I can’t help but wonder if Non Japanese might be mixing up fiction and reality. Admittedly, when all you have at your disposal is anime and the internet, then it’s fairly easy to come to a wrong conclusion sometimes. After all, what you find there often looks much like this:
Certainly cute, and indeed kind of skimpy. That said, none of these images reflect the Japanese reality too well even the “real” pictures that you see on the right are actually a bunch of costumes. Sometimes intended for cos play, sometimes (halfway) realistic outfits that then got further polished and arranged for a photo shoot. Add the fact that plenty of Japanese Idol groups like to use custom, faux schoolgirl outfits for their promo shots, and it’s easy to see how people can get the wrong idea.
But when you bother to search for actual, (mostly) non staged pictures, you will find things more along the lines of this:
Needless to say not all of them would comply with a moral standard from oh, I don’t know, the 1950s? (Or that in some of the more rural parts of the US, I guess.) Not to mention that almost any teenage girl worth her salt, regardless of country, will put some effort into looking good. And will hence happily proceed to “tweak” her regulation uniform to varying degrees, especially for a photo shoot. As evidenced by the shot on the right and yes, you can find a lot of those on the web, too.
But if you ask me, none of those really qualify for “skimpy and revealing”. In fact, compared to the school uniforms of other countries, the Japanese ones tend to come across as fairly tame. Go ask a looks conscious British school girl about these for example, and her response is bound to be less than approving. As for “social purpose” uh, well they serve the same purposes as school uniforms anywhere on this planet. And they come with much the same advantages and disadvantages.
With perhaps the one cultural exception that, on average, Japanese teenage girls are happy, and even keen on wearing them. A school having a uniform is generally considered a plus, and may even play a part in deciding which one they choose to go to.
Content created and supplied by: ghananewstoday (via Opera
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