Recently in Ohio, a thirteen year old eighth grader, Matt Allsup
was ordered by school authorities not to wear make up to school after he came in
with black eyeliner and lipstick. School authorities said that it was “distracting”.
Fortunately and to the dismay of the school leadership, Matt’s mother, Mindy disagrees and supports her sons right to express himself.
This young man is learning it’s okay to express himself as long as he limits his expression to those based on the values of others, not his own.
Black eye-liner and lipstick are often expressions used by Goths, emos, and alternative rockers who just want to wear what makes them feel good. Would it be different if Matt wore red lipstick and blue eyeliner like 8th grade girls? If the school system would order a female not to wear black liner and lipstick then should Matt be allowed to wear pink lipstick instead?
Is this about gender expression or goth/alternativeness? Either one is cause enough for concern. Why can jocks wear their letter jackets but Matt gets reprimanded for wearing what identifies him into his chosen clique? Who was actually “distracted”? The students or school administrators? How many people complained, if any?
This is clearly another example of society trying to bring a “stray” back into the herd. Obviously the “herd” didn’t appeal to Matt, otherwise he wouldn’t have needed reining in. Let the boy be himself. Black liner and lipstick stops being distracting after a few weeks at most. The other students will get over it. Maybe instead of teaching intolerance school administrators need to be teaching acceptance of diversity and expression when there’s no life threatening issue at hand. Sadly, “distracting” as a rationale sounds too similar to one of the rationales used to keep schools segregated during the 1950’s.
If more schools would embrace or at least be more tolerant of these types of expressions, then maybe, just maybe when my clients step into the workplace everyday they’d have less adversity facing them. It's not just Matt who's learning a lesson here, it's each and everyone of his classmates.
~ Ebony
Comments