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Lesbians stripped of "school sweethearts" title

12:52 / 07.12.01

Full story here

quote:Last week the seniors at Dover High School selected two girls as their class sweethearts for the yearbook, but the principal said the honor must go to a male-female couple.
Nicole Salisbury, 17, of Dover, and Ashley Lagasse, 17, of Nottingham, received the most votes of any couple in their class. Like the other students receiving the most votes in various "Senior Superlatives" categories, Nicole and Ashley were to have their picture together in their senior yearbook.
"I was just proud of our classmates," said Nicole. "I was surprised at how many were so open-minded. Then the adults came, and they took that away."

13:00 / 07.12.01

The last I heard, though, the superintendant overruled the principal.

[ 07-12-2001: Message edited by: Persephone ]

pointless and uncalled for

13:22 / 07.12.01

Good to see a senior educational official without their head up their arse.

Who wants to bet that the majority of votes for these two came from the male population of the school.

14:40 / 07.12.01

I do feel quite sorry for lesbians (of the non-FHM variety) that their love lives seem doomed to evoke that kind of hubba-hubba fascination in straight men, Potus. Saddest thing is, you might be right. If they're good-looking, that is.

pointless and uncalled for

16:07 / 07.12.01

Yeah. They probably also got votes for novelty value as well.

Erm, you're going to have to explain what a FHM lesbian is.

16:13 / 07.12.01

Oh, y'know. The quite-possibly-fictional mens' magazine variety, the ones of whom it's never required to ask (CLICHE ALERT) "Can I watch?"

17:00 / 07.12.01

I knew a gay male couple who were approached in a (straight) pub by a woman who wanted to watch them! Now is that the exception to prove the rule or what?! (Though maybe it was some kind of a set up; they told her to get lost anyway.)

P.S. Call me odd (!), but I think I must be one of the only straight men on the planet not to have a 'woor cooor lesboes' fetish. It's cute, to me, but not sexy.

17:08 / 07.12.01

Oh, the reverse thing does happen but a lot less often, I think, and I suspect the fantasy dynamics are different.

Separate thread topic, maybe?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

19:17 / 08.12.01

On the other hand, why must all heterosexuals be automatically prejudiced, condecending or lecherous? Maybe those two young women were just popular and well-liked by their classmates? Maybe there's at least one highschool in the world where sexual orientation is not as important as, say, personality?

No, you're right, it was probably all down to straight lads and wannabe bi-trys. Oh well.

22:31 / 09.12.01

you know it is allright not to get all kosh-kosh over two women in love mabey it's a sighn of the times or then agine mabey it's just hormons. i say good for the gals i hope thay stay together

11:25 / 10.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Mordant C@rnival:
On the other hand, why must all heterosexuals be automatically prejudiced, condecending or lecherous? Maybe those two young women were just popular and well-liked by their classmates? Maybe there's at least one highschool in the world where sexual orientation is not as important as, say, personality?

Maybe. I wasn't quite as cynical about this news story until Potus posted his comment.

16:50 / 10.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Bill Galactic:
I knew a gay male couple who were approached in a (straight) pub by a woman who wanted to watch them! Now is that the exception to prove the rule or what?!

*cough*slashfan*cough* (and cf Pat Califia and other lesbian erotiwriters who use and write m/m porn)

Did the girls get their title back, btw? And I *can't* be cynical about it, I'd rather the FHM-reading boys and wannabe bi-trys were voting them into the yearbook than, y'know, shouting at them or bashing them or whatever.

16:55 / 10.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Deva:
(and cf Pat Califia and other lesbian erotiwriters who use and write m/m porn)

Or Pattrick, as I gather (s)he now likes to be known. Am I right in thinking Califia's been doing the whole West Coast Del La Grace gender-fucking tranny thing?

pointless and uncalled for

14:41 / 11.12.01

Sorry to make you cynical there Ganesh.

I will go on record that there will have been some genuine votes for this couple. However, much as they stand a fair chance at winning, should be treated like other couples etc, it's a very simple fact that some of the votes would have come from the lech element. Other will have come from the wannabe's and the other school gays. There will even have been votes from the we should vote for them because we don't want to seem discriminating segment.

