A lesbian in a San Diego high school got elected homecoming king by her fellow students, along with her girlfriend being elected homecoming queen. Seems like a natural and reasonable choice to me…but of course the local angry bigot crowd not only gets to turn it into an online poll, but is skewing the votes towards their bigotry. It seems fitting that a decision that was made democratically by the more egalitarian students affected by it is being flailed at by people to whom it doesn’t matter, so let’s join in!
Do you think a woman should be crowned Homecoming King?
Yes, why not? 37%
No, that’s crazy. 56%
I’m not sure. 7%
By the way, if you don’t like the choice of homecoming king, then don’t go to the dance.
I don’t even remember who the king and queen were at my high school homecoming dance. I do remember that it was my very first date with my eventual wife-to-be, so they could have elected a shaved bigfoot to the position, and I wouldn’t have cared — Mary was radiant, and as far as I can recall, there wasn’t even anyone else there.
Hmm, the newspaper’s seems to be DOA. Pre-emptive Pharyngulation?
When I left school, back in the 70’s, we didn’t have all this palaver. It was the UK mind.
I have a problem with it, but only relating to semantics.
“King” is typically a male title.
I have absolutely no problem with the idea of having a homecoming queen and queen, though.
Something isn’t right here.
Why should a Bigfoot be shaved? In their natural state they have a nice soft pelt that keeps them warm. It’s like shaving your cat or something.
Good for the couple. It’s also nice that it’s engendering a more positive environment in the school. Still, the popularity contests in American schools remain entirely foreign to me.
Why does the big foot have to be shaved?
What are you, some kind of hair bigot?
Crap, I read the comment from the article. There were good people in there, but the other ones made me want to vomit.
Sometimes I wish this computer had an auto translate function along autocorrect. Homecoming turns out to be an American thing. I can’t remember if my high school even had dances.
Shouldn’t they both be crowned homecoming queen?
For the purpose of the poll, I’ll vote “Yes, why not?”, though.
And of course my first reaction was what the hell is a homecoming king?
Some of the comments are truly dreadful. Including the one from someone objecting to the use of the word “king”. Someone did a nice job of demolishing that objection, pointing out that king is traditionally used to refer to a male monarch, and that the Homecoming King is also not a monarch.
Hey! I’m the king of the world.
You wanna hear my song?
Stupid question time. How does a lesbian being Homecoming King lead to lesbians ruling the world?
As it stands, I like to think of this as one small victory. The victory that LGBT people are seen as being just people.
I ran as homecoming queen back in the 70’s at my high school as a write in, being not allowed to be on the ballot. They had to quit counting before they were halfway through because they were not getting the desired candidate, who they ended up just declaring without giving any vote totals in the end. I was so hoping to see the look on everyone’s face when I was presented in my gown, supplied by a local store for all the official candidates(female), so I was denied even that. It did succeed in showing what a farce these contest are.
Queen and consort, surely.
Why not? Homecoming King is a just figurehead. Even knows that the true power behind the throne lies with the Chief Minister of Homecoming Affairs.
FSM and Love14
Just had to put this relevant link here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG3yGdQYwqg
This is the version that wasn’t censored for MTV. They objected to the word “coked”. Of course, post Columbine, it’s a forbidden video.
No.
@janine
In the minds of the bigots, the moment two lesbians make out, the world collapse in on itself into degenerate matter.
I have always been amused the way anti LGBT folks exaggerate the powers the gays have and think that the gays have the power to turn everyone gays and ruin everything.
I agree with “osteenq”…
King is Male, Queen is Female, and it is awarded to people who contributed or excelled in their school. An award for male, and an award for female (whether GLBT or not).
Best Actor awards are for male actors… not females.
And, on the same page, is a link to this, an article about a university which requires all employees to sign a pledge promising that they are not gay. And yes, there is a ‘poll’ there, too.
But, don’t you see? Treating lesbians as people is the first step towards global domination! First you elect ’em Homecoming King, then… uh… the world!
They probably did, Canuck, but remember: up here high school dances—like football—are elective, extracurricular things, not the be all and end all of human existence.
How much you want to bet the people commenting at the link about how homecoming king is a sacred, exalted position are the same types that chant that they need their guns in case a king comes waltzing over to tax them?
My school’s homecoming had neither a king nor a queen. Same thing for prom. This was back in the 80s, and even back then it seemed like an outdated custom.
The bigots don’t know their history. Two of the Kings of Hungary were actually women, as every educated person knows.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_the_Hungarian_monarch toward the end of the first section, “History”.
King does not just mean male, it means a male monarch. So I presume if you think the Homecoming King must be male you also think he must be a monarch.
Not many of them in the US.
Another badly worded question. I you’re to have a ruling couple, why not TWO QUEENS! I mean if you have a tabular list I guess one column for king and one for queen then you’re stuck with this, but otherwise it’s exactly the same.
