Leave young women in their shoes

Now that summer has arrived and it is getting sunnier, everyone wants to enjoy it. Naturally, this warm weather affects how you dress, and it is important to give everyone the space to be able to do the same, because at the bottom line, we all want to feel comfortable in our own bodies and clothes.

This also concerns young children and teenagers, who also want to be able to dress however they want, regardless of what kind of reactions this may elicit from other people. We at DWARS Overijssel and JS Overijssel therefore agree that in secondary schools there should be room to do this as a person/child without your body being sexualised as a result.

However, we have to note that several high schools are going wrong in this respect. In recent days, we have seen this reflected on several news platforms, but also locally we hear noises about this. These schools, also in Overijssel, want girls to dress less naked because they might embarrass others if they do not. So these schools feel that these young girls should adapt and dress more 'appropriately'. And this is where we believe it should be the other way around. People and schools should stop pigeonholing girls and the (un)conscious sexualisation and objectification of children's bodies that goes with it. We know that at least one school recently let us know this by e-mail, but there is also a situation at another school where a young pupil was expelled from gym class because she was wearing a crop top and 'distracting' the PE teacher too much with it. This while the boys in the class were allowed to play sports shirtless. This cannot be the intention, it seems to us.

So it is now high time to start the conversation and reverse this line of thinking. Stop putting this responsibility on young girls, and put it on (in this case, certainly) adults and schools. Because by doing so, you normalise this, while it is not okay to sexualise a young child's body.

A school should be a safe learning environment for all students, and therefore free from sexualisation. Here we would like to refer to a paragraph from the article ''Spaghetti straps and short skirts do not mean that someone is 'asking for it' and should therefore not be banned in the first place'' From the NRC, written by Belle Barbé and Anna Jansen:

''Teach young people that physical integrity and respect for one's own and others' boundaries are crucial. Guide in developing empathy and empathy. Discuss clothing choices and attitudes in class and motivate pupils to empathise with those around them. This can also include any discomfort from peers and teachers. This way, this conversation can be had not from fear, but from curiosity."

We think schools should take this tip to heart.

In summer and basically always, you should be able to wear what you want, this also applies to children and teenagers. Schools and adults may start thinking more carefully about how they have this conversation and how much impact certain impositions have in normalising unwanted thinking patterns in children, adolescents and adults.

And the next time you are distracted by how a minor dresses? Think for a moment who you are talking about. Do you really want to sexualise a 15-year-old?

If another person cannot react normally to how you dress, or sexualises you because of this, it says everything about that other person and nothing about you! Let us all change and work together to create a safe living and learning environment in this area too for everyone and especially for children, because they are our future.

The schools and the names of the girls whose experiences were shared are known to us.