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New York, 5:20 PM
Mon Nov 9
52 posts in the last 24 hours
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05:15 PM
10/08/09
Don't get me wrong, I think it's disgusting, in bad taste, and dumb (I was going to say a 16 years old could have thought of it but it's probably the case), but not specifically sexist in intention
10/08/09
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10/07/09
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10/07/09
As they say, hindsight's 20/20, and luckily, my little meathead grew up to be a thinker.
10/07/09
Sorry for breaking your sociology dissertation.
10/07/09
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10/07/09
Not 30 mill. Not 300 mill.
10/07/09
sorry folks, but the hastings vs. elsik rivalry from way back in the day has y'all's beat by several thousand country miles, and never - and i repeat - NEVER - was a tshirt depicting anything like the aforementioned graphic was ever sold or distributed to students. EVER. i think the worst thing i ever saw was a car with the words "fuck elsik" on it and the cops pulled over and made the guy clean it. but trust, that game was a blood bath, even from back in the day when the rival schools shared the same hallway. even now, the schools are in the same city block! so yeah, memorial vs. stratford is small taters.
truly, it's not about who did what first - it's the basic fact of what the graphic is depicting. and no, nobody cares if it's gone on for decades or centuries, even. it's crass and tasteless and disgusting and vile. furthermore, what kid is going to wear a shirt like this in public? i'd like to meet that kid, then meet that kid's parents, then hand those parents their ass nancy-grace style while they sit at bible study at first baptist church.
no amount of apologizing is going to make up for the fact that this shirt has tarnished memorial's reputation. if you care about that, then fix it.
10/06/09
Imagine what it would be like to be a female teacher at a school where the students think this shit is funny, and not a big deal. How do you handle class discussions that are dripping with misogyny? You can't keep giving them detention. Class never gets anywhere if you kick them all out. When the kids have more money than the teachers, threats don't work. How can the administration fight kids whose parents excuse this behavior, and call the principal if their kid gets a bad grade or detention? I used to worry about getting jumped where I worked, just because I was really vocal and critical about the sexual harassment at my job. And I worked with the richest, most privileged kids in the county, at the safe good prep school in the rich neighborhood. And when the girls wouldn't come forward (who could blame them) the administration couldn't do anything, no matter how grossed out they were.
The dynamics of rich kids in schools are so fucked up. I mean, I'm not saying it's ok--there were some really gross misogynists on staff at my school too. But most of us hated having to teach sociopaths, and wanted them to get expelled. You can't expel 60% of the senior class, though. Especially at a private school, where tuition money keeps the rest of the students (including f-ing brilliant openly queer vocally anti-racist bi-racial poets on scholarship who will hopefully go on to start the revolution) in class, or at a rich school, where parents have the power to get people fired (for reals).
10/06/09
If I recall correctly, when I was a sophomore (circa 1990), the school was scandalized after the Senior Men decided to theme one of their formals "The Trojan War." This, according to the enraged parents, probably had to do with condoms. I can't imagine how those same parents would have reacted to this.
There was also a Confederate flag scandal at one point, but I think/hope that got cleared up.
As far as football goes I remember a lot of petty Memorial vs. Stratford vandalism, but it all seemed ridiculous given the massive suckitude of our boys on the gridiron. Now I can't believe how dire that rivalry has become. Yet -- argh-- I also can't get all huffy about this. It's embarrassing, and sickening, and really really depressing, but as someone pointed out below, it's also a bunch of upper-middle-class teenage boys demonstrating what passes for funny and masculine in their tiny, immature world, and the reason we have college is ideally so they'll grow out of it.
I guess the one thing it's not, to me, is shocking. After all, we're talking about a high school that T.P.s its own campus every homecoming.
(Interesting side note: I was severely disciplined my junior year for staging a student-run production of "Godspell." Not because it was religious [or sacrilegious], just because the principal at the time had some slight control issues. Thus, I did not graduate from Memorial. So, you know, you don't have to shun me or anything.)
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It's clear from these comments that it's not just an isolated incident of one student making a shirt--there's a bunch of student coming on here making it clear that they really ARE too stupid understand why this shirt is offensive.
I really feel for the girls who go to Memorial if these guys are a sample of their male classmates.
10/06/09
10/06/09
Let's start a club. Some high school boys once started a facebook group about me and my ridiculous feminist ethics and how annoying and dumb it is for me to tell them to stop sexually harassing 14 year old girls and that when a girl doesn't want to have sex but then you have sex with her anyway it isn't a victory against the evils of feminine wiles but a felony called "rape". I'm so naive. It's because I was born ugly and was fat my whole life. And also am a lesbian who just wants a boyfriend. etc etc.
I wear my 'miogynists hate me!' badge with pride. I mean, it means I'm doing something right.
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if you click the link to the feminist law professors blog they have another similar one from another year.
its definitely a cheerleader. they show dominance over the other team by dominating their women. classic.
10/06/09
10/06/09
If the "get a life this is not srs" comments in pink aren't enough, "feel free to delete" is usually a clue to me not only of fairly significant entitlement issues but fairly flagrant intellectual laziness as well.
10/06/09
10/06/09
[blogs.houstonpress.com]
Memorial and Stratford are in Spring Branch ISD here in Houston. The district's spokesman claimed to be unaware of the shirt, but is checking further.
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10/06/09
gary.koch@springbranchisd.com
or the campus principal, Steve Shorter, at:
steve.shorter@springbranchisd.com
I suggest you include a jpeg of the t-shirt in your e-mail, just in case they haven't already seen it.
10/06/09
Duncan F. Klussmann
duncan.klussmann@springbranchisd.com
The sad fact of the matter is that no amount of angry email will ever result in change. "School spirit" propaganda like this was accepted and even celebrated at my Houston high school in the early 90s. Sexist, racist, homophobic, you name it.
Texas high school football was, is and always shall be King. Fuck propriety, fuck decency. A notch in the "win" column is all the school cares about. It's absolutely sickening.
I have a couple contacts @ the Chron and you can bet your ass I'll be sending this along to them.