School Uniforms
School Uniforms
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José Cruz: Would you prefer a society where women aren’t uh dressing up and making up as they are now? Or would you- What would you prefer?
Charlotte Alderdice: Um I don’t (Personally?) I don’t think I would prefer it. I think I would prefer a society in which it was entirely a woman’s choice from a standpoint where she wouldn’t be judged if she chose not to. Um I think, I think- And I think, I think we should have a society where women should be free to wear or not wear makeup as should men. I think there’s too much of a stigma about men being too feminine. You know like if a man wants to wear a dress he can wear a dress, maybe he suits it. If a man wants to wear some makeup let him wear some makeup. Like, what’s the problem? If a woman can do it why can’t a man. You know like, I know that there’s- uh you know women are oppressed much more than men overall, but I think there’s quite a lot oflot of: Charlotte drops the “T” sound between these two words (0:46) double standards that work the other way as well and um, you know like- like in my school for example a girl could have her hair here if she wanted (Mm hmm) If it’s too long tie it back for safety reasons- like if you’re in science class, (Mm hmm) but if a boy had his hair longer than his collar he was told to cut it.
José: This is a high school?
Charlotte: Yeah. And it it was sort of like, why, why can the girls have long hair (Yeah) and (Yeah) the boys can’t? (Sure sure) And you know that sort of thing. And um and you knowsays this so quickly it’s hard to hear (1:13) I know some guys who are perfectly you know comfortable in themselves and if if you know you put them in a skirt or whateverwhatever: Charlotte drops the “T” sound in this word (1:20) they’d be having a whale of a time becausebecause: a pronounced, “KUHZ” (1:22) they’d be like, “Hey, I look great!” (Sure) It’s literally a piece of cloth. Um, I don’t I don’t really understand the problem with that.
José: You might have noticed this, I don’t know if you um spend any time around high schools or junior high schools in Japan, but um during the winter, (Mm) girls must wear skirts. (Yeah oh) That’s their uniform.
Charlotte: It was the same in my school.
José: And and like, poor things, I mean they must just be freezing sometimes. And the boys are are allowed to wear their pants. (Yeah) And some of these girls are probably thinking, “God, I’m freezing today!” Well I don’t know how did you feel about that at your school (Um) “Got topronounced, “GOTTA” (1:57) wear a skirt. (Well) You’re a girl!”
Charlotte: It was interesting at my school because, uh we- our school had it’s own nursery, primary school and secondary school. I just went to the secondary school. (OK) Um and the uniforms were slightly different. So in secondary school a girl’s uniform consisted of black shoes, black or navy tights, a kilt, uh- with- basically a skirt, a shirt, tie, a jumper if you want and a blazer. (Oh) The boys would be black shoes um grey trousers, I think it was- was it grey or black? I think it was grey. (But trousers) Yeah trousers, but the primary school, if you were a boy, if you were aged between five and about ten, you had to wear shorts (Huh OK) and socks that did not cover your knees, (Alright) all year and bear in mind that we’re in the North of Scotland (All year?) Yes, all year? (Little boys? Children?) Yes. This is like- That’s the kind of stuff my dad wore, back in the day when he was a kid. Um and you know once once you’re hereabout you know primary six so that’s maybe you’re like ten or 11 then you could wear trousers.
José: This is the North of Scotland. What do you do in the winter when there’s snow on the ground?
Charlotte: You get chapped knees. So for my school it worked both ways. And the girls in the junior school, now they could wear socks if they wanted to, but they could also wear tights, so come winter they could, if they chose, wear wooly tights. And yeah, (Yeah sure) it’s still cold, but it covers your knees at least.
José: It’s it’s- not like these girls. I mean, (Mm) uh wow! Well OK. That’s- When I see again in that situation for high school girls in Japan I feel bad for them, but also like what you just said about little boys, little uh (Yeah) elementary school boys having to wear shorts all the time…
Charlotte: These are like five year-old kids.
José: That’s the situation here.
Charlotte: Oh OK.
