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‘Upskirting’

(100 Posts)
winterwhite Sat 31-Mar-18 12:10:14

Not meaning to start a new thread if one already exists and I have missed it.
Think this silly ‘upskirting’ business will be short-lived, but it has had nation-wide publicity and it’s exasperating to see so many letters in the papers saying that the solution is for girls to wear trousers to school because ‘boys will be boys’ hmm. What message does that send to boys? What sense does it make of the #metoo movement? Many schools allow girls to wear trousers and many girls do. That isn’t the point, which is that girls should not be made to think that it’s their behaviour that needs to change while the behaviour of boys can’t be helped, and is even funny angry

BlueBelle Mon 02-Apr-18 04:09:18

Is this really happening to this exrent?

Nelliemoser Sun 01-Apr-18 23:38:03

Well If more schools allowed girls to wear skirts this would not happen so often but that is not exactly a solution.

However I feel trousers are just more convenient for girls to wear anytime and particularly at school etc.

Caroline123 Sun 01-Apr-18 23:37:45

I recall at school when I was talking in class being told to stand on my chair.The two boys either Sid of me Upskirted me. I was appalled and told them to stop but the teacher still made me stand on my chair.Not all the boys in class would have done this but I was unlucky to be sat between these cave boys.
I was about 13 and would if it had been allowed worn trousers.
I agree boys and men should stop behaving in this way.
And I have grandsons who I hope will not behave in this way

Nanna58 Sun 01-Apr-18 22:26:02

Nasty, but not new, when I was at secondary school many moons ago the Divinity teacher was sacked for this!!!

Iam64 Sun 01-Apr-18 22:10:14

I agree maryeliza.

maryeliza54 Sun 01-Apr-18 22:03:55

I don't think girls and women have got more sensitive these days - rather many have developed a stronger sense of their own worth and aren’t prepared to put up with the sexist behaviour that was commonplace when we were younger.

Iam64 Sun 01-Apr-18 21:39:53

Baggs, the point about upskirting is the individual using a camera of some kind to do it, doesn’t ask permission, or do it openly. That’s how they get their kicks, by sneaking about behaving like creeps.

Legs55 Sun 01-Apr-18 21:25:22

When I started Secondary School in the mid 60s stockings were still part of our uniform, tights had only just become more commonplace. When we had to walk up to our Science Labs the staircases were open, boys used to stand at the bottom to see if they could see up our skirtshmm, we used to stop & shout down to them, they soon got bored. Trousers for girls were not part of the uniform in those days.

I wore mini skirts & hot pants (not at School), inappropriate behaviour was dealt with usually by a "look" or even a slap, are girls/women more sensitive these days or has sexual harassment got worse?

M0nica Sun 01-Apr-18 20:26:33

I seem to remember in childhood , little boys daring each other to run up to a girl to lift her skirt and show her knickers.

Even as a small girl this struck me as very silly and I treated it with the contempt it deserved. It certainly didn't occur to me that it was my 'fault'. I saw it for what it was an attempt by little boys to annoy little girls. I doubt if the boys saw it as sexual, just that little girls thought showing their knickers was shocking , I don't think we knew why, therefore little boys knew that lifting a skirt to show them was annoying.

I think sometimes in our determination to stop sexualised behaviour, we sometimes end up sexualising, actions that had no sexual intent.

Baggs Sun 01-Apr-18 20:17:58

I suppose I'm saying that if you don't want people to look down your top or up your skirt then don't let them.

Baggs Sun 01-Apr-18 20:15:07

When I was younger I was told that if you left possessions that you didn't want stolen in places where they were easy to steal then you were "ennabling" theft and you were at fault for doing that. It was a minor fault compared with stealing but it was a fault.

What if the same principle were to be applied to "ennabling" so-called up-skirting and down-blousing?

If women and teenage girls were to take small measures to prevent up-skirting or down-blousing, they would avoid the victim status some of them are currently complaining about.

