When I first learned that the boys of Exeters ISCA Academy were arriving to school wearing skirts, I couldnt help wanting to cheer. Good for them! Its about time someone tackled the blatant sexism of gendered dress codes head on.

Theres no reason at all why boys shouldnt wear skirts, or dresses, or anything else arbitrarily coded as feminine. Make the most of it, lads! You have nothing to lose but your pockets!

And why stop there?If were serious about increasing equality between the sexes, its about time we challenged anything that needlessly exaggerates difference. Clothing might seem a trivial matter, but gendered dress codes reinforce much broader beliefs about how boys and girls should look, think, feel and behave.

The rule that states a boy should not wear a skirt sits alongside the one that states a boy must not be vulnerable, passive or weak.A boy must not, in other words, be like a girl, because girls are inferior (hence its not so controversial for a girl to wear trousers. For girls, wanting to be like a boy is seen as aspirational).

My delight at the Exeter schoolboys protest was of course tempered by the fact that theirs is not a protest in favour of gender neutrality per se. The boys arent actually fighting for the right to wear skirts, but wearing skirts in protest at not being permitted to wear shorts.

I have to admit to finding this a little disappointing. While I applaud their bravery in taking the teacher who told them to wear a skirt at her word, I do start to wonder whether this is a protest that still depends on the idea that girls less important and more trivial than boys. After all, the boys dont really want to dress like girls on a daily basis;on the contrary, theyre using the sheer ridiculous of such an idea as a means to an end. Its all a bit of a joke, but its one that risks coming at the expense of their female counterparts. Its like arriving at school in clown shoes or a Donald Trump mask; it makes the point precisely because thats not really the person youd want to be.

I had similar concerns on reading of the French bus drivers who launched a skirt-wearingr protest in Nantes. Cheering them on feels like the liberal thing to do, yet theres a problem with the idea that men who use skirt-wearing as a form of protest are courageously challenging gender norms on behalf of us all.

If we genuinely accept that there is nothing shameful, unnatural or undesirable about male people wanting to dress in a feminine manner, then surely we should encourage those who do so. But wearing a skirt to draw attention to yourself because you want something else in this case, to wear a different type of mens clothing reinforces the idea that there is something not quite right about the skirt-wearing man. Just let him wear shorts and normal service can resume.

One of my own sons has worn a dress to school on more than one occasion, not as a form of protest, but simply because he wanted to. Admittedly these have always been on non-uniform days; on an average day his main nod to femininity is wearing his long blonde hair in a French braid.

I used to have parents asking me why I allowed him to look the way he does or what I thought was really behind it; these days Im more likely to get people telling me how cool or brave he is (when theyre not telling me how good he is at football for a girl). I find this change in attitude reassuring, although I worry whether things will change again when his body starts to look more obviously male. Will people still find it courageous if its neither a protest nor a childish phase, but just a male person who doesnt consider girl stuff off-limits?

I wish the Exeter boys well in their protest. The head teacher at their school has said she would be happy to consider a change in the schools uniform policy. My guess is this may be to allow boys to wear shorts, but lets hope she goes a little further than that.

Theres nothing demeaning or ridiculous about being a boy who wears girls clothes; well know weve made real progress the day it doesnt make the news.

The rest is here:

Cheer the Exeter boys in skirts, but we'll have real progress when it's no longer news - New Statesman