Headteacher defends uniform policy saying it protects girls from boys’ advances, prompting accusations of victim blaming
Campaigner Laura Bates said such uniform policies can suggest to girls that they must cover up as the only way to avoid harassment or judgment. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
A comprehensive school has sent home dozens of schoolgirls after telling them their trousers and skirts were not “demure and modest”, prompting claims by activists that teachers are promoting victim blaming.
Female pupils were turned away at the gates of Lord Grey school in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, on Monday, the first day back after the Easter holidays, if they failed to pass a uniform check, according to local reports.
The headteacher, Dr Tracey Jones, told the Milton Keynes Citizen that 29 girls were sent home because their trousers were too tight or their skirts were too short. She said the policy protected girls from unwanted attention or advances from boys in the school.
Gender equality campaigners said the school’s stance reinforced victim-blaming stereotypes and pointed out that boys were not subjected to the same levels of judgment over what they wore.
Defending the policy, Jones said: “We are protecting our female students. They should look demure and modest and not appear over-sexualised in figure-hugging trousers or very short skirts. We have a tower block with six flights of stairs. The last thing we want is boys peering up girls’ skirts while they are climbing the stairs.”
Jones said students and parents were given warning that the uniform check would happen on the first day back after the Easter holidays. “We warned that students would be sent home if their uniform did not comply. School rules state skirts should be knee length and trousers should be loose fitting,” she said.
The school has remained defiant, emphasising in a newsletter on Thursday that it would “continue to take a strong stance on adherence to our uniform policy, especially with girls who are wearing short skirts and tight trousers”.
“This is to protect their modesty as they are still children,” the newsletter stated.
Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, whose forthcoming book Girl Up tackles issues including school dress codes, said there was a real risk that schools were perpetuating sexist societal stereotypes and projecting them on to girls, rather than empowering their pupils to step outside them.
“Girls’ bodies and dress are often policed much more severely than boys’, and – especially when you start throwing around words like ‘modest’ and ‘demure’ – there is a real sense of girls being judged and valued on their dress and a moral judgement being applied in a way that certainly isn’t happening to their male peers,” Bates said.
“Such attitudes also often project societal ideas about the sexualisation of women’s bodies on to often quite young girls without taking into account their own intent or autonomy, suggesting their bodies are inherently sexual and provocative and they must cover them up as the only means of avoiding harassment or judgement.”
Bates said it was common to see girls’ behaviour being policed or restricted rather than tackling boys’ harassment or sexual bullying.
“I’d be particularly sad to hear a school sending the message that if boys look up girls’ skirts on the stairs, for example, the answer is to punish the girls and police their clothing rather than teaching boys such behaviour is unacceptable,” she said.
“This really risks reinforcing victim-blaming societal stereotypes, which girls might later encounter in the context of more serious abuse, and it is sad for schools to lay the foundations by suggesting early that male harassment is inevitable and so the only way to prevent it is to police women’s behaviour.”
Milton Keynes school turns away 29 girls for not dressing 'demurely' | Education | The Guardian