“Boys are pants, girls are skirts” This formula is broken in a few decades. A junior high school in Japan is at the center by introducing uniforms that can be freely selected from among ‘Ribbon and Tie’, ‘Pants and Skirt’ regardless of gender.
Uniforms that have no difference between men and women are called ‘sex neutral uniforms’. It is to eliminate stereotypes about sexuality caused by uniforms and to respect various sexual identities.
Gender neutral school uniforms are introduced in many schools around the world. More than 120 schools in the UK have already adopted a ‘sexually neutral’ uniform policy.
Last March, a middle school in New Zealand also allowed students to choose from among the five school uniforms. “To give students choices and to respect diversity,” the principal said.
Gender neutral school uniforms are also attracting attention in Korea. In particular, school uniforms are smaller than the school girls and do not stretch at all, and they are very thin and very visible.
In addition, most schools do not allow school girls wearing pants in the winter, which is at issue. They have to wear a skirt because of the school rules.
Actually, many people signed a petition on the uniform problem. There have been various opinions such as “to remove uniform rules” and “to unify uniforms with trousers” in about 100 cases of the national petition that came up in recent months in Korea.
“Uniforms already prescribe femininity and masculinity. It’s a great idea.”, “It’s cold in the winter, and the girls’ uniform doesn’t need to be a skirt” Korean high school students said.
The netizen response to sex neutral school uniforms is also positive. I was indifferent to the problems on the school uniform, but there were many opinions that I learned well from this opportunity.
“When wearing uniform skirts, there are restrictions on behavior in climbing stairs or running, and it creates social stereotypes.” One high school teacher said.
She also said the introduction of sex-neutral uniforms would be a great help in solving stereotypes.
– Jihye Jeong (UB Intern)