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School Uniforms
Speakers
José Domingo Cruz
Canadian
Vancouver, British Columbia
Charlotte Alderdice
Scottish
Northeast Scotland
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In Japan, to be the same style is natural,so I didn’t think it was strange so far. However when I heard José’s opinion, I found it was really strange. Problems about bullying in Japan should be serious.
Through today’s discussion,I think that japanes school have very strict rule.
Almost of teachers tell us that it’s important to have individuality.
However if student has natural brown hair, they tell he or she that change the color to black!
I think that uniforms has good side and not good side.
Some uniforms’ designs are good. In Japan, some people chose school by its design.
Bad uniforms makes mood all of students have to be same.
Sometimes it harms students.
Um… it’s difficult problem.
When I was a high school student, my school had uniforms. Boys wear pants and girls wear skirts. It’s moderate in Japan. However, recently, there are some school that girls can choose to wear skirt or pants .It’s very good way. Honestly, I want to wear pants, because I wanted to be cool, not cute. Now I want to be cool ,so I can wear what I want, I’m very happy about that. Some says that if we can choose them, there is no sense of unity, but I don’t think so. These days, many gender discourses are hold around the world.102 There are a lot of people who don’t know their gender, want to be opposite gender, and so on. It doesn’t connected sense of unity. I know we have to be regulated, but Japan regulate too much.
Uniforms are useful because I don’t have to choose my clothes everyday and it takes low cost than buying a lot of clothes. I can’t tell which is better uniforms or personal clothes ,but personality and individuality are important.
School Uniforms
I think that the school uniform system is a good idea. There are tow reasons why I think so. First, I can have a sense of fellowship with people from the same school. It makes me feel better when I pass someone who wear the same school uniform in the street. Second, we do not have to choose the clothes we wear to school every day. Also, there is no need to prepare new clothes. However, I think that there is a disadvantage. It means that students who has to wear skirts are very cold in the winter, as the article said. I think that it is very unequal, but I think the uniform system is a good idea because there are more benefits. By the way, I feel that Japanese school rules are too strict. I think especially severe in my high school. For example, my high school was prohibited from wearing a muffler in winter, and only black neck warmer was OK. I do not understand this school rules. In addition, the school rules on hair style are being discussed in Japan now. I think that hair is also the individuality of each students. How will Japan’s school rules change from now on.
I think we should create a society that people can choose clothes and hair which they want. In my elementary school, junior high school and high school, girl must wear skirt and boy must wear pants. So, sometimes students said “Why can’t we wear pants?! We feel so cold in winter!”and student give teachers opinion about it. However, it was not allowed. Also, in this society, people think strange when male and boy who have a long hair. We should not think that girl’s hair is long or medium and boy’s hair is short. However, these days some school decided to introduce a new rule that students can choose school uniform whether pants or skirt. I think that I can say this decision is considered LGBTQ +. However, there are a little these school in Japan. Japan don’t develop about LGBTQ +. In Japan. Same-gender marriage is not allowed. So, if a women who want to get married to another women, they can’t officially married. Therefore, People should change their thought about gander and more and more school should change rules about school uniform. Also, we change our thought about hair too. I hope these prejudice goes away in the future.
I am free to be free in my opinion about appearance.
I wore a uniform for about fifteen years, starting in kindergarten.
So I didn’t mind wearing a skirt.
But I do want to complain about makeup.
When I was in school, my teachers were upset with me if I wore makeup.
But when we got into the workforce, they said we were insane if we didn’t wear makeup.
I don’t do it if I’m free because I consider makeup to be a problem for me.
Neutral clothing is all the fashion these days.
I have a friend who is a girl who dresses like a man.
Sometimes she seems to have a male idea, but she simply chooses to wear men’s clothes because they look better than women’s clothes.
However, she said the women’s bathroom is difficult to enter and she always uses the multi-purpose bathroom.
Also, pretty men and cool women are the people everyone looks up to.
But adults won’t understand this idea.
If I’m going to wear makeup every day, I’m going to get a face lift.