In some schools, it is the boys who lay down the law and decide what clothes the girls can wear. This is the situation in a school near Perpignan, says a French teacher.
Emmanuel Macron reiterated in an interview with Elle magazine that he is against crop tops in schools. Even though this garment, which leaves the belly button visible, is popular among young women, it is far from being present in all schools. Invited to the broadcast of “Les Grandes Gueules” on RMC on July 2, Clotilde, a French teacher at a middle school near Perpignan, tells how boys control the dress code of middle school girls. “It’s not the law at all, it’s not Emmanuel Macron, it’s not the director, it’s not the internal regulation… it’s the boys who lay down the law,” says the teacher. “From then on, it is impossible to see a bra strap, to wear a tank top or a T-shirt (…), otherwise you are a “whore”, you are a “slut”,” she clarifies, echoing the vocabulary of the schoolboys.
The French teacher noticed the phenomenon during a lesson at the beginning of the 2020 school year. She showed her students a 19th century etching of a woman in a dress that left her shoulders uncovered. “Madam, could people dress like that in those days? (…) Weren’t they reprimanded? “, asked a young girl. Clotilde, surprised by the question, tried to understand what the student meant. “But you can see the breasts! “, another student exclaimed, explaining that they were made “for feeding children”, not for showing off. In his opinion, girls could dress however they wanted in single-sex schools, but not now that they are with boys. Consequently, no female student wears a skirt in this school. According to Clotilde, the phenomenon goes far beyond the mere issue of dress. When they go out with someone, schoolgirls are no longer allowed to talk to other boys.