Jezebel 
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New York, 3:13 AM
Thu Nov 26
64 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/17/09
11/17/09
I will show myself out now. #paristrousers
11/17/09
@lilbobbytables: #paristrousers
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11/17/09
Also, in Florida it's illegal to shower while naked. #paristrousers
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P.S. @PipPipCheerio: I really like your commenter name and avatar. A LOT.
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11/17/09
Dress codes are both written and unwritten, and the fact that women in CA could still be forced to wear skirts in the workplace up until 1995 is depressing (in 1995, women in CA got the right to wear pants to work. Until then, there were cases where workplaces could pressure or force women to wear skirts.) #paristrousers
11/17/09
11/17/09
However, these concepts are sometimes confused with pseudo-science, and pseudo-science is sometimes used in furthering prejudicical dress code rules. For example, curly hair is not messy of flea-ridden, although the prejudice that it is has lead to written and unwritten dress codes that forced women to straighten their hair in order to be "clean."
I'm familiar with this because I have very curly hair, and wore short skirts in high school. Somehow, the former was translated to "messy" (since most people in my school were born with straight hair, and thought I had fleas. Some people suggested I buy a brush in order to look "neater.") Short skirts translated not only to being labeled as "slutty", but lead to me getting pulled out of class multiple times--- and to several angry phonecalls from a cranky school official who threatened my mom with child negligence. Apparently, wearing a short skirt causes you to get colds!
When I did get sick, it wasn't from the cold... it was from the stress and lack of sleep caused by high weekend-homework loads as well as the stress of constantly being insulted and belittled by adults for the way I chose to dress (and it usually was adults. The classmates who criticized me were often trying to copy the adults, and seem like "good girls" or "moral young men." This was actually why I wore the skirt... I did not like how dress codes divided girls in my school into "Good" and "Bad.")
The situation grew so frustrating that I played sick so I could work from home, and not have to deal with bullies. I was not the only one who did this.
And, before anyone starts making the "short skirts are distracting" argument, let me just say that cute boys with long, dark bangs are also distracting to a sex-deprived girl like me, but that it would be silly to call them out of class for being "provocative" and "distracting." Anything that isn't Christian, Straight, White, Upper-middle-class and "mainstream" has been singled out in a dress code at one point or another throughout US and European history.
I know that not everyone understands where I'm coming from, and that I will have to compromise at some point by putting on a suit and tie. However, I will actively choose to not be a member of the Fashion Police. We all have the power not to single out people who buck dress codes, and we can all avoid judging people by their clothing. #paristrousers
11/17/09
11/17/09
They systematically dismantle the lovely idea that with education comes sense, one ill-chosen word at a time. #paristrousers
11/17/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
But I also had a constipation problem. I reduced the amount of milk and cheese I eat (drink a glass of soy milk every day instead), and eat yogurt with granola every morning. Regular as clockwork now.
09/21/09
09/21/09
This ends my poop sharing for the day.
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Something tells me Jamie Lee Curtis will have to start doing movies again...so everybody loses.
09/21/09
I was hoping the poop yogurt would be a passing thing for her.... so to speak...
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09/08/09
I grew up in a Christian neighborhood, and the reaction when my publicly schooled, non-religious, large family moved in was disastrous. Christian children weren't allowed to play with non-Christian children. Non-Christians couldn't use the common green space on Sundays.
What kind of values are these? What happens when little Jimmy and Sally Christian grow up? What kind of job will they be able to get where only Christians are hired?
Children should learn acceptance. Plain and simple.
09/08/09
The question is this: do parents have a right to choose what values and beliefs they will teach their children? I think they do. And frankly, while I may think parents have an ethical obligation to allow their children to play with children from different backgrounds, they have no LEGAL obligation to do, and the state does not have the right to impose one.
09/08/09
The state is not trying to impose a damn thing that at least one of this girl's parents doesn't want. No matter how they ruled, they would have gone against the wishes of one of her parents and with the wishes of the other. And since the parents are the ones who wanted it this way, I don't see the point in getting all bunched up about it.
What we should all glean from this is that we need to be adults and learn how to work out our differences with others- including former spouses- and learn to compromise lest we be tempted to take them to court, thereby running the risk of a verdict against our wishes. If her parents were able to be adults about this (and from the court docs, it sounds like maybe her dad is and her mom isn't) then this wouldn't have ever even been a case.
09/08/09
09/08/09
This seems like a pretty outrageous case of the courts intervening where the parents should have maybe worked it out between themselves.
That said, homeschoolers ARE super wary of the courts taking away their right to educate at home- the laws vary pretty wildly from state to state, and they often ARE forced to take legal action in order to not lose that right completely.
09/08/09
09/08/09
It seems, at first blush, to be pretty outrageous, but I see now that the 'homeschool community' is over-reacting and not understanding the legal complications that the custody issues are adding to the situation. 'Cause most homeschoolers, are 2 parent households and mom stays home to teach (most religious ones anyway, not all).