Why women now wear the trousers

JOAN Sutton (Yorkshire Post, August 28) asks why little girls hardly ever wear skirts or dresses, and why do schoolgirls now wear trousers and why 90 per cent of the women she sees also wear trousers.

Trousers and leggings are much more practical and convenient for little girls but I am surprised that Joan hasn’t read about recent disputations about school uniforms. Trousers for the schoolgirl’s uniform is the result of human rights and equality issues. Skirts are banned in some secondary schools because some “clever” little boy could turn up wearing the skirt; his inadequate parent(s) obviously unable to discipline or control him, or maybe even approving his antics.

Trousers also prevent the older, well-developed “les girls” from their tendency to roll round the waistband of the skirt to shorten it and show much more leg.

I am quite a bit younger than Joan Sutton and, in the 1960s, I had a nice girlfriend that went to Notre Dame in Leeds. The difference between her school uniform and being dressed up was miraculous – chrysalis to butterfly in about 45 minutes!

Ms Sutton says that ladies should dress to impress but they also dress to attract. I suggest that she witnesses any town centre club scene after midnight or watch the TV documentaries on late night policing in towns and cities. She would be hard pressed to see any female in trousers – almost all are wearing skirts and dresses that show as much leg as possible (and sometimes a bit more). The next day most of them will revert back to being part of Joan’s 90 per cent “trousered female community”.

In view of these observations, there is no need for Joan to ask women to “become more feminine”, and “let’s give the men a treat and become ladies again”. I can hear a lot of men agreeing with the first but disagreeing with the second.

From: Jennifer Bookbinder, Cottingley Gardens, Leeds.

I TOTALLY agree with Joan Sutton (Yorkshire Post, August 28) and her letter about females constantly using trousers. But the worst are the rather large ladies who seem blissfully unaware of how big their behinds actually look in their trousers.

Summery skirts in nice bright colours have got to look better than a pair of black trousers. How very boring!

From: Mrs June Wolfe, Sutherland Road, Lightcliffe, Halifax.

REGARDING Joan Sutton’s letter (Yorkshire Post, August 28) condemning so many ladies for wearing trousers all the time.

Does she not consider herself fortunate that at 85 she can, presumably, still wear dainty shoes to go with her favoured pretty skirts and dresses? Many of us are not so lucky! I have very painful feet due to arthritis, and the shoes I have to wear are built for comfort, as far as possible, rather than appearance.

Up until a few years ago, I seldom wore trousers, but this is now and circumstances change.

Can Joan imagine me drifting down for dinner at one of her three or four star hotels wearing a floaty colourful skirt together with sensible shoes and socks? I think not!

Wrong track to rebuild regions

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury, West Yorks.

THERE seems to be a crumbling of the consensus over HS2. I must admit that I have changed my mind, particularly as the estimated cost seems to be going through the roof. As has been pointed out, speeding up rail services from London would also make the capital more accessible, drawing more traffic to the already overcrowded city 
and sucking the life out of the North.

London is now an overcrowded sink of humanity and I think it would be in everyone’s interest to rebalance government to give more power to the regions. Running everything from 
London made sense when we had a vast Empire and the capital was a symbol of our power in the world.

Those days are long gone, yet we still have the same creaking outdated machinery more appropriate to a vanished age.

Difficult though it might be, the time has now come when power should be devolved to the provinces.

No doubt it would take years but a start should now be made. Transfer of real power would vitalise the regional economy and bring real jobs through the supply chain.

Our neighbours on the continent already have a more balanced form of government and we could learn a lot from them.

From: John Seymour, Church Fenton, Tadcaster.

IN response to Tom Richmond’s column (Yorkshire Post, August 28), one high speed rail HS2 line will not make an awful lot of difference.

Similar money as that proposed for HS2 could surely be spent on suburban routes in Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford and so on, giving much better journeys for daily commutes to work.

Freight tracks on the established East Coast main line, torn up after the Beeching cuts, could be reinstated at much less cost to give increased capacity for both freight and passenger traffic.

From personal experience, the East Coast main line is not so overcrowded, as the trains we travel on fairly regularly, York to London, are never that full, with empty seats available.

This is backed up by the company frequently offering cut-price ticket campaigns just to fill seats!

Advice sought on fly spray

From: Trevor Anson, Little Heck.

COULD any of your readers please offer advice on any can of fly spray which actually works? They are all highly priced and highly ineffective. The best alternative I find is hairspray which makes them at least fly around in circles.