The skirt ban, boy do I have thoughts on this.
A secondary school in Lewes, East Sussex has banned girls from wearing skirts to accommodate the growing number of transgender pupils. All new year seven students must wear trousers.
Not only is the skirt ban promoting a hostile environment for young girls but normalising gender-neutrality. I am pro transgender, homosexuality and I am liberal in my views. The alarming statistics regarding transgender teenagers being bullied should be part of our everyday conversation. However, I immediately think of all those students who will now begin to question their identity as a consequence. As one mother told the Telegraph: “My daughter said she has got a gender and it’s female, so being gender neutral when she has got a gender is a big deal for her, as she proud to be a girl.”
Tony Smith, the school’s headmaster, said he brought in the change because pupils had been asking why the uniform ascribed certain garments to boys and others to girls. WHY NOT ALLOW BOYS TO WEAR SKIRTS THEN RATHER THAN TAKE AWAY A GARMENT FROM GIRLS?
When we discovered car insurance was more expensive for boys than girls, we didn’t bring it down for boys. Insurance was raised for girls, THANK YOU.
Another mother said: “My daughter and her friends are appalled by this. The school is creating a hostile environment for girls.”
Girls should be allowed to be feminine, if they so choose. The truly liberated woman is the one doing what she wants. Isn’t this what we have been agreeing on this past year, thanks to the hit television show Girls, the women’s march and Emmanuel Macron? Man or woman, we have all been actively seeking to raise awareness about the importance of gender equality. Isn’t this taking a step back? Isn’t this a disproportionate response to a cohort of people? Rather than partially dissolve a school uniform policy, why doesn’t the school allow boys to wear skirts?
I would like to know where the female rights are? Males’ rights have not been affected and now transgender rights are being favoured above female rights. There shouldn’t be a queue or preferential treatment. All genders should be taken into consideration and treated fairly. Normalising being transgender would be allowing both sexes to wear skirts in addition to trousers.
Parent, Kerry Gold reportedly told the Sun: “The headmaster is restricting them from being who they want to be for the very small minority. “
This leads me onto another question. Headmaster Smith has issued an edict banning girls from skirts to promote or normalise gender neutrality. Moreover, has he set up assemblies where guest speakers can talk about gender neutrality? Has he opened the school gates and asked a transgender activist to speak to all the students? What about a councillor to discuss the effects of bullying? I did call the school, hoping to be relieved with answers, the headmaster was unavailable to comment.
May I add, the skirt ban is to make transgender pupils feel more comfortable. Ideally, to feel more accepted. Would the skirt ban not create a frosty relationship between young girls and those transgender pupils though.
With an obvious outrage from parents and female students alike, the ban will potentially have the opposite effect.
Women began wearing trousers in the 1800s for industrial work, but they only really became fashionable and permitted in the 1960s. I cannot see how banning skirts today is any different from prohibiting women from wearing trousers back then.
Whether pinafores or power suits, women are still imprisoned by stereotypes. The only way to free ourselves is to break moulds, that is what we have been teaching our young daughters. So, why now is it being accepted to take away another choice of ours? And can we highlight, the fact this decision was made by a man. Emmeline Pankhurst, is that you turning in your grave?