Friday, February 25, 2005
Yearbook Nadir of the Year...
Welcome to Jebbush Land. A high school bans a senior from putting her photo in the yearbook because... she's wearing a tux instead of a "drape and pearls." Yes, the student in question is a very out lesbian. But... so what?
When it comes to school stupidity, yearbooks and proms seem to take the cake. These are two areas where adults insist on exerting their authority, and yet, more then anything, these two things belong to the kids in general and the graduating seniors specifically. Twenty years from now, it's going to be Tammy Faye Smith, Class of '05, who looks back at that yearbook -- not Principal Asshat, who will probably long since be dead or in a resthome. If Jane wants to wear a tux and Doc Martens or Johnny wants to wear a little black dress, so effing what?
The school administrators insist it has nothing to do with sexual preference and everything to do with "yearbook standards." You know what? Bullshit. I'll bet if the girl in question were as straight as a stick (and fucking every football player in sight) they wouldn't have cared what she wore in the photo. But because she's making (a very, very subtle) statement -- and because she's been openly living a life -- that says, "Yeah, I'm gay," they have to make an issue of it, they have to try to quash her self-expression. They have to be total assholes.
Ironic, because I thought these kids were the generation ruined by the "self esteem above all" mythos. In that case, it would be wrong to tell her she couldn't wear a tux in the photo. Right?
Right?
Yeah, I guess it's right, until you admit you're queer in the land of Jebbush and Anita Bryant. Then, it becomes of paramount importance to protect some people's kids from a photo of (gasp!) a drag king dyke.
Oh, horseshit...
When it comes to school stupidity, yearbooks and proms seem to take the cake. These are two areas where adults insist on exerting their authority, and yet, more then anything, these two things belong to the kids in general and the graduating seniors specifically. Twenty years from now, it's going to be Tammy Faye Smith, Class of '05, who looks back at that yearbook -- not Principal Asshat, who will probably long since be dead or in a resthome. If Jane wants to wear a tux and Doc Martens or Johnny wants to wear a little black dress, so effing what?
The school administrators insist it has nothing to do with sexual preference and everything to do with "yearbook standards." You know what? Bullshit. I'll bet if the girl in question were as straight as a stick (and fucking every football player in sight) they wouldn't have cared what she wore in the photo. But because she's making (a very, very subtle) statement -- and because she's been openly living a life -- that says, "Yeah, I'm gay," they have to make an issue of it, they have to try to quash her self-expression. They have to be total assholes.
Ironic, because I thought these kids were the generation ruined by the "self esteem above all" mythos. In that case, it would be wrong to tell her she couldn't wear a tux in the photo. Right?
Right?
Yeah, I guess it's right, until you admit you're queer in the land of Jebbush and Anita Bryant. Then, it becomes of paramount importance to protect some people's kids from a photo of (gasp!) a drag king dyke.
Oh, horseshit...
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