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Not all uniform when it comes to a uniform

Rachel FennerMandurah Coastal Times

WHEN I was at a public high school (more than a decade ago now) we wore surf branded shirts and shorts, which were replaced by cargo pants in winter.

It was rare to see us in school uniform.

Most of us had good grades and I don’t remember bullying being a massive problem.

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That’s why I questioned the decision of Halls Head College to introduce a strict dress code, which banned girls from wearing shorts. Girls at this school are expected to wear skirts.

Skirts are not fun to wear. You can’t sit cross legged in a skirt and playing lunchtime sport is impossible.

Female students are, however, allowed to wear skorts (which are effectively shorts disguised as a skirt).

This decision exposes the inherent sexism in the uniform choices. From this we can infer that this school expects girls to look feminine and ladylike.

It expects girls to sit in a ladylike manner. We can infer that these girls are not supposed to play rough sports at lunchtime.

Besides it is 2016; why isn’t the uniform gender neutral? We live in a society where gender is fluid. Some girls want to be boys and some boys want to be girls.

A gender neutral uniform would protect the teenagers who feel this way.

Rachel Fenner – reporter