That said, I remember being surprised to see rather more than I expected of my teacher's boobs when I was seven years old and she bent over my desk from in front while wearing a summer dress which, other than gaping a bit when she bent forward, I daresay was perfectly respectable.

Iam64 Sun 01-Apr-18 18:23:47

We had a maths teacher who was known to drop an exercise book so he could look up the skirts if girls who were heading for puberty. This was first year high school, we were 11 but it was common knowledge he did this to age 15/or 16/ when we left. Yes, some of us told our parents, who gave advice on avoiding being targeted. Nope, none of the parents complained to the head, so neither did we. This would have been 1960

Icyalittle Sun 01-Apr-18 17:56:01

My neighbour, a woman in her 40’s, was desperately upset when she found a camera poked under the side partition of a shop mixed changing room, taking pictures while she was trying something on. By the time she was dressed, the culprit had left the shop - the manager wasn’t interested, though the police were sympathetic if impotent. An extension of ‘upskirting’?

ReadyMeals Sun 01-Apr-18 17:36:49

FarNorth apparently it's because the actual offence is causing a disturbance in a public place or breach of the peace or something similar which is tied to it being in public, and it doesn't come under sexual offences.

Marianne1953 Sun 01-Apr-18 17:19:58

No an 11 year old boy can’t be a pervert, however, he needs to be told that looking up girls or women’s skirts is wrong and he will be punished for doing it.

Barmeyoldbat Sun 01-Apr-18 16:24:04

Suggest as a punishment for any boy caught is that he has to wear a skirt to school for a week. The trend would die a death

aggie Sun 01-Apr-18 15:48:55

At the Convent school when I was a child ,70+ years ago we were not allowed to wear patent shoes in case our knickers could be reflected in them , actually I am not sure if that was true or just one of the stories kids made up ?

BlueBelle Sun 01-Apr-18 15:24:39

Caocao that’s just it I m not sure what boys are having to lie on the floor to look up girls skirts the girls round here and in the city wear them so short they wouldn’t have to lie down ?
It sounds as if there are a group of schoolgirls in long full skirts perhaps they re in private schools they are round my way

FarNorth Sun 01-Apr-18 15:19:11

I hope that schools which insist on girls wearing skirts are now a thing of the past.

With all the fuss about pupils feeling comfortable in their identity etc, surely comfortable in their choice of clothes should also be usual.

So either/any gender able to choose skirt or trousers.

Deedaa Sun 01-Apr-18 15:16:40

I went to a girls' school so all we had to put up with were snide remarks from other girls. When I went to college tights hadn't quite come in so we were wearing very short skirts with stockings and suspenders, which were just about decent as long as you didn't move. Fortunately we were all 18+ and the boys were seeing more than enough totally naked women in the life classes so we weren't very interesting.

FarNorth Sun 01-Apr-18 15:15:25

The film "Wonder" included some sequences giving the impression of pictures being snapped and swiftly shared. Quite unsettling.

Lyndylou Sun 01-Apr-18 15:09:22

I'm sorry but I have never understood why schools allow mobile phones into classrooms, it seems crazy to me.

Theoddbird Sun 01-Apr-18 15:09:17

Yep the girl should definitely slap the face of any boy that dares. For goodness sake that is awful that it is considered fun to lift a girls skirt. I never wear trousers...love me long linen dresses. When young I wore both mini skirts and long flowing skirts. A girl/woman should not have to feel that it is safer to wear trousers.

caocao Sun 01-Apr-18 14:41:40

I drove past my local secondary school as the pupils were leaving last Wednesday. I was horrified at the "skirts" the girls were wearing - boob tubes for bums - very tight stretchy looking material which barely covered their bum cheeks. Many of the girls were walking along continuously tugging them down as they rode up with each step!

DeeWBW Sun 01-Apr-18 13:44:45

Oops! 'Brave' that is, though 'barave' does look rather pretty, doesn't it?