am I over-reacting to make a complaint?

[anastaisia]

About this BBC News report.

Not on the content of it - a story about school terms and holiday times - but about the fact they've used a picture of school girl legs in short skirts to illustrate it.

I posted a comment saying I was suprised they'd use such a picture to represent school children after the recent news reports about 1 in 3 girls experiencing unwanted sexual attention, advances or assult in schools. Wasn't published and the picture is still there though I know they can update pages pretty quickly as stories change or people write in :(

I know it isn't horrific, but it's unrelated to the story and seems pretty inappropriate for any news reports about school children?

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

I didn't know whether you were over-reacting or not till I saw the picture.
No you were not over-reacting; it's the fact that the skirts are well above the knee that makes them a bit St Trinians.

when I was at school there were girls who wore their skirts in the proper A line style just on the knee, and girls who took the skirts in to make them straight and took them up till they were above the knee like those. The pic is not a pic of random schoolgirl legs, it is a pic of legs of the girls who are wearing their skirts to be sexy. They may nor may not have the faintest idea of what they are doing; they may be doing it merely to fit in with the crowd or they may be completely self-conscious about it. But the point is it is irresponsible to go along with the eroticisation.

good on you for complaining. Will try and do so myself.

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

actually given that you said they were short skirts I shouldn't have needed to see the pic to know!

[booooooooooyhoo]

not unreasonable at all. that picture is very wrong.

[anastaisia]

I suspected I wasn't but didn't want to write in and then think - actually, maybe I'm just being oversensitive from reading too much on here. I'll fix up my brief comment to the page into a proper complaint and send it in :)

[JessinAvalon]

It does seem a strange photo to use.

I stopped reading the Sunday Times for that reason (pictures of scantily clad women to accompany a lot of articles, usually completely irrelevant to the topic) and I even had a letter published when they used a photo of a woman from the waist down in a short skirt and apparently no knickers to illustrate a story in the InGear section about changing a tyre.

Another story about boot sizes was accompanied by a photo of a woman, standing by a car, from the waist down in a short skirt with the skirt being tantalisingly blown up at the back.

Of course women never buy cars....

Definitely worth complaining about these things!

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

I seized the moment and did a formal complaint. forgot to copy the text before I hit 'next' so I can't paste it here, sorry.

I smiled grimly when I selected 'no' in the box that asked if I had ever complained to them before.
you're not sick of me yet, I thought to myself....

btw they make it v quick and easy to do a formal complaint.

[AppleTreeWick]

Psst I have also conveyed my opinion to them. It really is a very easy feedback process...I may actual go back and compliment them.

I have phoned the Beeb to complain before and their phone staff are just marvelous. I found myself desperately trying not to swear (which was interfering with my ability to get a sentence out coherently) so the nice young man said "just swear Madam don't worry I won't take it personally".

Although (pain) at being a Madam.

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

anyone had any kind of response yet? I haven't yet - will let you know when I do.

[anastaisia]

no :(

[foreverastudent]

how do we do a complaint?

I'm not keen on phoning

[anastaisia]

It can be done online with this form

[AppleTreeWick]

So the photo is still up... they've had what 4 complaints about it?

Perhaps we could complain once a day to them about it until they take it down? After all it is still irritating me today. But now I'm irritated at the BBC as well as some photo editor who clearly needs to reconsider how he/she evaluates visual imagery.

[foreverastudent]

thanks i've made a complaint now

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

the photo is still up?

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Have they changed the photo?

To be honest, I can't really see what the issue is. It's boys and girls (OK the boys are behind the girls), and the skirts are above the knee. They're not at pelmet level, are they?

TBH from your thread title I was expecting something over-salacious and titillating - all I see is school girls dressed as school girls dress - it doesn't even look as if they've hoiked up their skirts like we used to do at school.

I'm a real supporter of this topic, but I do think you're being a bit over-sensitive in this, and complaining is a bit silly.

Unless they've changed the picture ...

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

those are very short skirts - a good few inches above the knee, not just above.

that length would not be allowed at many schools and would definitely not be the standard length that the lady in the school uniform shop would sell you.

[BelligerentGhoul]

I actually agree with BecauseI'mWorthIt. They are only a little over the knee with VERY sensible shoes - hardly over-sexualised!

[aDarkStarWithStrangeWays]

I'm with BIWI too. I saw a crocodile of schoolchildren walking along the road the other day in exactly this type of uniform: boys in nice warm trousers, girls in well-above-the-knee kilts and long socks. Which is another issue altogether, of course, but I don't think that photo is particularly over-sexualised - the girls look like they're walking along, they're not doing that faux-coy knock-kneed pose that is so often seen in deliberately titillating pictures.

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

why do you think there is a picture of schoolgirls' legs at all to illustrate a story for which any school-related imagine would have done?

this is not a story about skirts. It is not a story about school uniform. It is a story about term dates.

so what is going on with using girls' legs to illustrate it?

[aDarkStarWithStrangeWays]

But it isn't just girls in the picture. It's a random picture of girls' and boys' legs. I agree that it makes no sense wrt the story (a picture of a school, a calendar, a harassed-looking mum etc. would surely have been available ) but I don't necessarily think there is an agenda here.

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

oh come on DarkStar, there is always a reason why picture A is picked over picture B
It's the same reason as the reason why every year when the exam results come out the photos of students celebrating are always pretty blonde girls (preferably identical twins) and never geeky-looking boys (or even geeky looking girls): no matter what the story, picture editors will always look for a picture of an attractive woman to illustrate it. And in this case, because these are actually children, it is not an appropriate thing to do.

[aDarkStarWithStrangeWays]

This is different to the annual festival of leaping blondes and cheery Asian overachievers just by its very randomness, I think.

I completely agree that it shouldn't be there - it's lazy, pointless and inappropriate, and actually the more I think about it the more I am inclined towards complaining - but at least the actual picture itself does not strike me as sexual, intentionally or otherwise.

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

LOL @ 'annual festival of leaping blondes', that's a brilliant phrase!

I don't think anything is random. If it looks random that is even more suspicious