![](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-648946670.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Growing up, I was an outcast \u2013 labelled a \u2018goth\u2019.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t skinny or trendy like the popular girls \u2013 but listened to sad songs by sad boys with fringes and pink eyeshadow to match my own.<\/p>\n
And in those early high school years, my school uniform was my saviour. It was my equaliser when I looked different.<\/p>\n
Until puberty.<\/p>\n
Until men began to leer at me while I was wearing it.<\/p>\n
From around the age of 14, I started to notice how some men in the street, cars, building sites, shops or their workwear looked at my friends and I. Their grins, wolf whistles and catcalls.<\/p>\n
Before that, I\u2019d loved my black knee-high socks, with Doc Marten T-bar sandals, a kilted skirt, white blouse, and tie \u2013 paired with pigtails, braces and a jumper with the school crest embroidered on.<\/p>\n
That uniform had been my comfort blanket, and these men had taken it away from me.<\/p>\n
Looking back now, it makes me feel sick at how sexualised that once-innocent image has become.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s just one of the reasons I\u2019ve never been more convinced that it\u2019s time school uniforms were excluded for good.<\/p>\n
For too long, that image of a schoolgirl has been sexualised, and we should allow girls to dress how they like to avoid the leers and shouts of men as much as possible.<\/p>\n
Searches for \u2018young\u2019, \u2018teen\u2019 and \u2018schoolgirl\u2019 yield millions of results on (free, and legal) porn sites, with many of those videos centring on the fetishisation of virginial, child-like bodies.<\/p>\n
\u2018Naughty schoolgirl\u2019 outfits are commonly considered a uniform for role play, and are widely sold in high-street sex shops. It\u2019s not a kink, or a fantasy \u2013 it\u2019s rooted in paedophilia.<\/p>\n
When I first began to notice men\u2019s stares and comments, I wondered if they had always looked at me like that, or if I\u2019d just been taught not to notice.<\/p>\n
\u2018Weirdos\u2019 my friends muttered to each other after each incidence of harassment.<\/p>\n
Confused, afraid, torn.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d been taught by our teachers not to take drugs, or smoke, but not how to deal with men who made us feel this way. We hadn\u2019t even been taught about sex yet and were being sexualised under our very acne-ridden noses.<\/p>\n
It was like our bodies weren\u2019t even ours.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t put my finger on it at the time how these men made me feel, because children weren\u2019t \u2013 and still aren\u2019t \u2013 educated enough on consent, inappropriate behaviour and sexism.<\/p>\n
According to figures obtained by Sky News, 40% of all victims of upskirting in the past four years were children \u2013 underage, and I\u2019d imagine plenty of these incidents involved someone in their school uniform.<\/p>\n
Despite there being over 1,150 upskirting incidents recorded since 2019, when upskirting was finally made a crime, a mere 68 resulted in a conviction \u2013 less than 6%.<\/p>\n
A major 2015 study showed that the majority of the catcalling a girl will experience is between the ages of 11 and 17 \u2013 when she\u2019s school-aged \u2013 and while it can\u2019t be presumed that wearing a uniform is a cause of this, I believe it\u2019s a key factor.<\/p>\n
Incidents like upskirting, catcalling and leering are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sexual offences against women.<\/p>\n
So, until the actions of dangerous men are disciplined appropriately, I believe school uniforms should be banned, in order to at least partially try and remove our girls from danger.<\/p>\n
Plus, a study even found that wearing a uniform had little impact on a student\u2019s education, so there is no reason other than pride or conformity to continue to force girls into school uniforms.<\/p>\n
And, if their male counterparts are constantly exposed to \u2018naughty schoolgirl\u2019 tropes through their consumption of easily accessible porn online, there\u2019s no doubt that their impression of women and girls will be skewed.<\/p>\n
Platform is the home of Metro.co.uk’s first-person and opinion pieces, devoted to giving a platform to underheard and underrepresented voices in the media. <\/strong><\/p>\n Find some of our best reads of the week below:<\/p>\n An anonymous writer shares the moment that he realised he was groomed as a 14-year-old by a man in his 30s. <\/p>\n Metro.co.uk’s Josie Copson paid tribute to Wilko, a trip to which accompanied all of her life milestones. <\/p>\n Lowri Llewelyn was attacked while travelling solo through Scotland. She credits a stranger she met at her hostel the day before with saving her life. <\/p>\n And Heidi Crowter describes her perfect first date to her now-husband, James. The couple, who both have Down’s syndrome, instantly realised the other was their soulmate. <\/p>\n Of course, not having a uniform will highlight poverty and inequality as children may feel awkward not having the latest fashionable clothing.<\/p>\n But surely uniforms are doing more harm than good?<\/p>\n Make no mistake, schoolgirls are being sexualised every single day because they\u2019re forced to wear a uniform. And for what? Because their school wants to look \u2018proper\u2019? Smart?<\/p>\n It\u2019s not smart at all to allow our girls to be part of a fantasy for older men because society has taught multiple generations that someone, whether adult or child, in a school uniform is titillating.<\/p>\n Schools and those in power should hold men and boys responsible for their actions, and they\u2019re failing us \u2013 failing women and girls by not treating sexism as a serious issue.<\/p>\n While I believe first and foremost that consent should be taught in all schools, and while I think there should be stronger punishments for voyeurs, catcallers, paedophiles and dangerous men, until we find a way to educate all men, school uniform needs to be banned.<\/p>\n It\u2019s as easy as one, two, three.<\/p>\n