#20 – And on that page there is a link to an article about one favourite presidential candidate signing a pledge against: gays, adultery, fornication, pornography and sharia.
The poll there has one question..
“Would you sign this marriage pledge?”
And only one choice!
“Yes, I think it promotes good values.”
Try pharyngulating THAT!
So, Homecoming Queen and Homecoming Queen would have made you put down the antacid and the dictionary? And yet I’ve known many a queen with a dick.
This summer, two friends of mine got married. Unfortunately, due to bureaucratic entropy, the marriage license forms only had spots each for “Bride” and “Groom”. The clerk sheepishly apologised to both brides for not having more current, applicable forms.
Progress marches on, even if administrative assistants aren’t always at the printer and photocopier 24/7 to satisfy the pedants.
Mwahahaha…first the proms, then the world!
“Hatsumi, are you pondering what I’m pondering…?”
“I think so, but, um…where is the Adam reference in Yamibou if I’m Eve and we already have a Lilith? Think it’s you?”
“…okay, so the answer to that is no then.”
“So what should we do tonight?”
“The same thing we do every night, onee-chan…try to take over the world! …I mean, shower together and fall asleep in each others’ arms.”
“Do people mix those up a lot?”
“You would be amazed, my love…”
Somebody is not in tune with the times. SAG has gone to giving awards for best male actor and best female actor.
alopiasmag@19:
If by “contributed or excelled in their school” you mean “was popular” then your description might be accurate. Otherwise I’d have to think you went to a very atypical school regarding homecoming practices.
In most schools, it’s a popularity contest.
According to the 14th Amendment, states and municipalities are bound by the strictures of the federal Constitution.
And Article I, Section 9 of said Constitution mandates that
As public schools are agencies of local governments, doesn’t bestowing such titles directly violate the basic law of the land?
If only there were some Constitution-loving patriots who could stand up to protect us from such tyranny in our hour of need…
hey, here’s a thought, if the couple win the spot let THEM choose which silly stuffy antiquated title they use.
Whatya think?
Further, both the King and Queen were elected by their fellow students. I understand this is typically the case for Homecoming Kings and Queens. Just where are they coming home from anyway?
How long are the Dictionaristas going to sit back and let thess lexical travesties go on? And why the hell do we drive on a parkway and park on a drive…
I so look forward to the day when the novelty of THE GAY has worn off .
Take it as you will But I don’t mean in in a negative way.
ibyea, it amuses to no end that an over educated, under employed, chronicly broke middle aged person like myself is a threat to the safety of the world.
That’s the point PZ. I think crazy bigots do not have a life of their own, or are closet homosexuals unable to accept who they are and want to ruin the happiness of others.
PS: not to imply all closet homosexuals are crazy bigots not at all, but lot of crazy bigots are closet homosexuals.
If a female can be king, the word king will lose it’s meaning. We have to protect the sanctity of words because words are concrete.
I’ve got no problem with that, but I understand sometimes the humans are fiercely protective of their traditions.
Uh, no need to
reach forperpetuate the self-hater in the closet meme. The answer is probably much simpler:Lesbians = those kids
Homecoming King = my lawn
I can’t decide unless I see her in a tux.
Jesus Christ, Janine. Concrete is a conglomerate material made of cement and various types of crushed rock. Sheesh. Meaning of words, people!
Matt @17: Your logic undoes me.
It’s not my country or culture, so whatever they want to call the two most popular students in the leaving school year (is that how it works?) is up to whoever organizes these things. Just pointing out that there’s a perfectly usable choice of words in these English-speaking countries that actually have royalty — that of Queen and Consort — which avoids the confusion of having female kings (not a widespread concept) or two queens (not useful in ruling, diumvirates can bring things to a grinding halt when there’s disagreement, better to have a triumvirate).
Of course, that kind of implies that the Queen is socially superior to the consort, which might be too undemocratic a concept for the US. But then, kings and queens aren’t really a very democratic concept, Queen Amigdala of Naboo notwithstanding.
Who are we to intervene with the democratic process of the homecoming election ? If the students elect a lesbian, let them.
Back in the day, the Homecoming King was always the jockiest football player. So very likely you DID have a shaved Bigfoot as Homecoming King.
This reminds me of Dealing with Dragons (by Patricia Wrede), in which a female dragon becomes “King of the Dragons.” Though to them, “King” means whoever is ruling the dragons.
In other words, they want to impose sharia law without the word sharia.
Apparently these people have never heard of Rice University’s homecoming rituals.
http://timeline.centennial.rice.edu/entry/367/
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=5904&SnID=4
In 1996, the students decided to further honor Richard Smalley, that year’s Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, by electing him Homecoming Queen. The Homecoming King couldn’t make it. The Transco Tower, being immobile, remained in Downtown Houston.
