Headteacher backtracks after calling for 'gender neutral' uniform

[hellooooooomama]

He was going to ban skirts.

Parental feedback was not sought initially, but they've had plenty of it since the change was announced!

My opinion. Police the children effectively if they're not wearing it properly. Don't punish the girls who are following the rules.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9915zgvjk4o?at_link_id=743ED69C-41D3-11F0-AA25-C9355B601FDF&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_ptr_name=facebook_page&at_link_origin=BBC_Essex&at_link_type=web_link&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_medium=social&at_format=image&at_campaign_type=owned&fbclid=IwQ0xDSwKuxqJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHk6aensTQMd06TSswic5MxNQHZ2Ru4bMWTwlqBl_l3XOBjgDph5zvELMd7g9_aem_wrAH7AjLCJqPj7Nn6TwJcg

Kilts would be excellent. Unisex as well.
If it's upskirting get rid of the open staircases.
If it's general harassment of girls have single sex schools. Boys can socialise themselves, girls are not props.

Orthodox Jewish girls cannot wear trousers so would be effectively barred from the school.

A lot of JW and some conservative Christians also prefer women / girls to wear skirts.

As someone else said it is not 'gender neutral' it is putting girls in a boys uniform. We already do it with ties.

Some girls find it easier to deal with periods by working a skirt, you are much less likely to bleed through a skirt.

It may concern you to know that I wear trousers to school (my work). I use reusable pads. I’d rather wear trousers than skirts on a heavy day.

Schools already do this!!!!
Students don’t obey this rule and roll the skirts up. This wastes a ridiculous amount of everyone’s time.

You are not a teacher in school. So when would you have the opportunity to see. Many of these girls are NOT comfortable in what they choose because they can’t comfortably move in them.
I went to an all girls school. Still did the skirt thing. It was peer pressure. Track that back and it’s patriarchal in source. That is however, irrelevant to an extent.
Clothing should be situationally appropriate. Uniform needs to enable confident freedom of movement. The length of skirt should not be the same as you’d wear clubbing. The rules already make it clear. If a rule has become unenforceable. It needs to be changed. This is not about ‘gender neutrality’. It’s not even about feminism in the way you’re using it. It’s about girls getting the same opportunities to engage with school as boys.

Even if your point about grey joggers had wide merit (it doesn’t). People aren’t wearing grey joggers to school!

The problem with wearing these elasticated skirts so high is they them tend to ride up - the girls are constantly having to tug them down to keep them below their crotch,

So would I! I’d rather be covered by trousers than have it streaming down my bare legs.

Presumably that was a job where practicality of clothing was very important and skirts were impractical. Nothing like a school where skirts are perfectly practical.

Well it was more an example of the fact that women can manage to get along fine not wearing skirts. 🤷

Anyway, tbh I haven't got strong feelings on this and I don't quite understand the love of skirts so I guess this one's not for me! Happy Saturday everyone! 🐰🦕

short skirts aren’t practical in every subject though. There is a reason I didn’t wear short skirts to my out of school drama club.

Agree! And I still remember the feeling of getting your bare legs stuck to the plastic chairs in the summertime. I think trousers or shorts are more practical. It’s just the material that’s an issue, like people have said the cheap materials and fit in school trousers can make them uncomfortable for girls, a bit of thought needs to go into it there but I’d be worried about cost then as standard issue uniforms are expensive enough already.

No, that is completely normal, and logical. I didn't know anybody who didn't growing up.

I agree. We had a male PE teacher, he must have been in his mid 30s at the time. We were 11/12 year old girls, who as school went on, understandably began to feel self conscious in a leotard for PE. We asked a female PE teacher if we could wear sports shorts on top of the leotard. She told us she would have to ask "Mr (deputy head teacher, also boys PE teacher), he said, "No, because you won't see the movement properly for gymnastics." It wasn't the fing Olympics! He was judging us for an upcoming full school event. We complained again, the female PE teacher got it okayed for us. He had to reluctantly agree, because it was looking perverted at that point. He was grumpy ever since, and used to always hang around during gymnastics to see "how things were going."

@Whataloadoffuss

I was just going to ask what the PE uniform for girls is.

In my school it was a leotard for gymnastics, a short pleated gym skirt and tshirt for other PE like netball, hockey etc. Honestly it couldn't have been more embarrassing for young girls; we hated it. I would hope things have changed in this day and age. My experience is from the late 90s.

We had PE knickers, awful. Could wear a skirt over for netball and hockey. Would have given anything to wear joggers or shorts.

It was so wrong wasn't it. Meanwhile boys got to wear shorts and pretty much what they wanted.
When we were in first school, boys and girls had to do PE outside in underwear and vests. My 7 year old was complaining about his pe kit, I told him this; he hasn't complained since!

I remember the mottled legs in the winter, it was hellish, enough to put anyone off exercise for life!

We don't need to take a limitation and restriction from male fashion which is due to their ovaries being at the front and their vagina dangling on the outside hense tiny shorts or skirts don't fly and put it onto women. And call that "equality" and patriarchy smashing. it's oppressing women further. One anatomic advantage they have is they don't wear their genitals in front of them and they don't dangle to their knees. Hence different clothing.

This is why you don't have leotards for men or if you do they are less popular than shorts.

This is a disgusting and ignorant post.

The whole thread is misogyny pure and simple.

The down with short school skirts threads on MN always attract some very strange posters, female and male, each for their own very weird, creepy, and controlling reasons.

Absolutely internalised misogyny and some unhealthy obsessions at display here.

The tone in this thread reflects the same destructive mindset as age-old slut shaming.

Impressive display of cognitive dissonance, especially coming from those who claim to be feminists.

Good to see the Feminism Police are still on duty🙄

How is it disgusting or misogynist, this has actually happened to me! We fought for girls to be allowed to wear trousers in school.