I like the fact that the Super upheld the vote. It may not have been a fair vote but it was a vote, for the kids by the kids and that should be respected, whatever the foundation.

That's the real appeal to me of this little bit of news. It cuts through the grim realities.

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

15:14 / 11.12.01

quote:Originally posted by potus:
I will go on record that there will have been some genuine votes for this couple. However, much as they stand a fair chance at winning, should be treated like other couples etc, it's a very simple fact that some of the votes would have come from the lech element. Other will have come from the wannabe's and the other school gays. There will even have been votes from the we should vote for them because we don't want to seem discriminating segment.

....said potus, regius professor of voting practices in Nottingham, earlier today.

Mind you, "the other school gays" is a great name for a band. Reminds me of lovely lovely Claudia Gonson telling her film studies T.A. that she was taking the course because she was really interested in the gaze, and the T.A. interpreting it as "the gays".

[ 11-12-2001: Message edited by: The Haus of Pancakes ]

pointless and uncalled for

15:24 / 11.12.01

I'll shut up now.

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

15:42 / 11.12.01

Oh, don't be glum, chum. Just that "I will say this as a simple fact" is a bit of a hostage to fortune. I don't know how a lebian couple would be received - I went (inevitably) to a single-sex school. But I can guess how a gay couple would have gone done there...I'm sort of hoping that the world *has* changed a bit. Also, as I imagine it was done by secret ballot, I'm not sure that the "we'd better vote for the dykes lest we appear prejudiced" section would be all that large, especially becasue appearing *intolerant* of alternative sexualities at school rarely seemed to be something one needed to be too afraid of.

pointless and uncalled for

16:04 / 11.12.01

I'm not ascribing proportions to the various voting contingents, but their presence would warp a true vote.

I was just trying to reverse my previously negative spin on the story by raising the profile of the actions of the Super that respected the decisions of people we normally make decisions for.

I guess I should ahve worded it better and used less background on my post.

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

16:13 / 11.12.01

(OK, conciliatory mask slipping *ever* so slightly)

But...but...but....why exactly would the presence of people voting for them because they were attracted to one or both of them, or like them better as a couple because they were out and open about their sexuality make this other than a "fair vote". You think good-looking couples who might be attractive to members of the school body usually aren't voted for as "sweethearts"?

Saying "I will say this as a simple fact" before speculating without substantiation is a pretty GRIM habit to get into...

pointless and uncalled for

16:29 / 11.12.01

Alright, I should phrase that better.

However, I will continue to exhort my beliefs that voting for the "sweethearts' will have been for the following reasons:

a) From the lech contingent "It's two chicks together

b) From the gay/lesbian/bi/wannabe "There one of use"

c) Liberalist upbringing types "If we vote the other way and someone asks we may be accused not voting for them through discrimination"

Secret ballot or not, the vote should technically be strictly on the "criteria". Thus the vote is not fair to the competitors because they only have the bible-bashers as back-up.

It's a vote about how sweetheartish they are.

Still the ramifications of the course of events outweigh the nefarities.

Kids get their decisions respected by the in loco parentis figures and the propogation of democracy as valid is maintianed. Also they feel better about supporting alternative lifestyles and the winners feel more comfortable about being out and about.

20:13 / 11.12.01

Potus... erm. What are the 'criteria'? a supposedly fair and balanced, kinda 'authoratitive' (hmm, good word, let's keep it) vision of what a model teen couple is supposed to be about?

these kids voted against that. For whatever reason. That's democracy. Result, I say.

quote:It's a vote about how sweetheartish they are.

No- the vote is a contest to determine which couple is allowed to officially embody 'sweetheartness'

(edit- erm, result for the kids who voted, not the adults, who vetoed.)

[ 11-12-2001: Message edited by: Flame On ]

06:26 / 12.12.01

we are missing the real issue here.

i.e. the pukey horribleness of a 'school sweethearts' ballot.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:33 / 16.12.01

quote:Originally posted by shortfatdyke:
we are missing the real issue here.

i.e. the pukey horribleness of a 'school sweethearts' ballot.

LOL! Point.