In 1999, the students named a construction crane as Homecoming Queen. The Queen’s picture can be seen here:
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/991202.asp?SnID=2
The 1995 court was divided along traditional gender lines, however. Ann Richards, then the governor of Texas, was elected Homecoming Queen. The Homecoming King was Doofus the ferret. I hear they made a cute couple.
Having a female homecoming king is vastly less silly than the whole idea of having homecoming royalty in the first place. I salute the students of Patrick Henry High for making a statement while having a little fun with the tradition. As for calling the couple the queen and consort, that’s fine from a linguistic point of view, but I’m betting the adults who run the school wouldn’t allow it, and besides, who cares?
what a bunch of wet blankets. let the kids have their party, and nominate whomever they see fit for the bloody king/queen/high chief mucky-muck or whatever they want to call it.
You’ve (inadvertently) highlighted the root of the problem. Why are there awards that are gender specific? If they want to give to honours (homecoming whatsit or whatever) then they should give those honours to the most deserving (or elected) two people regardless of their gender. People are individuals and should not be discriminated for or against because of arbitrary criteria like gender.
As I
saidwrote before, I object to calling one of the two girls a Homecoming King, but not on dictionary dictatorial grounds, but rather because I’ve heard accusations of masculinity being used as insults towards lesbians before.I don’t know. I mean, the terms “King” and “Queen” imply a hereditary rule. Having students elected to the position is just wrong. By tradition the first King and Queen should be determined by bloody conquest, and all future homecoming monarchs should be the closest attending relative of the last and his/her consort.
I was going to say. I have seen many a woman refer to herself as an “actor”, not actress.
Further, both the King and Queen were elected by their fellow students. I understand this is typically the case for Homecoming Kings and Queens. Just where are they coming home from anyway?
Think of it as a special alumni week. The alumni “come home” to cheer on the alma mater at a game where they’re honored, and it’s a chance for old school friends to meet up again. Or that’s technically what homecoming is for.
Most schools, it’s a sham, but I did go to one high school that had a very, very active alumni group and strong support from the community. Thousands of former students would come back that weekend to go to the game, then to the huge parties after it for current and former students. A previous year’s homecoming king and queen would also crown the new ones during the halftime show. And it is a show, at least in Texas.
Wouldn’t requiring the homecoming king to be male be enforcing a quota system?
The Reader’s Editor of the Guardian and the Observer recently wrote about this very subject. The consensus within the paper was that actor should be used for both men and women, unless it would lead to confusion that the use of actress would avoid. The example given was where a women takes on a male role it might make more sense to refer to her an actress so as to make it clear she is a women, and there has not simply be some cock-up that mangled the story.
SQB: I don’t think it’s an insult if the woman ran for the position.
Why on earth not? I have a (politically & socially well-connected) gay male friend who was tapped to be king of a Mardi Gras Krewe. The krewe was fantastic about making tiny alterations to protocol to make things work for him and his male partner. And the titles were indeed “King and Consort.” (for the non-Americans who don’t get homecoming, I’m sure New Orleans Mardi Gras royalty seems even stranger…but that’s a whole different discussion).
The only problem I have with this is the conflation of gender identity and sexual orientation. They are different things. Just because I am a lesbian does not mean I think I am, or want to be, a man. And a transgender person may be gay, straight, bisexual or asexual vis a vis their chosen gender.
It’s a misconception that nonconforming individuals have to explain a lot. And I am personally SICK TO DEATH of the “which one of you is the man?” question. NEITHER of us is a man, that’s the whole POINT!!
calliopejane,
Are you also confused over the fact neither the King nor Queen is actually a real monarch ?
The Egyptians had female kings.
Do you really think you could have won? ;-)
Apparently these people have never heard of Rice University’s homecoming rituals.
Back in the early 80s, their marching band was a hoot to watch. The football team was awful (it’s an egghead school), so the band had to make up for it. People would pay the college prices not to watch the game, but to watch the band.
One year, the band split the halftime with Texas A&M. In case you don’t know, Texas A&M”s band has no majorettes, flashy costumes or Big Bertha. Nope, at A&M, they’re strictly military. Very rigid. The band wears military uniforms, and do precision formations. YAWN.
Rice decided to make fun of them by marching like Nazis and doing Sieg Heil salutes. I know people from A&M back then who are still pissed about it.
It’s cracked me up ever since I saw it on TV.
“People are individuals and should not be discriminated for or against because of arbitrary criteria like gender.”
I don’t think gender is an arbitrary criteria. Unlike many other criteria for discrimination there actually IS real difference here (biological). Not one that’s perhaps relevant to homecoming kings and queens, nor is there a reason to provide one of the genders with excess privilege, but it’s not an arbritrary distinction by any means.
@8)-DX
If there’s no merit based reason for distinguishing then why should we bother with discrimination based by it? Separate but equal?
I don’t even remember who the king and queen were at my high school homecoming dance.
