Cross dressing in school: Gender bias or not?

[Miles]

HERE'S a news video about a 16 year old male who prefers to dress a girl in school. Watch the video and then consider the remark made at the end about gender bias. Think it's true or not? And if so, does it deserve to be eliminated or made an exception in cases like this?

[VermilionUK]

Watch the video and then consider the remark made at the end about gender bias. Think it's true or not? And if so, does it deserve to be eliminated or made an exception in cases like this?

I think there is a gender bias, and it does need to be eliminated, in some cases.
HOWEVER - I think we need to go a step further than "let the boy dress like a girl". We should allow them a gender re-assignment (sex change). I don't like the idea of being "inbetween" so to speak: he clearly has (or seems to have) the mental state of a woman/girl, so let him be one. But maybe it's just a phase you know, raging hormones and all. He's still discovering who he is.

I think its a bigger issue than "let boys dress like girls because girls can dress like boys". Like I said, "he clearly has (or seems to have) the mental state of a woman/girl", so he should be treated as one.

[SecularSloth]

I don't really see a problem with the school's decision. It's not unethical for a man to wear a dress but school's about learning, and the school's doing what it should do to maintain people from getting injured and making a safe learning environment.

After all, there have been cases where men who wear dresses to school and up getting murdered so what's wrong with trying to prevent this?

[Miles]

We should allow them a gender re-assignment (sex change).

We do. Yet in this case perhaps he doesn't want one.

I don't really see a problem with the school's decision. It's not unethical for a man to wear a dress but school's about learning, and the school's doing what it should do to maintain people from getting injured and making a safe learning environment.

Well, I guess if you can prove that a male dressed as a female is inherently injurious to others or somehow makes the learning environment unsafe you'd have a point. Can you?

After all, there have been cases where men who wear dresses to school and up getting murdered so what's wrong with trying to prevent this?

So we should blame the criminal acts of others on their innocent victim. Care to explain your logic?

[JoeyKnothead]

I don't really see a problem with the school's decision. It's not unethical for a man to wear a dress but school's about learning, and the school's doing what it should do to maintain people from getting injured and making a safe learning environment.

After all, there have been cases where men who wear dresses to school and up getting murdered so what's wrong with trying to prevent this?

Because then any bully gets his way out of fear.

When we make issues out of the clothes one wears we just as well be back to the whole no mixed fabrics deal.

[Coyotero]

I don't really see a problem with the school's decision. It's not unethical for a man to wear a dress but school's about learning, and the school's doing what it should do to maintain people from getting injured and making a safe learning environment.

School's also about social and personal development. When I was in highschool, there were folks wearing stuff a lot more goofy than that. So long as he's not violating a school dress code, let him wear what he wants...

Funny, no one says anything about girls wearing guy's clothes... I suspect it's because this is hot.

After all, there have been cases where men who wear dresses to school and up getting murdered so what's wrong with trying to prevent this?

So someone should be punished to prevent the murder that may or may not happen to them? Explain how that works.

[elle]

So someone should be punished to prevent the murder that may or may not happen to them?

I have to agree with Coyotero's point here. If others know that a child is trans, he or she already faces the problem of potentially being a victim of a bully or worse. That doesn't mean the child should be punished for that by not being allowed to be his or herself.

It would be different if it was a boy doing this just for entertainment purposes (i.e. to make light of transsexuals, to illicit reactions from classmates, etc.). I'm sure there are ways to discern the difference. I also don't think that girls who choose to wear styles of attire traditionally reserved for boys are prohibited by the school from wearing it (unless they are some type of school that requires skirts, which I haven't seen in the public school system in my area). I think that fair is fair.

If a child's choice to wear dress code appropriate attire is only deemed disruptive to a learning environment because of the anatomical gender of the child, I can only posit that there is something wrong with the environment. In my opinion, parents should be teaching their children about gender identity and transsexualism so that they are able to handle having trans classmates (and later in life, coworkers, professors, or others they will encounter) with tolerance and acceptance. I'm hoping we are moving in that direction, but I haven't yet seen much progress.

[FinalEnigma]

I don't know that they should prevent him from dressing like that if he wants, however, I would not that it's a really bad idea to do so. High school is bad enough without asking for trouble, but if he wants to dress like that, more power to him - it takes guts.

[shakes]

Jonathan's cute. If I were a high school football player, and the coach just benched me out for dropping the game winner, and I was so pissed I wanted to ass-rape someone, it would be Jonathan.

[T-mash]

I think the real problem here is that it's provocative (asking for it). A girl wearing baggy jeans is not considered odd or provocative. A girl wearing a mini-skirt and high-heels is. A guy wearing a pink-shirt is not provocative. A guy dressing up as a woman is. Clothes don't harm anyone, but that doesn't mean wearing a Nazi uniform to school should be allowed, it does not mean you should be allowed to wear as few clothing as you like, it does not mean you should dress up as a woman if you are a guy. These are things you can do in the privacy of your own home or at the streets if you like too, but they bring nothing but unneeded problems to a school. Does he absolutely HAVE to walk around like that? The school thinks not and avoids unwanted and avoidable issues this way. Slight impact on your freedom, but it's a necessary thing to keep schools schools

Of course that's just my opinion on this.