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[Bella]

I'm in complete agreement with Kari here.

Stew will DEFINITELY disagree with me on this point, but I'm not fond of the idea of single-gender learning institutions. I mean kids of all genders should interact and learn to work together, maybe if more boys had female friends (and more girls had male friends) growing up, there would be less gender stereotyping, more respect and better relations between the genders. (After all, it's harder to blindly dislike / hate a group of people if you grew up around them and learned to treat them as equals and friends.) I'm not saying that it's the be-all and end-all solution to problems between the genders, but it helps. Plus, as Kari pointed out, part of school is learning to work with different kinds of people, and you're missing out on part of that in a single-gender institution.

Some "feminists" (generally radfems or separatist feminists, who argue that women should keep separate from men) argue that gendered institutions are okay because they allow women "safe spaces" free of men, but I think that's a dangerous belief. If you're pro-gender equality, you should WANT more social interaction between the genders. You should WANT women working and playing and competing with and befriending men. Then again, many radfems argue that they don't want women to be equal with men, they just want them to be "liberated". Lulz.

This isn't even bringing up the question of people who identify outside the gender binary; obviously, participation in single-gender institutions would be very difficult, maybe even impossible for them. :/

[Chocofreak13]

bells' last point is why i'm both an advocate for and against uniforms. on the one hand, uniforms create a sense of unity and equality that can sometimes be compromised by cliques forming based on "who's wearing the 'right' clothes". if everyone is wearing the same thing, it's a blank slate, and everyone can be judged equally.

on the other hand, this scenario is like communism. it works on paper, where everyone gets what they need and we all live in harmony and unity, but the reality here is that mankind is greedy and works on a pack mentality. in the end, a lot of times the clothes will help prevent nothing due to a person's nature just being rotten.

uniforms also quash freedom of expression and encourage a gender standard that modern society is trying to break, which can be dangerous and undermining to the entire equality movement.

if a school has uniforms, i believe they should act like the ones in Ace's High: be flexible with choices and customization. a girl's academic work will not suffer if she wears pants.

(of course, this also brings to light the idea of boys wearing skirts, which i am personally okay with, but is for some reason banned by societal standards...)

[Nichi]

I think single-gender schools are generally pointless. I mean, I remember with church how we had our "Christian friendly alternatives" to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (Royal Ambassadors and Girls in Action, respectively), and after how much sexist bullshit cropped up in my final year of RA, they scrapped both and had both genders in one group under a different name. TBH it worked a lot better; it cut a lot of the crap.

Also, on school uniforms, I have to agree with Kari. Also, I do think boys should be allowed to wear skirts if they want; after all, skirts are comfy and I'd love to be able to wear one in public whenever I want, without having to go into full trap mode first. Maybe I should move to Scotland and get myself a badass kilt -w-;

[Chocofreak13]

you don't need to move to scotland to rock a kilt. just come here.

[stewartsage]

Stew will DEFINITELY disagree with me on this point

No I won't because I don't read this thread.

[Chocofreak13]

strange, i figured this would be one of the ones you paid attention to. :0

[Simonorged]

Kilts are freeing. Sorry I just had to.

[Chocofreak13]

kilts are awesome. all in favour?

[Nichi]

Yes -w-

[Simonorged]

Aye!

[stewartsage]

> Candace is on Tumblr again

[Chocofreak13]

is that an actual nichijou face, or did they photoshop some other face in

cause that looks familiar, but not in a nichijou context.

[stewartsage]

That's an actual Nichijou face.  One of the many off-model styles they employ.

[Chocofreak13]

Ahhh, tbh I figured as such, thanks for clearing that up.

[Bella]

I'm gonna tumbl so much and there's nothing you can do to stop me.