I don’t remember any of it, either, and I was in the band two years–i.e., had no choice about being on the field while all that stupid was going on, and I was even the sports reporter on the school paper the next year–so I was the one who wrote about the winner!
Still drawing a blank, though. I can’t even see the picture of whoever it was supposed to be. I can see the group photo of the year I wrote about it, but not the winner.
That’s how much it meant to me–i.e., not at all.
NelC,
why would you give the example of Queen Amidala if there have been plenty of electoral monarchies here on earth.
just off the top of my head, the pope, the king of the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish king I think in some periods…
of course they weren’t usually elected democratically, but by a limited group of people, but it seems that Homecoming monarch elections are often run undemocratically too..
Um… yes?
Surely they can’t cock it up any worse than the rich straight dudes have.
I’m really starting to think that the people who write this kind of poll need a fucking hobby– it can’t be healthy to be that concerned with (what amounts to or what should be) trivial shit. Let the kids have their fun and leave them the hell alone.
That’s a small improvement but surely it is time to drop the whole gender silliness and just recognise the best actor, full stop. Would it be acceptable to institute separate awards for ‘best male director’ and ‘best female director’? I don’t think so – and thus it seems wrong to separate awards for actors.
I saw what you did there.
Yes, this is entirely American thing, I don’t think in Europe anything like this exists.
In Europe you go to school, you get exams, you finish school with a final comprehensive exam, and then you apply to college or go to work…none of this dancing/homecoming nonsense.
At least it was like that in my schools..
The fact that this school’s students showed such acceptance of homosexuality gives me some small reason to hope that maybe, just maybe, te next generation will have less of a problem with frothing, homophobic morons than this one has.
Then again, it wasn’t so long ago that I was part of the new generation that was finally supposed to cast bigotry of all types aside.
It didn’t work out so well.
If it hasnt already been pointed out “the local angry bigot crowd not only gets to turn it into an online poll, but is skewing the votes towards their bigotry” its actually bigots clean across the nation in New york who set up the poll, local bigots here in San Diego havent set one up yet to my knowledge.
I’m all for it. Spares me the time to chase guys.
I think homecoming should be abolished all together. It’s a huge waste of time, in the name of a stupid sport.
This is a great tragedy: some poor football player will be denied another accolade. Won’t someone think of the tall, male children?
I, for one, welcome our new lesbian overlords.
I was bugged by the phrase “self-identified lesbian”. Was she unable to get certification from the national or state registration boards?
Yes, because Europe only consists of your school, and your school alone. Seems like you don’t know much about places outside of your own region. But there’s something called Google, and here’s a link about proms in countries across Europe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prom#Europe
The paperwork has to be ratified by cryptomuslim socialist death panels and flown airmail via black helicopter. Ushering in the New World Order takes time.
If they did, it would draw attention to the fact that so few women end up directing major films.
Scott,
I think it just means that she is “out”. Here’s a relevant link
@Brownian
My contacts in the Bi-lluminati inform me that they’re tying up the request with red tape
Well she’s just a teenager. She couldn’t possibly know for sure. </sarcasm>
/me waits to see if someone will complain about truthspeaker’s “lesbian overlords“
For all those who claim there’s no kings in the US, please consider the Sofa King.
Naked Bunny with a Whip made my day. I’ll be chuckling for hours.
Well, you’re wrong. Not just wrong, but bloody wrong. The whole conglomerate blah blah blah business is just a late barbarism introduced in 1834, which, not coincidentally, was the same year the Spanish inquisition was suppressed and slavery was abolished in the British empire. Clearly this was a watershed year in the decline of traditional civilization.
The only valid use for concrete is in its original Latin meaning, “grown together”.
If you don’t know ancient Greek and ancient Latin, you have no business speaking Shakespeare’s tongue.
/harumph
At first, I thought it to be a bit strange to give a girl the title ‘King’, but then I remembered that my country’s monarchs have all been women for more than 120 years, yet constitutionally they are still called Kings…
I seriously thought about going with overladies.
Well yes, you are. I’ve seen enough James Bond flicks to know the damage over-educated, under-employed middle-aged people can do.
I think I would have preferred electing two queens, as long as one of them got up and went all Galadriel on their asses.
For me, it wore off about 1983, about the third time an old friend told me he was gay, bi, or experimenting.
I’m not too terribly familiar with GLBTQ mores, but if certain homosexual males can be referred to as “queens”, then wouldn’t the converse be true for homosexual female “kings”?
All lexical issues aside, it’s just a bit of fun, let the king be a lady. I suppose getting into a frothing rage about something like this is the only thing that keeps some peoples’ blood moving.
@Rey Fox #93
Unfortunately, the context is different.
Men dressing as women can be a comedy routine because dressing as a woman is seen as self-deprecating and ridiculous.
Women dressing as men isn’t considered ridiculous, so much as a woman not knowing her place.
