Well, our quiet little county is in the news, y'all. Seems we've made jackwagons of ourselves over a teenager's sartorial choices. Our local high school, Calvert High, (incidentally, where my daughter attends) has suspended a male student for wearing a skirt and high heels to school. Other schools worry about gangs, drugs, and weapons. We have a cow over whether some dude can rock a mini better than most girls. The student is openly bisexual and, according to my daughter, is running for prom queen. Was the outfit an attention grabber? Probably. Was the skirt a little too short to strictly conform to the dress code? Yes, it was. But according to just about every student at the school, including my daughter, the school administration looks the other way at dress code violations every day. Girls wear booty shorts, short skirts, and other clothing that is against code all the time. The code is not enforced except for glaring violations. In other words, if this outfit were on a girl, chance are that no one would have said anything. Now, we're in the news, and I wouldn't be surprised if the school isn't looking at a lawsuit for violation of civil liberties (I do hope he files one!) For a bunch of folks that work with teenagers every day, they seem to have forgotten a cardinal rule of dealing with teens--choose your battles.
(BTW, kudos for this kid's dad for his calm and rational response. Go Dad!)
- Lolamouse
- Poetry and snark blogger who also has a creative side (who knew?)
Girls dress like boys all the time and nobody blinks. It's the same old shit...masculinity is the default setting for the culture, and femininity is "less than." Barf barf barf.
ReplyDeleteHe wears that skirt and heels better than some girls can and he can RUN in them too.
ReplyDeleteHow awesome is that!
(((hugs)))Pat
Sounds like a lot of shit over nothing to me if he is happy dressing in such a manner and has the confidence to do it at school then good on him....
ReplyDeleteThere are to many other more serious issues schools should be worried about.....
It has nothing to do with femininity being considered inferior. Girls wear miniskirts to show off their bodies and turn themselves into sex objects, thereby attracting boys. They certainly don't wear them for comfort or practicality. Miniskirts have got to be the most uncomfortable, impractical clothing ever invented (with the possible exception of the paper dress of the sixties, although I can't speak from personal experience about that one). It's bad enough for girls to objectify themselves in this way, but for a boy, wearing a miniskirt to show off his "feminine" figure seems a bit pointless.
ReplyDeleteBeing bisexual has nothing to do with it. It certainly won't attract the girls who are looking for a masculine boy, and it won't attract gay boys who are looking for a boy either.
It's actually very sad.