Oxford rewrites gender dress code

By Hum
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Grand Master

Hum

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Oxford University students will no longer have to wear gender-specific academic clothing after concerns it was unfair to the transgender community.

It will mean men can attend formal occasions in skirts and stockings and women in suits and bow ties.

The new rules come after a motion by the university's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer society (LGBTQ Soc).

The changes were passed by the student union and will start from next week.

Jess Pumphrey, LGBTQ Soc's executive officer, said the change would make a number of students' exam experience significantly less stressful.

Under the old laws on academic clothing - known as subfusc - male students were required to wear a dark suit and socks, black shoes, a white bow tie and a plain white shirt and collar under their black gowns.

Female students had to wear a dark skirt or trousers, a white blouse, black stockings and shoes and a black ribbon tied in a bow at the neck.

If a transgender student wanted to wear subfusc of the opposite sex they had to seek special dispensation from university proctors, who had the power to punish those who breached the rules.

An Oxford University spokesman said: "The regulations have been amended to remove any reference to gender, in response to concerns raised by Oxford University Student Union that the existing regulations did not serve the interests of transgender students."

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Grand Master

Hum

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I actually just emailed the BBC about how inaccurate this article is. The key bit is right though, there's no longer any gender-discrimination in the academic dress code, which is a big step forward.

You attend Oxford ? Impressive.

Grand Master

Xilo

Posted
Posted

And guys who don't identify as guys? Women who don't identify as women?

Then they need psychological help. Men are men and women are women. It's not even a social concept. It's completely biological.

Plus it's a distraction for others in a school or work environment.

Grand Master

The Laughing Man

Posted
Posted

Then they need psychological help. Men are men and women are women. It's not even a social concept. It's completely biological.

Plus it's a distraction for others in a school or work environment.

If it's a distraction and you cant keep your eyes off them, then you clearly like them.
  • statm1, MightyJordan and Calum
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Grand Master

TheLegendOfMart

Posted
Posted

Then they need psychological help. Men are men and women are women. It's not even a social concept. It's completely biological.

Plus it's a distraction for others in a school or work environment.

The world would be a pretty boring place if everyone had to conform to a set norm/stereotype.

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Grand Master

Xilo

Posted
Posted

The world would be a pretty boring place if everyone had to conform to a set norm/stereotype.

No one is the precious little unique snowflake they think they are. Sorry.

If it's a distraction and you cant keep your eyes off them, then you clearly like them.

Why in the world would you even think this? Anything abnormal generally is a distraction in a place that you're meant to focus and work. It's why so many people go out of their way for crazy hair styles, ugly as hell ear plugs and other body mods, etc. It's for the attention because they know it provides a distraction to themselves due to not being normal.

Grand Master

Knife Party

Posted
Posted

Then they need psychological help. Men are men and women are women. It's not even a social concept. It's completely biological.

Plus it's a distraction for others in a school or work environment.

um no. the way women and men dress is dictated by the dominant hegemony of the culture shaped by society. Society shapes, informs and punishes/rewards the way men and women behave, dress, and associate certain roles. This is a social or sociological concept, not biological. We aren't born inherently to dress a certain way, society and the dominant hegemoney dictate how masculity and femininity are created or adhered to. Oxford is breaking down the barriers which conceptualise men and women according to mainstream British culture. Now all associations of any gender type are free to practice their choice of representation.

  • Glassed Silver, Calum and theyarecomingforyou
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Grand Master

Xilo

Posted
Posted

Nope. Wrong. Pants were men's clothing originally, until women started wearing them as well.

Wrong. Pants have been used throughout history by both men and women.

um no. the way women and men dress is dictated by the dominant hegemony of the culture shaped by society. Society shapes, informs and punishes/rewards the way men and women behave, dress, and associate certain roles. This is a social or sociological concept, not biological. We aren't born inherently to dress a certain way, society and the dominant hegemoney dictate how masculity and femininity are created or adhered to. Oxford is breaking down the barriers which conceptualise men and women according to mainstream British culture. Now all associations of any gender type are free to practice their choice of representation.

Going by your logic, if it's only social concepts that identify how men and women act, dress, etc. Then why would say a guy who identifies as a women wear women's clothing, makeup, act, etc if all these are purely social concepts?

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

Posted
Posted
Going by your logic, if it's only social concepts that identify how men and women act, dress, etc. Then why would say a guy who identifies as a women wear women's clothing, makeup, act, etc if all these are purely social concepts?

To be socially accepted as a woman. Obviously.

Mentor

Colin McGregor

Posted
Posted

Who cares what you wear. I see straight males get all ****ed about gay concepts then go in front of their computer and rub one out to a porn where theres a large section of the scene having a dudes wang in the camera.

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