There’s an inequality in play based on how the two genders are perceived.
[Note for the dense: This is my own evaluation of how I perceive other people’s views on cross-dressing – I disagree with these views in that I think they are wrong, and to make it more interesting, I may also be mistaken about what other people’s views actually are. Fuck, this shit gets complicated quickly. I already need a drink and it’s only 10 a.m. in New Zealand]
I say no. Why? Because I don’t think that these kinds of stupid popularity contests should exist in the first place.
@Daniel Schealler #94
I don’t know. I think in the past it was more common to see men dressing as women. These days in comedy I don’t think there is a taboo on which sex can do. If anything the taboo is on lazy comedy Dressing up as a women or a man to simply get a laugh has gotten old.
This is in comedy though. I’m oblivious to transgender issues etc.
Must be Backwards Week. In the USA, high schoolers elect a lesbian to Homecoming Queen. Meanwhile up here in Fag Canada (as Fred Phelps calls us), we just had a gay teen commit suicide due to bullying at school. What made it (more?) newsworthy is that he was the son of the city councillor for my suburb. That’s a bit ironic, given that one previous (and popular) occupant of that office was an out gay — this ain’t exactly a red-neck town. But there’s always just enough bigots and bullies around to make life miserable for anyone who doesn’t quite fit the Approved Mold.
Yes, why not?……65%
No, that’s crazy…31%
I’m not sure……..4%
Because “Queen” (although frequently does not) has hopes of implying equality with “King” whereas “Consort” simply equals “well dressed sex-toy”.
Slight hyperbole there but not a lot.
Note the difference between one’s sex (biological) and one’s gender(self-identification). Sure, they coincide often, but not always.
Personally I hope I live long enough to see the first trans* or intersex person win an acting Oscar. That’ll learn ’em, if it’s even remarkable by then.
What a perfect time to bring such an abstraction up. If only you had a time machine so you could go back to 1955 Montgomery to steal Rosa’s thunder by yapping on about how busses contribute to global warming no matter where the blacks sit.
Some of you Americans seem to get all hot under the collar at the most trivial of things.
Eamon Knight, that is why I called this one small victory. For every cute little heart warming story like the lesbian homecoming king and queen, one can find many stories of bullied gay, lesbian and transgendered people. Of people too scared to be out. Of people so driven to despair that they take their own lives.
Right now, there are wingnut bigots who whine that the wingnut presidential candidates do not hate teh gayz enough. There is Shorter University, a baptist school, having it’s faculty signing a paper pledging to forsake homosexuality.
But one has to celebrate the progress made and demand more. I could not imagine anything like this happening thirty years ago when I started high school.
While not trans, in 1983, Linda Hunt won a best supporting actress Oscar for playing a male character in The Year Of Living Dangerously.
I can’t find the poll option for “I don’t attend that high school, so I don’t need to vote on the homecoming court there. Also, I didn’t care who was voted onto my own homecoming court when I was an actual high school student, and now I’m an adult, and don’t care who is voted on anyone’s homecoming court. Not caring about the homecoming queen is one of the many great things about being an adult.”
Contented Reader, I could not name who the King And Queen were in any of my years in high school. I did not care. But that is not the point. The point is that there has been enough progress made that in one school, something like this happened. I would be just as pleased if this happened for a gay couple.
Local NPR station here in San diego, just reported that the school has been getting “hate” calls from all over the country, most notable is the very few calls that have identified themselves as being local.
Also noted that the calls if they had been made by students, would require disciplinary action, in other words lots of serious hateful speech.
Pelamun @66: Come to that, whenever we run short of royals here in the UK, or the issue is in doubt for some reason, Parliament often ends up voting on the issue. So, voting for royalty isn’t the completely alien concept some critics of George Lucas held it to be a few duff movies ago.
Still, royalty is a basically undemocratic concept, so I don’t feel much sympathy for the position that having a {Queen|King} and consort is somehow unbalanced. Either the role of Homecoming {King|Queen} means something, in which case there can only be one ruler of the homecoming, or it means nothing, in which case it doesn’t matter. If you like, call them Queen and Queen Consort, but don’t specify which is which, just call them Queen Haleigh and Queen Rebeca and let the obsessives sort it out.
NelC,
I was just being pedantic, I don’t think I had any major disagreement with the point you were making…
But probably since the US is not a monarchy, the concept of “Consort” is just not too wide-spread, so it would just sound bizarre to your average high schooler’s ear.
We didn’t have homecoming royalty, but it just ocurred to me that as the date of the Student Council President, ‘Consort’ could best describe my position at graduation (sat smack dab in the middle of the head table and everything). Unfortunately, we’d dated the year before and were just friends at that point, so I didn’t get any sex. (On the other hand, the catering staff don’t skimp out on dinner rolls when it comes to the head table.) My 17-year-old hormones probably would have fared better at aftergrad, but I distinctly recall the part of me that is crazy thinking “I spent 75 bucks renting this damn tux and you want me to put on jeans and get drunk in the woods? Fuck that noise!” and went home instead.
