Lipstick-wearing boy not kissing up to school district
Allsup said the makeup he wears “expresses who I am. I am not like other people. I like rock and roll and this expresses that. I am discriminated against.”
Yeah, okay, so he’s an emo kid. And he says it expresses how “rock and roll” he is. And really, I don’t understand why women put up with some of the “fashion” stuff that society makes you think you need to wear – so I really don’t get why he wants to wear makeup.
But you know what? His mom’s got a point – and school officials walked right into it.
“It’s gender stereotyping and sexual discrimination,” said his mother, Mindy Ball. “If he has to take off his lipstick, then so do the little girls in the school.”
Ball suggested to school officials that if it was the color, she would buy her son pink lipstick.
Officials told her he couldn’t “wear it because it’s distracting because he’s a male,” she said.
And there it is. Doubt that it’s blatant social norming? Check out the comment thread, if you dare. The key question is – who decides what is distracting? What if I find your American flag lapel pin “distracting” because it reminds me of old friends and family deployed overseas? What if I think “professional dress” is more sexually alluring than deliberately provocative clothing? (I know, I’ve got issues…)
We all know how this goes, right?
Next up – corralling those heathen girls whose knee-length skirts just distract those poor, impressionable young boys on the football team. Because we know what groups deserve having their norms preserved… and what groups don’t, right?