesting about not being allowed to wear skirts and locking them out of school

Gender neutral. Why is the skirt not gender neutral ?

Jeez 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Imagine they made the skirt compulsory