You might use “tyrant”. It applies to both genders.
Meanwhile, enjoy.
By the way, why is it called “homecoming”?
@Ing
Well there is a certain logic to gender-segregated toilets (and showers!), but that’s perhaps also a patriarchy issue as well as a biological-differences one. My real point was to say that gender distinctions are not always arbitrary, unlike for instance race or religion (which is completely arbitrary from the ground up =). I’m just not buying the “gender is culture” idea, just like I’m not buying the “gay lifestyles are a choice” idea.
To get to the gist of the argument: the idea of homecoming king/queen is not just a culturally-defined *arbitrary* selection. Humans most often live together in pairs and throughout history leader figures and their spouses have been celebrated as an ideal. Not that this isn’t a culturally defined thing (like all traditions), but it’s not *arbitrary* – I think a gender-specific award can have a certain validity (like best porn actress/actor or, more tamely, my local newspaper putting up photos of mothers with their children born on January 1st including my ex-sister-in-law).
There is?
“Women dressing as men isn’t considered ridiculous, so much as a woman not knowing her place.”
Um I’d disagree – I’ve enoyed quite a lot of comedy based on women dressing up as men (and hasn’t this been a common comic idea for centuries). In my mind this meme is about a kind of male masochistic pleasure – the women who dress up as men in comedy are often much more successful, brave, bold etc., than the men they confront – but then I’m a man so I’d see it that way I guess.
All in all I’d say that crossdressing experiences in comedy or theatre are meaningful because they both reflect the hypocrisy and inequality inherent in the system, and there is nothing better to laugh at then that.
Oh? They do?
That’s a very Western-centric world view. Most people do live together with many, many other relatives, compounds shared by large extended families seems to be the norm in many societies indeed.
fcaccin #111
It’s a long story.
Even in Western cultures, extended families were the norm until industrialisation.
Yes, that was implied in my comment. Should a said, it shows the ignorance about the social history of humanity or somesuch..
No seriously. Do men require special pumps to extract their poo hat wouldn’t work on women?
Ing @120: No, but apparently, special equipment is needed to extract the urine from men. Funny, I always thought that was relatively easy.*
*Possibly too culturally-specific joke here.
Pelamun @109: Sure, I’m not taking the language part of it particularly seriously either.
Though, FSM forbid that kids at school might learn anything new, such as a word for the spouse of a ruling monarch.
Ah, I just wanted to make it clear. Didn’t mean to step on your toes, pelamun.
It’s kind of a rule of thumb, but the easiest way to be wrong is to describe some sort of aspect of modern, Western, industrialised societies and ascribe some sort of universality to it.
I don’t think so, unless you count books and magazines as a pump, but I know women like to read as well, as evinced by every female I’ve ever lived with, all of whom have contributed her own favourites to the bathroom reading rack. (At home, I will sit down to piss just so I can read the back of the Pert Plus bottle.)
The only problem I’d have with a unisex bathroom is the constant worry that I’ve somehow reentered the nineties and am living in an Ally McBeal episode. I couldn’t handle the emotional rollercoaster of Robert Downey Jr.’s drug and rehab drama, not to mention knowing what’s about to hit the world as the new millennium dawns.
Yes, I’m referring to the near-continuous radio airplay of “Iris”. [Shudders.]
Kings are males, queens are females. I’m all for equality, but they should at least be like ‘yeah boi, we elected two queens’. Semantic wordgames =/= equality…
My £0.02. I’m really pleased they have elected a lesbian couple, and I hope it eventually gets to the stage where people shrug when the sexuality is mentioned. I never did understand the idea of Prom Kings/Queens, or any other school ceremony having these style of things.
@ Brownian #34
I can actually answer the parkway/drive thing, but I don’t think you wanted a reply to it!
Ow, I’ve been swamped. OK:
God it’s so hard to argue against gender equality! Although I thought I was arguing against gender equivalency. Bah! Just deleted multiple paragraphs of my answer and after all that it boils down to this: 1) we’re not there yet. 2) Women get pregnant. 4) Men have stupid hormones. TADA! (My hormones are not arbitrary, they fuck my personal life up without asking permission, but dah!).
I don’t think you can speak for all other males. You being an idiot doesn’t transfer over to them.
Plus… on the toilet topic… Should we all ruin our sexual fantasies concerning the opposite sex by interacting with them and listening to them defecating? Oh I just failed on my own point: 1. I have no problem with the idea of someone I know personally defecating or urinating. 2. Same sex people manage this all the time.
Speak for yourself. My hormones are quite intelligent. My vasopressin can speak three languages fluently and my thyroxine has published several papers on Nietzsche. :-þ
Women would have difficulty using urinals.
