Work Cited
Davis, Larry. "School Makeup Battle". Online Video Clip. CNN. September 25, 2008. September 25, 2008 .
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Boy forced to take off makeup at school
I watched a video clip on CNN.com about a boy who was forced to take off his makeup at school. Matt Allsup is a 13 year old boy from Hamilton, Ohio. On a normal daily basis, Allsup wore his "goth" makeup to school. "I'm not like most southern people" Matt says, and that was shown when he went to school and was told him to remove his makeup. Allsup's makeup is a way that he expresses himself but the school saw it as violating the dress code of "extreme/distracting makeup". Mindy Ball, Allsup's mother, says, "He is being sexually discriminated against". She feels this way the school never tells girls that they have makeup that is extreme or distracting. There are also no rules that say boy's can't wear makeup so Ball and Allsup are very confused and angry. Ball brought up a good point by describing how they wear badges to school with different words on them, one of them being acceptance. On the back, there is a question corresponding to acceptance saying "Do you value the uniqueness of others?". This question seems to go against how the school is making Matt take off his makeup, which could be considered unique.
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6 comments:
I found this to be very interesting. It reminded me of Government last year and the cases we worked on during our constitution topic. From work we did last year I would think it could have been trailed as freedom of speech as long as it wasn't disturbing anyone. I mean if he can't wear make-up why can us girls wear it?
Nice job finding the article! Looks very interesting-- well, we've got prejudice wherever we go. This reminds me of the Halloween issue we've got going on here-- you know, the elementary schools aren't allowed to have Halloween parties because it's supporting the Devil or something of the like, being a pagan holiday. For the guy, I'd love to say fight it out, but I don't really think it's worth it. Unfair, yes, but at least for me it doesn't seem like such a big deal. It's following the dress code-- girls have to wear skirts in some schools, boys can't wear make-up in others-- so I'd say choose your battles wisely.
Great find Sara! It was really interesting reading about Ball and his mother, and how they are fighting with Ball's school right now. It seems weird that they made him take off his makeup, since like you said, they allow girls to wear it. I also agree with Mikayla, it's in his rights that he should be able to wear the makeup. Keep up the good posts!
Interesting article Sara. I wonder what would happen if a guy from EHS wore makeup to school? It seems like it shouldn't be any different than a girl wearing makeup.
One thing though-- I wonder what grade he's in. You said he was 13, so that would put him in 7th or 8th grade, assuming he is the normal age. I could see the school asking him to take it off if he is in a school with younger kids (like we were not allowed to wear makeup in elementary school).t
Wow, that is a good article. I don't know what to think though. What does it mean when makeup is so overdone as to be "extremely distracting?" Because so of the girls at our school where tons of makeup. But you have to remember he isn't even in high school. Just imagine what would happen to a boy who wore goth makeup in VVMS (sorry SVMS, but I don't know how you hand stuff)! And a lot of schools say that you can't wear anything that disguise your identity. Could that be another factor?
This article raises the question of what freedoms people should be allowed. I like how the article presents the incident in an unbaised manner, which allows the reader to decide whether the removal of the boy's makeup was good or bad. This is just one of countless examples of people fighting for what they believe is their Constituional right and encourages one to consider what rights should be protected by the Constitution.
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