I've long been irked by a "tradition" at my high school, called "Red and Blue," which is the school colors. It's essentially a "school spirit" activity, except it excludes boys from the activity. I'm a person who acts upon my principles, so this year, I went in and sat in on the sign up meeting, and was asked to leave because I am male.
So I argued it, and then the athletic director came over and requested I leave unless I was going to take it 100% seriously.
I went home and I typed this up, posted it on my facebook, shared it, ect. But now I'm seriously considering submitting this to my local paper (this being a draft of what I'd submit) since someone asked if he could run it in the school paper.
Let me know what you guys think.
Why I showed up for Red and Blue today.
First off, all questions aside, yes I showed up for red and blue, and no I had no intent of joining.
If you know me at all, you'd know that I showed up namely to start s**t with the school, but more pertinently, to prove a point.
A brief history of Red and Blue
As many of you know, Red and Blue began sometime in the early 1900's (I do not know the exact year) as a balance for girls, since there was no (or very few) sporting activities for them, and as such they had no way to show off their athleticism. 1973 was the first year in which Red and Blue could no longer legally exclude boys from the activity, due to the passage of Title IX (now named the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act) in 1972.
Title IX
Title IX reads
"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.."
Title IX affects ALL public and private education institutions that receive federal funding. As you well know, this includes South Side High School. Evidence of Title IX working in favor of women can be seen everywhere, you have a girl's version of every sport, and sports such as Golf, Wrestling and Football are NOT gender exclusive, if a girl were turned away from any of these sports, based solely on the fact that they were female, there would be legal repercussions.
This brings me back to my point: Ever since 1973, the people running Red and Blue have been practicing misandry.
Today, I was told to leave, because I am male. This was before any question of my dedication to the activity came into question, Danny Jacobsen and I were told to leave, simply because we did not fit the illegal criteria of the "school spirit activity"
In accordance with Title IX, this is illegal. I was later removed from the room upon admitting I had no true intention to join, however I was initially asked to leave because I was a male.
Now lets look at how Title IX actually applies to my situation, some of you may argue: "Hey, Rob, theres Red and Blue boys!" and normally I would agree with you, however you overlook the true spirit of Title IX, in that all genders can participate in ALL activities. Telling a boy who wanted to join red and blue, and sing and dance, whatever, that he could not join because he was a male, but he could be a red and blue boy? Thats like saying "Oh, girls, you can be on the Football team, but you're only allowed to carry clip boards and not play at all."
If I knew of blatant sexual discrimination on the football team, I would openly call the coach a misogynist bigot, but I do not. I do, on the other hand, have first hand knowledge of the discrimination that goes into red and blue, and thats why I showed up today, to prove it first hand.
An anecdote: I use the word discrimination here to apply to both sexism against males, and sexism against females. Frequently, I see people saying things like "counter racism," or discrimination against whites. This is a misnomer, all discrimination, regardless of who it is against or coming from, is discrimination, black and white.
Since Red and Blue can no longer bill itself as a sporting substitution for women, because of Title IX, it has been billed solely as a school spirit raiser. I pose this question: How can one make the claim that Red and Blue raises spirit, when it draws the contempt of boys across the school, which it excludes. How can ANY school spirit event exclude ANYONE in the school, based on gender or age?
I think the administration needs to ask it self, is it really fair to enforce an event that practices misandry, when we'd definitely put an end to one practicing misogyny? Or is the administration as a whole simply practicing situational sexism, willing to overlook this blatant violation of rights, simply because it is tradition? I am opposed to the whole concept of Red and Blue for a number of reasons:
- It interferes with schooling, ie. "We can't have a test today, theres Red and Blue!"
- 2) It is a blatant violation of mens rights, and this is not as a man, but as an american. As I said before, were it that misogyny were being practiced, I'd speak out about that too.
- 3) It simply is no longer serving a purpose:
- Red and blue is billed as a school spirit activity, but more than likely decreases morale. It was instituted as an alternative for the non existent women's sports, and since women have sports now, it should be dispanned.
Red and Blue is technically in violation of Title IX, and for that it should either have to reform, or lose all funding it receives from the school, and the school should lose federal funding for encouraging a blatantly discriminatory activity.
Quick edit:
For those of you who don't know:
Misandry: Hatred of men
Misogyny: Hatred of women
