Asklemmy

Ive also been to school in countries with and without and I find that absolutely none of the good things people attribute to school uniforms are true.

1. No pressure to dress well. Except that either a) you can buy better or cheaper fabric school uniform or b) the school makes new designs every year or two of the uniform and students that cant afford to buy new clothes every year or are buying second hand are easy to pick out.
2. What about earrings, rings, hairstyles. School uniform shoes need to usually be bought from outside of the school and those come at just as many price points as normal shoes.
3. I guess thats true
4. This totally depends on the school you're going to and what you personally like. If you are going to a fancy private school then you might have to wear a tie a lot which could be annoying to some. My sister had to wear skirts that went to her ankles which she didnt like. I was in a public primary school so you could wear pretty much whatever you wanted as long as the colours were correct which makes me pretty lucky. In the best case, you arent restricted but that often isnt the case once you are done with primary school. If you can buy your own clothes you can always pick something that fits you and is made from material you like.
5. And stupid for enbys that are still finding themselves when uniforms are clearly for men or for women. Its much easier to find something that suits you personally if you can pick from everything instead of a reduced set that forces everyone to fit into one of two groups.
6. Wardrobe malfunctions are less likely to happen if you dont need a whole second wardrobe for things you only wear to school and take off immediately when you come home.
7. Kids can reuse hand me downs in any case.
8. You can recognize your friends just fine without the uniform. Youre also not likely to wear the uniform outside of the school, because if you do anything that isnt perfectly exemplary behaviour while in school uniform and a teacher gets wind of it (and believe me this happens in the suburbs) then you (apparently) tarnished the school's reputation forever. Also, you take it off because its ugly and because you dont have a lot of it and have to make it last before it goes in the laundry.
9. Maybe from a distance? Up close people can very easily tell what your body type is.

There is absolutely no merit for school uniform. They're exhausting to deal with. They kill your self expression which is important for teenagers especially. Often schools take it too far and try to send the pupils back into the 17th century. My sister wasnt allowed to wear make up. If you were seen with make up there were wet wipes at the front of every classroom so the whole class could see you wipe off your makeup. School uniform socks are just a greedy money making scheme.

And most importantly, they dont do anything against bullying. Kids dont bully each other for clothes because they actually mind the clothes. They bully because they want to bully. There will always be something. And there are better ways to work against that than forcing all children to buy a second wardrobe and suffocate anyone who is trying to express themselves in an unconvential way.