'Lift the skirt’ campaign urges French schoolboys to ...

[owen]

'Lift the skirt’ campaign urges French schoolboys to skip trousers for a day

Nantes education authorities have launched a 'Lift the Skirt' campaign to support gender equality. Under the campaign, male students and teachers of 27 public schools are invited to wear skirts on May 16, sparking controversy in the western French city.

Read more at http://rt.com/news/159000-france-school ... -equality/

[skirtingtoday]

Not too sure what it has to do with gender equality - clothing equality yes.

I wonder how many pupils and/or teachers will take it up. We'll wait and see the reports over the next few days.

And why is it (seemingly) acceptable that skirts for boys (and beards for girls!) is fine for one day - shouldn't it be for any day?

[couyalair]

It is à an action to highlight the difficultés girls face, harrassment and unwanted contact for example. Hardly any French girls wear skirts today, and one of the reasons given is that they are treated like whores when skirted.
Originally the action was to encourage women back into skirts, be proud of their "femininity" and stand up to loutish behavior. In schools, boys have been encouraged to wear skirts for a day to show solidarity with the girls.
Unfortunately, I don't think this has anything to do with the men in skirts movement, but is certainly pertinent to fashion freedom questions.
Martin

[couyalair]

The subject turned up on Facebook of course. If you want to be disgusted by the incredible conservatism of western sub-humanity, read the odious comments from the general public,,pouring scorn on the idea that males can wear skirts, even predicting the disappearance of men, as if wearing a skirt would irremediably stop the production of testosterone.
It seems sadly to be a firm conviction in many minds that hormones can not function if the legs are not kept apart!
Martin

[couyalair]

By the way, "lift the skirt" is an unfortunate translation of "soulever", the verb used to mean raise a question in a debate.
The implication in the title of a book published a few years ago, "Ce que soulève la jupe"' is "the problems that skirts raise."
M

[Grok]

I was skimming through comments to Facebook...apparently putting on a skirt will feminize a boy, and also turn him into a homosexual.

[Charlie]

I was skimming through comments to Facebook...apparently putting on a skirt wills feminize a boy, and also turn him into a homosexual.

Wierd logic. By the same token, there must be an awful of of lesbians out there.
Charlie

[Grok]

There is enormous inertia to over come.

[crfriend]

What if one of these boys put on a skirt...and realized that it is more comfortable than trousers?

That's the benefit (to the lowest common denominator) of restricting it to one day -- the boys will be uncomfortable due to the unfamiliarity and not be able to relax and find out just how delightfully comfortable the garments really are once you've mastered them.

[dillon]

By the way, "lift the skirt" is an unfortunate translation of "soulever", the verb used to mean raise a question in a debate.
The implication in the title of a book published a few years ago, "Ce que soulève la jupe"' is "the problems that skirts raise."
M

I figured something had been lost in translation. That interpretation sounded like either a skirted "flasher" or a shoplifter! Thanks for clearing that up, Martin.

[Zorba]

What would you expect from a juvenile site like Face***k?

[phathack]

I was skimming through comments to Facebook...apparently putting on a skirt will feminize a boy, and also turn him into a homosexual.

Well in that same line of thinking then, girls wearing pants will turn them in the Lesbians...

[Milfmog]

I was skimming through comments to Facebook...apparently putting on a skirt will feminize a boy, and also turn him into a homosexual.

Well in that same line of thinking then, girls wearing pants will turn them in the Lesbians...

You seem to have fallen into the trap of believing that the people who write such comments are not only capable of thought but actually exercise skill...

I doubt that any of them thought before they typed their knee jerk responses.

Have fun, but never doubt the power of stupidity,


Ian.

[Stu]

I don't want to rain on any parades, but this is a bit of a double-edged sword.

While I am very keen to see boys deciding to try skirts, kilts and sarongs for the sake of comfort or even just as a way of expressing their objection to what we used to call "trouser tyranny", that's not what is happening here.

These boys and those who are supporting them are wearing skirts because they see them as signifiers of femininity - they are the emblematic female garment and that serves only to reinforce the notion we are wanting to challenge.

Boys shouldn't be wearing skirts on one day as a token political gesture - they should be wearing them because they want to wear them, or at least they want a genuine choice.

Sorry, but that's my concern.

Stu

[Kirbstone]

Spotted these on 'Der Spiegel', the German picture mag. Lots of them wore placards saying 'I'm protesting against sexism, how about you?' (translated twice....French-German, then German-English)

Tom