to think the girls were inappropriately dressed?

Yes you see some gorgeous girls in the East End don't you with their colourful headscarves etc. They have presumably reached an understanding with their parents on what is ok and not ok
People living in villages in the tropics wear few clothes bags but that is within a small community where everyone knows each other and there are clearly defined and agreed rules of behaviour. There is obviously no absolute good or bad practice. But in our cities girls are looked at by thousands of strangers and there are relatively few universal norms of how to behave. I wonder whether, in such an environment, norms about modesty might not be a bad idea?

Granjura. You must have seen young muslim women sporting very nattily tied head coverings and wearing lashings of makeup. That is the fashion choice they make, limited yes, but still a fashion choice. I think perhaps many of your muslim 6th formers would not be allowed to express their identity by wearing local fashions due to family pressure. This is not necessarily a good thing.

I suppose the point is that you can get away with all sorts of outfits if you have youth on your side. But sometimes you just see examples that make you think "No! There's something unpleasantly suggestive there." There was a talent competition years ago - I think it was on Swop Shop - and they had a girl of about 11 dancing with a snake. There was nothing overtly sexy about the dance, but my husband took one look and said "She shouldn't be doing that, it's just not appropriate". Presumably neither her parents nor the producers had seen anything wrong

Excellent post nanaej - and this is why some of my Muslim 6th Formers who chose to wear a scarf and cover up with discreet clothing said. They felt truly 'liberated' by it - escaping the pressures of the fashion industry and the expectations of other young women and especially young men.

Skirts were longer then, sussexpoet !

My long-dead grandmother once told me (I was then 15) that she only wore her bloomers when intending to travel by tram - in case she had to go up the stairs!
Plus ca change................

point taken as I am a mum and know that there are bad people about who think that even a smile is a invite for more. If only the world was perfect. (smile)

bags I totally agree that society should not control what women wear but it does! The fashion /body image industry is very powerful! The fact that all three girls were wearing very similar outfits (as we have all done in our youth!) of short denim shorts and cropped tops means they have been persuaded that that is the way they should look!
Throughout history fashion has always controlled what people with a bit of money wear.
I consider myself a feminist but that does not mean I want women to all be dressed in baggy dungarees and sweatshirts all the time. However I do want young people to be able to have informed choices about image and to know that dressing in particular ways can emphasise one aspect of themselves (e.g sexual, professional etc) and to learn when one style of dress is more appropriate and another is not! That helps to give more control to them. It's not fool proof but it can help. This is not a girls only issue and goes hand in hand with good sex and relationship education..which again is not just the responsibility of schools but families too.

Barbaramary, of course we wear swimsuits without being accused of indecency, but we don't go shopping in them and even the most daring of teenagers don't walk down the street in their skimpy bikinis.

And like birds a proportion of them will fall to predators, Barbaramary . Probably (but not exclusively) the ones who look as though they would like to be gobbled up. That is what worries parents.

I dont think it matters what girls wear. I remember the late 1960s when i was a window dresser in barnsley. The skirts were so short that my pants were on full show and I did not care, in fact I liked the attention. We wear swimming costumes without thinking its not right so why shouldnt we show are undies (not at my age though) They only live once and they should be free as birds/

Iam64,!the young men wearing trousers with the crutch at the knees originated in American jails.The inmates did this to indicate to other inmates that they were available for sex.should anyone be that way inclined.I live in Spain and during the holiday period i despair for some of the young people who come out on holiday,it isn't only the skimpy clothes it is the amount of alcohol they consume.Drinks are much larger here and much stronger,so it is no surprise to see these kids being sick and falling all over the place.It is amusing to see a young woman wearing a short dress spending the evening pulling it down.I agree give the kids some freedom but warn them of the dangers because not everyone is as open minded as am.

Some months ago a supermarket banned customers in nightclothes and a would-be customer was interviewed on BBC news. She was very indignant at being banned because, she said, she had put her best pyjamas on to go shopping. My DS first mentioned seeing people shopping and eating in cafes in pyjamas in New Jersey about ten years ago.

I've never even thought about public pyjama wearing as being risky at all. I would like to refuse to serve people in their night clothes too, just because I think it's sloppy and lazy, but that's me being judgemental. Though you have to wonder - do these people actually wash before they head out of the house? Surely they don't take off their night clothes, shower and put on clean ones? Perhaps they wear their day clothes in bed? Who knows....

Or even people who aren't strangers...

In the end, I think we have to keep objecting in strong terms to people who cause sexual harassment, and to educating boys everyone in a bid to reduce the problem. Yes, I know that's an ideal, but what else can we do? I don't want to go back to the time when 'proper' girls couldn't go out without a guard chaperone, or to the situation that exists in places like Saudi Arabia.

I guess sexual harassment is the biggest risk bags i.e. unwanted attention from strangers.

Talking of pyjamas, my friend's son, DiL and family (4, 2 and 3 months) have recently returned from Australia and when son started work the whole family were on the station in their jim-jams to wave him off - that caused a bit of a stir on a busy platform in small village I can tell you (Hurrumph, strange Australian habits..........)

On the other hand, there have been several stories recently about rapes in India committed against women who werenot riskily dressed.

Conclusion:attitudes must change and authorities must crack down harder on abusers of other people.

I agree, jess. We shouldn't have to worry about youngsters being naive and risky but, given what human beings are like, we have to accept that it is a worry sometimes.

Pyjamas don't bother me. I wouldn't go out to the shops in mine, but the pyjamas I've seen 'out' are quite modest – though why modesty matters is another issue. After all, aboriginal people's living in the tropics and sub-tropics usedn't to wear many clothes until modern times simply because they didn't need them for warmth.

My main (possibly only) complaint about modern dress sense (sense? Ha!) is that so much of it is so bloody awful – completely inelegant and not nice to look at. But that's just my opinion.

Someone will complain about people walking around publicly (shock! horror!) in bare feet next.

Oh wait....

I think there is a difference between older people saying "that's shocking going out dressed like that" i.e. transgressing social norms of decency and saying "That's risky and naive" . We'd all like men to behave themselves but alas there is a lot of unpleasant behaviour out there. Join "everyday sexism" on Twitter to get a flavour of what it is like to be a young woman these days.

Why is it that these girls never seem to follow the fashion for maxi skirts and dresses?

whoops, apologies for the rights, not rites - I type too quickly sometimes and don't re-read properly.
I agree with Jess M's comments about the extent of young girls understanding and parental responsibility about clothing etc.
On another rant note - what about the going out pyjama look? That worries me much more than the poor dress sense some folks (of all ages) have. Going out pyjamas seem to be becoming a norm, and I find it hard not to be outraged and worried by the sight of teenage girls wandering off to the paper shop, or young mothers taking their children to school, whilst wearing pj's. I've wondered if it's me, that somehow I'm making associations that just aren't there, but I do feel these young women/girls are making themselves very vulnerable. See, I've done it, I've joined in the horror about the youth of today. Seriously, what do others think. I have a (liberal thinking) friend who is so outraged, she said if she ran the corner shop, she'd refuse to serve someone in their night clothes.

I know, Ana! He was so sweet as well - talked to me for around 10 minutes and was just so cute.... Sigh!

Then I was told by a former colleague a couple of years ago that she actually kissed him. I did note that it was not him doing the kissing, however.

I remember my grandmother telling me I looked disgusting because I wore mini skirts.
I turn a blind eye and keep my mouth shut at what my grandaughters dress themselves in now.