One size does NOT fit all in toilet habits. Women very rarely pee on things accidentally.
@8-DX
Here’s a suggestion. Have a point. It makes it so much more pleasant for the readers.
I wasn’t looking for one (I was actually eyerolling at that tiresome bit that’s been a staple of bad comedians long before it became the staple of millions of email forwards), but I’m sure many on this blog would enjoy a little informative etymology, so answer away!
Is there another way to defecate or urinate? By proxy? Impersonally?*
It’s always nicer when someone sees an obvious fault with their hypothesis without having had to be told.
*Yes, I know.
I just watched that a few weeks ago, Ing. Thank you for the reference.
As a matter of fact, yes — it is about the expression of gender (which is why only “certain” homosexual males are referred to as queens). Just as men who are expressing femininity may be called queens, women who are expressing masculinity may be termed kings, especially in reference to drag performance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_king
Latest figures :
*****
Thanks for your vote.
Do you think a woman should be crowned Homecoming King?
Yes, why not? 74%
No, that’s crazy. 23%
I’m not sure. 3%
*****
Voted ‘yes’ of course.
It warms my heart to see that my hometown is striking a blow against bigotry. I remember being strongly advised not to do a paper on the post-Stonewall gay rights movement in high school because my U.S. history teacher feared the repercussions if news got out about this. The fact that the topics for the final research papers were self-selected wouldn’t have made a blind bit of difference. (Admittedly, this was just three years after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and it was still a hot topic in a city with a big military presence.)
We never had any of that when I graduated. As I recall, actually, there was an official dinner that half the year didn’t even go to (with group tables), then an unofficial afterparty that was an absolute blast and we all had fun.
I actually don’t think we have anything like ‘proms’ in Australia. Maybe a graduation party or a dinner, but not on that scale. And nobody here minds it much.
But I do think calling a woman the ‘homecoming King’ might be a bit insult. You know, pandering to the ‘butch/femme couple’ stereotype.
Only if a man can be voted Homecoming Queen. (equality is a bitch/butch/trans-/non- whatever.)
Why not just vote One person Homecoming President ? (You’re a republic after all.)
@104. Janine Is Still An Asshole, OM,: 31 October 2011 at 10:04 pm
Weren’t all actors originally male including the ones who played female characters at one point in history eg. during Shakespearian times?
Wasn’t there a movie – was it ‘Shakespeare in Love’? I forget now – about the (fictional?) very first woman to act on stage?
Also did Robin Williams win anything for his drag act in that ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ movie back around the late 80’s / 90’s~ish? I can’t recall but think he might perhaps have done?
There was one excellently superb movie about a (Real life? I think?) sex-changing (M -> F) Thai kick-boxer – seriously – that I saw once years ago which was very well done indeed. Wish I could recall the title of it .. one word I think but could be wrong. Don’t know if that one won any film awards but I reckon it definitely deserved to do so!
Oh & veering off on ever more of a tangent here topic~wise but ‘Brokeback Mountain’ won an Oscar or two didn’t it as well? Plus did the ‘Rocky Horror Show’ thing win anything?
Really, the artists & dramatists (actors & Hollywood) community has been widely considered very sexually open, tolerant and proudly non-heteronormative for a very long time, hasn’t it?
@ dartigen : 1 November 2011 at 5:41 am
I take it the individual inquestion is happy to be called King and is NOT offended but proud of it instead so, yeah, not-so-much in the context here.
Ack. Clicked submit instead of preview then. Ooops. Sorry.
I take it she was asked and is happy with this title arrangement.
If she wants to be called “King” and has no problem with it then why on Earth not?
Had no idea there was a movie but I think I know who you’re talking about and she’s definitely real. Nong Toom and according to wiki the would be movie Beautiful Boxer, right?
What if she’s dressed up as Elvis?
Anyway if we’re going to be handing out royal titles we should use something less cliched than King and Queen. I vote for Count and Countess because they have a level of mystery to them while being recognizably ‘above’ the lessers. Or maybe Marquis?
@ 142. julian : 1 November 2011 at 6:20 am
Yes! It’s gotta be! Cheers for that – much appreciated.
@143. julian : 1 November 2011 at 6:29 am
You mean like these ones? :
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=female+elvis+impersonator&aq=2&oq=female+Elvis+
If “King” means only Monarch how come Elvis was the King and then Michael Jackson “King of Pop” and Peter Brock “King of the Mountain” (Mt Panorama, Bathurst Aussie motor-race) and so on?
They earnt their “kingdoms” by popular acclaim and performance.
As did the “Sultan of Swing” / “Sheik of Tweak” / “Earl of Twirl” Shane Warne cricket~wise earn his titles.
Methinks the language usage is metaphorically – and literally as well – changing in this regard.
Well, probably unfortunately, the first count that springs to my mind is always Dracula. Which is sort of ironic (word usage?) because he was apparently based on a historical Prince or King Drakul / Vlad (the Impaler).
