Keep your fragile vessels

What I’ve always said about skirts – they’re designed to confine and hobble women and girls.

A North Carolina school violated the constitutional rights of its female pupils by requiring them to wear skirts, a US federal court has ruled.

The Charter Day School, in the city of Leland, had said its uniform promoted girls as “fragile vessels” deserving of courteous and gentle treatment.

But a group of parents who challenged the policy said it put their daughters at a disadvantage compared to males.

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed on Wednesday by a 10-6 vote.

How do skirts “promote girls [and women] as fragile vessels”? By inhibiting them. By hobbling them and reducing their freedom of movement. The think about skirts is the ever present danger of humiliation.

Writing the majority opinion, Senior Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan said Charter Day had “imposed the skirts requirement with the express purpose of telegraphing to children that girls are ‘fragile,’ require protection by boys, and warrant different treatment than male students, stereotypes with potentially devastating consequences for young girls”.

In skirts they can’t run around as freely, they can’t wrestle, they can’t play so energetically they might fall. They can’t hang from the trapeze by their ankles or knees. I was quite proud of myself as a little kid when I mastered both skills, but I could only do them at home, not at school.

Plaintiffs in the North Carolina case were parents whose female students attend kindergarten through eighth grade at Charter Day, and were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union non-profit.

They argued the dress code had led their daughters to receive unequal treatment and limited their ability to participate in activities like recess or emergency drills.

“I’m glad the girls at Charter Day School will now be able to learn, move, and play on equal terms as the boys in school,” lead plaintiff Bonnie Peltier said in a statement following the ruling.

Exactly.

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