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Skirts, pinafores, and other such school uniforms for girls are uncomfortable and impractical. Why should our genitals determine what we need to wear?
If I’m a doctor, does my coat need to show off my assigned gender at birth? No, right? It’s impractical, irrational and just plain ridiculous, and has nothing to with my work as a doctor! But it seems like a norm in school uniforms.
Why should people assigned female at birth have to suffer through the humiliating ordeals of struggling with our skirts as the wind blows, sitting in uncomfortable positions to make sure we don’t accidentally expose ourselves, and compare our legs to our peers and wonder about how soon do we need to start waxing our legs? Why isn’t our uniform, well… uniform?!
I choose to challenge the gender bias that is interwoven into every aspect of our student life — especially our school uniforms.
Our genitals really shouldn’t be representative of what we are forced to wear. It’s simply insane when I put it like that, but that’s exactly what’s going on, isn’t it? A petticoat, a pinafore and a skirt for the girls, while and pants for the boys?
It’s a school, and we all are going there for the same purpose! I find it simply ridiculous that a place meant for education, a place for instilling awareness into our youth, upholds such absurd and ludicrous biases that still lay present in the very fabric of society.
A student is a student, and a school uniform better well be uniform. It should simply serve the purpose of indicating your place of education, and gender has no place in that. It should simply be practical, easy to wash and wear, and look decent. Even jeans and a tee could do the job perfectly fine! Can you imagine the misery of gender non-conforming students, forced to wear a uniform that simply doesn’t represent… me.
Extending it from just clothes, why are there separate rules for boys and girls about their hair? I mean, it’s just hair! Let people do what they want with their bodies, why separate it based on gender?! The pandemic has proven so many boys would just like to wear their hair long, while it is the school rules that make them cut it short!
It’s simply ridiculous when you look at it from a critical lens, why specify girls should wear black ribbons or clips or hairbands? if neatness is the requirement, why can’t the rule read ‘hair needs to be pulled back away from the face and maintained in a neat, manageable, presentable format’?
Especially when most schools would love to call themselves inclusive, isn’t this a very simple basic way to allow each student to be comfortable in their own skin, every day for almost 12 years of their lives?
So I choose to challenge gender bias in school uniforms, by reaching out to schools and spreading the word to atleast let the awareness seep in on how much gender bias is programmed into our lives.
Let our uniforms be uniform!
#IChooseToChallenge blogathon: Each one of us can choose to challenge what we see as wrong around us. And here’s a small beginning we propose.
In this IWD 2021 blogathon, we called for your stories of how you would choose to challenge the regressive mindsets around, the injustice you see or are a survivor of, and call out sexism and gender bias. Of how you would take steps towards celebrating women (under this generic ‘women’, we include cis women, trans women, and non-binary persons) and their achievements more. Of how you would choose to challenge the oppression of those marginalised, or the violence you as a survivor, face.
Janani Balaji‘s is the second of the best 3 entries, and wins an Amazon voucher worth Rs 500.
Image source: a still from the film Hichki
I am Janani Balaji. A grade 10 student, 15 years old and passionate about writing stories, art and poetry. I feel strongly about gender equality, body issues and mental wellness. read more...
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Before expecting the daughter in law to love, respect and accept the new family, it is only fair that the family demonstrates all of these first.
If you are a married Indian woman, one of the first words you hear from your in laws is that you are now a daughter of the house. How true is that statement though? Are daughters in law really treated as daughters or is this only lip service?
A friend recently confided how hurt she felt when she wanted to visit her in-laws along with her husband but was told not to, because the in-laws wanted time alone with their son. Naturally, she was taken aback since she had always been fed this trope – that she was the daughter, not the daughter in law. Why then this sudden keeping at arm’s distance? Would a son in law ever be told not to accompany his wife on her visit to her parents because they wanted quality time with their daughter? That is unimaginable in a patriarchal society.
It is ok to want time alone with the married offspring but how does that meld into the Indian family system, where independent choices are less important than the whole family coming together?
My husband returns home tired after working & travelling. I, like other working women, return home refreshed after enjoying full day at office!
I am a working woman and mother of a 2 year old daughter. People say I am irresponsible and lazy because I have a house-help.
Yes, I’m irresponsible and don’t have any work. Except checking what groceries needs to be refilled and ordering them for home delivery, washing my and my husband’s clothes, drying and folding them, getting the work-wear clothes ironed, keeping clothes in place, cleaning bathrooms and toilets, changing bedsheets, dusting windows occasionally, hand washing my daughter’s soiled clothes in hot water, bathing my daughter twice, feeding my daughter breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Rest other work like cooking and house cleaning done by the house-help and my husband takes care of getting fruits and vegetables from the market every week. So I don’t have any work except those few mentioned earlier.
Akkai Padmashali was assigned male at birth, but she always felt like a girl. It has been a long struggle to be who she is today, a transgender activist.
Dr Akkai Padmashali talks about herself and her journey:
Every time someone asks me “Are you home?” and I still respond “Not yet”, I think about this, one of the constant questions I get when people ask me literally and figuratively.
The story of Lalit Kumar Salve, who recently underwent sex realignment surgery and rejoined duty as a constable, is an uplifting one. But, a lot still has to be done when it comes to transgender rights in India.
“Constable Lalit Kumar reporting sir!” Those were the words Lalit had awaited to utter, for past four years. Story of Lalit Kumar Salve, a constable from Beed district, Maharashtra is a milestone in our society. It is the story of Lalita- who was born with the intersex phenotype- and her transformation to Lalit.
Lalit Kumar Salve was born intersex, and was assigned female at birth because the male genitals were not well developed like they are in boys. The surgeons performed a genital reconstruction surgery. Salve has one testicle; the other one was removed when he was a child.