Editing School uniform (section)

==Social implications of school uniforms on gender==
[[File:School_girls_in_Bhaktapur.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Schoolgirls in [[Nepal]]. Some school uniform policies (e.g. Vietnam) include trousers for girls.]]
[[File:Schoolgirls_Leaving_the_Qutb_Minar_-_New_Delhi_(4609862997).jpg|thumb|left|School girls in parts of South Asia can choose between skirts or [[shalwar kameez]].]]
There are several positive and negative social implications of uniforms on both the students wearing them and society as a whole.

===Perceptions of masculinity and femininity===
One of the criticisms of uniforms is that it imposes standards of masculinity and femininity from a young age. Uniforms are considered a form of discipline that schools use to control student behavior and often promote conventional gendered dress.<ref>Connell, R. W. "Teaching the Boys: New Research on Masculinity, and Gender Strategies for Schools". ''Teachers College Record'' 98:2 (1996): 206-235. 31 March 2015.</ref><ref name="Happel, Alison 2013">Happel, Alison. "Ritualized girling: school uniforms and the compulsory performance of gender." ''Journal of Gender Studies'' 22:1 (2013): 92-96. 1 April 2015.</ref>

Boys often are required to wear trousers, belts, and closed-toe shoes and have their shirts tucked in at all times. They are also often required to have their hair cut short. Some critics allege that this uniform is associated with the dress of a professional business man, which, they claim, gives boys at a young age the impression that masculinity is gained through business success.<ref>Craik, J. (2007). "Uniforms Exposed: The Proliferation of Uniforms in Popular Culture as Markers of Change and Identity." Uniformierungen in Bewegung. Ed. Gabreile Mentges, Dagmar Neuland-Kitzerow, and Birgit Richard. Munster: Waxmann Verlag. 7-53.</ref>

For girls, many uniforms promote femininity by requiring girls to wear skirts. Skirts are seen by some critics as a symbol of femininity because they restrict movement and force certain ways of sitting and playing.<ref name="Happel, Alison 2013" /> Uniforms that include an [[apron]] for girls may suggest that the appropriate feminine societal role is a primarily domestic one. Some girls' school uniforms have been criticized as having an uncomfortable design, which prevents girls from freedom of movement and exposes girls to cold during winter.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/mar/06/sexist-school-uniform-rules-trousers-girls |title=Not wearing the trousers: why do some schools still have sexist uniform rules? |first=Hadley |last=Freeman |date=6 March 2017 |access-date=11 February 2019 |work=The Guardian |location= London}}</ref>

School uniforms are embedded with gender symbolism. Schools that require students to wear a formal uniform almost universally provide trousers for boys and skirts or dresses for girls{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}. Skirts differentiate the female from the male, thereby confirming traditional gender identities for students who must wear the correct attire corresponding to their sex. Skirts and dresses demand a particular type of feminine gender performance, whereas trousers demand a particular masculine gender performance. By forcing students to wear attire that corresponds with their sex inherently assigns the ways a student must perform their gender. This causes controversy when a student does not want to identify with a gender that does not align with their sex. There are rarely guidelines that allow for students to dress according to their performed gender, but almost always according to their sex assigned at birth.<ref name="deakin.edu.au">Bennett, Susan (2015).  [https://web.archive.org/web/20220222161613/https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30081641/bennett-genderrelations-2016A.pdf "Gender Relations in Elite Coeducational Schools."] PhD diss., Deakin University (Victoria, Australia).</ref>{{page number needed|date=January 2020}}

===Sexualization of girls===
[[File:09월 26일 뮤콘 쇼케이스 MUCON Showcase (23).jpg|thumb|A [[K-pop]] all-girls band group wearing uniform-like costumes during a performance, 2017]]

Around [[middle school|middle or junior school]], students begin going through puberty. Uniforms can be seen as a way to restrict the sexualization of girls by taking the focus away from sexuality and focus it on academics in a school setting for girls.<ref>American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. (2007). Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Retrieved from www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html</ref>

Sometimes the desire to prevent overtly sexualized clothing through uniforms can fail. As an example, miniskirts have been very popular in Japan, where they are common parts of school uniforms and came to be worn within the [[Kogal]] culture.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2003/11/12/business/man-who-gave-us-loose-white-socks-eyes-comeback/|title=Man who gave us loose white socks eyes comeback|first=Taiga|last=Uranaka|date=12 November 2003|access-date=11 February 2019|via=Japan Times Online}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/japans-schoolgirls-set-the-trend-1295844.html|title=Japan's schoolgirls set the trend|date=23 November 1997|website=The Independent|access-date=11 February 2019}}</ref>

"The pleasure our culture derives from gazing at girls who look feminine conflicts with girls' freedom to run around unselfconsciously and to develop their gross motor talents as boys are encouraged to do" (Collins et al. 1996, p.&nbsp;170). Schoolgirl uniforms are used in costumes in the context of [[Uniform_fetishism#Schoolgirl_uniform|"Sexy Schoolgirl"]] and are sold on costume sites year round. The idea of the female school uniform has become sexual and in Britain a new survey from Plan International UK found that a third of girls have been sexually harassed while wearing their school uniform. School uniforms can encourage harassment as children, as some cultures can define the "schoolgirl look" as sexual. Children as young as 8 years old report being victims of, or witnesses to, harassment. Two-thirds of the children questioned in the survey said they have experienced "unwanted sexual attention" in public, and 35 per cent said they have been touched, groped or grabbed without their consent. These experiences teach girls that being harassed by men is just a part of growing up. The perception of schoolgirl uniforms allows for men to harass girls at a young age, causing girls to self-objectify their bodies from the beginning of their schooling experience.<ref name="deakin.edu.au"/><ref>Southgate, Jessica, and Lucy Russell (2018).  [https://plan-uk.org/file/plan-uk-street-harassment-reportpdf/download?token=CyKwYGSJ ''Street Harassment: It's Not OK - Girls' experiences and views.''] Plan International UK.  Retrieved 28 April 2020.</ref><ref>Erickson, Amanda (8 October 2018).  [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/10/08/sexualized-fetishized-girls-britain-say-their-school-uniforms-make-them-target-harassment/ "'Sexualized and fetishized': Girls in Britain say their school uniforms make them a target of harassment."]  ''[[The Washington Post]]''.  Retrieved 28 April 2020.</ref>