May 12, 2005

My new hero. So this high school student was arrested at his own prom for wearing a prom dress, see. And a wig, and a corsage, and his mom's purse, too. He's a straight boy, but when his gay friend was dateless for the prom, he agreed to go. But, he decided it would cause fewer questions if he went in drag. "I looked like Marilyn Monroe," said the member of the track, ski and powerlifting teams. Unfortunately, although the school was fine with two male students going together, they didn't seem to go for the prom dress bit. Now, the poor boy can't compete for the pole vaulting record! gawd, truth is always stranger than fiction
posted by es el Queso 19 years ago
  • actually they've gone and reedited the article... this link goes to a more thorough and interesting read.
  • OK, so this reminds me of when I was 8 yrs old, in 3rd grade. The climate was freezing (snow, much wind) in the winter. Girls wanted to wear pants at school, but the school dress code didn't allow it! So a compromise was reached. The girls could wear pants under their dresses on their way to and from school, but once at school, had to remove the pants.
  • My freshman year of HS, two of my classmates were dropped from the Freshman Boys Soccer team. They lost out in (what they admit) was a fair evaluation to two girls. This was 1982, so that was a new thing at the time. So, the two lads decided to go out for the girls Field Hockey Team. Objectively speaking, they made the team. This already was a sticky situation for the school. They'd already let the girls go out for the boys team, and the district's lawyers had told them to let them try out. The "you'll have to wear skirts" tactic hadn't deterred the lads. IIRC, the other districts' Athletic Directors called ours and told him they wouldn't let their girls play against boys, and our AD talked the lads into quitting so that the other girls wouldn't be unable to play. So, while the cross-dressing was going to be required by my high school, they managed to use peer pressure to avoid it. Not our proudest moment.
  • For some reason I became a lot less sympathetic when I saw the photo. That wig doesn't suit him. Hey, sounds like he's instigated a wave of corss-dressing. That's hot.
  • Damn right they should suspend him. The nerve of this kid thinking school is a place to develop and express a sense of individuality, compassion and humor. Where do they get these dangerous ideas?
  • i like the part about the administrator saying this would "ruin" the prom for other students. yeah, right. christ. waaaaay back when i was a freshman in high school (yes, ladies and gentleman, that was... 1974), two girls wore matching tuxedos to our prom. i remember thinking how cool they looked and how great an idea. and they had no problem. you'd think that MORE THAN 30 YEARS LATER something like this would be even less of a big deal.
  • He's going to major in ski-hill management? Boy did I pick the wrong college.
  • Two words, Sidey: Reagan.
  • No self-respecting cross-dresser would look that bad. Clearly, we're not looking at a transvestite so much as the basis of English humour for the past century.
  • i'm sure he got his fill of pole vaulting after the prom.
  • A pity such things have reversed as they have. In high school, one of my favorite people was a straight boy who showed up a couple times a week in a skirt. I went to school in a place with lots of immigrants, mostly Hispanic, and a very high premium was placed on the appearance of machismo. But not only was this guy never bothered by students or the administration, he was even voted best-dressed of my 1986 graduating class. There's a picture of him, in skirt, in my yearbook. Nearly 20 years later, and we've taken a few steps backward, apparently.
  • Something that needs to be addressed is that sexual indicators are rather random and depend on what the agreed upon societal fashions of the time. Long hair at different times in history was a purely feminine sexual indicator, and then at other times it was fashionable for both sexes to sport long hair. Most people just get freaked out when people break out of the binary (male-female) sexual indicators. You either need to be masculine or feminine (even within gay and lesbian subcultures to a lesser degree). People are shallow and need things to be one thing or another, coke-pepsi, ford-chevrolet, mcdonalds-burger king, axis of evil-us, masculine-feminine...
  • Squidranch, I think you're correct except that it's not that we're shallow; rather, quite the opposite. I believe the desire to polarize our preferences runs quite deep.
  • It's funny how deep the conformist streak can run -- I've had friends who attended staunchly conservative Christian universities, so conservative that they didn't allow male students to wear long hair or beards. Meanwhile half the Biblical figures they revere are frequently depicted with long hair and big, fuck-off beards.
  • My best guy friend in high school wore his girlfriend's bikini over his track clothes to a meet. People thought it was charming and put a picture of him in the yearbook. When he wore a skirt to the last day of high school, though, he was told a) to call it a kilt and b) that if it weren't the last day of school he'd be suspended.
  • and they had no problem. Blargh. Society accepts women wearing pants far more easily than men wearing dresses. Film at 11. Most people just get freaked out when people break out of the binary (male-female) sexual indicators. You either need to be masculine or feminine (even within gay and lesbian subcultures to a lesser degree). Strangely, I've found that the coming-out of various public figures over the last few decades has made things, in some ways, worse. It cements this (bullshit) idea of "gaydar" -- that if a guy is thin, neat, clean, and heaven forbit, wears a light shade of red, he must be gay. ... ... and over numerous numerous examples in public life, little is proving people wrong. I'd liked the fact that there were so many non-macho heterosexual role models out there, but they keep disappearing!
  • I'm with exppii, however if the boy's not doing any harm per se, let him have his prom and eat his cake too. besides the fact it makes for a good laugh, who the heck cares???
  • Crap, if he'd have gone with a female date, and they would have reversed clothing with her in a tux and him in a dress, everyone would have thought it a hoot. This is crap.
  • I went to high school in Northern Ireland. One year in the talent show, the four of the five biggest, hardest, scariest rugby players in the school put on little black dresses and red lippy, the fifth dressed a la Robert Palmer. Their (quite good) rendition of Addicted To Love will always be (for me at least) the definitive version. They got a standing ovation (teachers included)... I used to think Norn Irn was relatively introverted and closed-minded compared to the US. Hah.
  • I saw some footage on Fox News about this story. They showed some boys running down the football field in dresses, in a solidarity protest with the kid, as well as some other people with protest signs. Looks like Lofy has alot of support behind him, and maybe that will change things for him, but those school administrators sound like assholes, so who knows.
  • squidranch: nail on the head, right there. it's all about polarity. (polarization. whatever.) adjusts spaghetti strap