Viscount? Or has that been ruined by Lord Monckton?
Hmm .. I dunno.
Countessa and Marquis .. de Star Trek?
Tsar and Tsarina?
Sultan and Sultana?
Vizier and .. brazier?
Satrap and .. Satrapette?
Kaiser adn ..um .. Kaiser-ess?
Grand Mucketty-muck and High Poohbah?
How about? :
Lord and Lady – with optional tramp?
Representative and Senator
Duke and Duchess
Earl & Urline
Proconsul and anti-Consul(sounds kinda hostile don’t it)Czar and Czarina*
Emperor and Empress
Imperator & Imperatrix
* Making the rest of them the Czardines?
parkway/driveway:
I don’t see the problem:
a parkway is a scenic freeway, thus the park
the noun use and verb use of park probably have the same origin as they originally refer to some kind of enclosure, of grassland, especially for horses. Which could also be used to park your horse.
a driveway is a private road for cars to drive on, as opposed to one only for walking. On a larger estate, a driveway can be quite long, with actual driving, if slowly, being done.
NelC,
I don’t think learning about what to call the spouse of a ruling monarch is terribly relevant in today’s United States of America. And luckily so…
should a been more precise
Or :
Princess and Prince?
Mandarin and .. Orange?
Caliph and .. Calipher?
Y’know there’s plenty of archaic titles to go around. Why not give one to everyone? ;-)
Because no one has that many crowns and tiaras, duh.
hmmmm
Perhaps the art class could mass produce them and tailor them for the rank… I suppose the only question is how to prevent truly terrible puns from being made part of the jewlery.
I remember what I called the two most popular kids at my school.
Assholes.
Before I can answer that with any kind of intelligence, I need to know one thing.
What the hell is Homecoming, and why is it so important?
Wasn’t there a movie – was it ‘Shakespeare in Love’? I forget now – about the (fictional?) very first woman to act on stage?
Delurking to note that it was Stage Beauty, which is based on real events but very heavily fictionalised.
Meregrotta #99
Oooooo! I want a consort! Can I have two? I mean in case one gets tired or something.
I think we have to stick with Queen and King. Each word has its own meanings, including “ruler”, and a distinct etymology.
In all the other pairs e.g. Duke & Duchess the female word is a diminutive or derivative of the male.
No way! Not on this blog. Not in this century.
“Consul” actually works perfectly, because they were elected in pairs on a yearly basis.
fcaccin @111:
That page was google-translated from Italian, wasn’t it? Weird constructs like “relationship sentimental” (relazioni sentimentali, meaning romantic relationships) and some gender pronoun confusion would seem to indicate this.
In any case, I am disappointed but unsurprised by this story. I think they’re only recently beginning to lift bans on gay blood donors in other countries. The UK just announced the lifting of the ban here last month, and that’s only for NON-sexually active (in the past 12 months) gay men.
I suppose this case is remarkable in that it is a lesbian, rather than a gay man, being denied. But I find it equally distressing for either to be denied. /off topic
On topic: I’m just thrilled that this happened anywhere in the US. It’s heartening, never mind the rabid backlash from people whose business it is none of.
Really? Whether or not homecoming is “important”* will dictate your opinion on equal rights for LGBT people?
“Sorry girls: I’ve done a little research, and I’m afraid I don’t respect your interest in homecoming to stick up for your rights to be given accolades at it just like the straight kids. Get back into the closet until something I consider important enough to fight for comes along.”
All you need to know about homecoming to answer ‘intelligently” is that it’s important enough to these kids at this stage in their lives, alright? Moreover, it’s important enough that bigots elsewhere in the country are incensed by the thought of equality happening there.
To piggyback on Brownian, all of you who are saying that this isn’t important are missing the point. Of course it’s not important who the homecoming king is in some high school in San Diego, or what the details are of all the strange rituals in US schools. The important point is this: that who you’re attracted to is, or at least should be, irrelevant to your opportunities in life or the treatment you get from others. Whether it’s getting married, joining the military, entering the priesthood, or being elected homecoming king, being LGBT should have absolutely no bearing on it. And when these issues come up, however trivial they may seem, anyone who supports LGBT rights should speak up.
Brownian:
QFT. This is like the Amish beard debate all over again: people who care about who gets presented with the letters OM this month ridiculing some other subculture’s arbitrary status symbols.
The real topic here is social acceptance of same-sex couples, and status symbols are a valid metric for that. Can’t we just accept the premise that this shit is important in their culture and take the conversation forward from there?
For the record, I think it’s friggin’ awesome that a same-sex couple was elected Homecoming king and queen by their peers. Good for them, and good for the students at Patrick Henry High School! Let’s hope that others can learn by their shining example.
My earlier comment was a completely failed attempt at humor. I see that, and I apologize.