Posted on 12/01/2012 1:22:47 PM PST by Olog-hai
The principal of at a high school in Mesa, Arizona violated policy when he required two boys who were fighting to hold hands in front of other students, according to a report on azcentral.com.
Tim Richard, principal at Westwood High School, has not been reprimanded but has met with Mesa Public School officials, who advised him not to speak to the media about the incident, according to the article posted on Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Wait a minute! This sounds like “homophobia!” What’s wrong with two boys holding hands? This is Barry Benghazi’s new Amerika! Boys holding hands is not only adored and admired, it’s expected!
The A-rabs do it all the time so it must be okay.
The “schools” are always pimping homosexuality to the kids and recruiting them to become homosexuals. This is just weird. It’s hypocritical and very confusing to the youngs skulls full of mush. I’ll bet these two pixies have no problem with holding hands in the huddle.
wow
Publik skools should be outlawed as crimes against humanity
Hold hands is blatant forcing of homosexual identity. Shaking hands and vowing a rematch...
If the principal doesn’t know the difference between holding hands and shaking hands, he needs to be sent to a Gender Awareness Study Camp and taught the difference.
OMG the principal is male? What horrible thing happened to this poor confused creature? Maybe "he" is transgendered or something.
Well if holding hands doesn’t work the next step will be to have them kiss and make up...if that doesn’t work???
In my day this would have gotten that Principal’s ass kicked...on the spot.
Exactly so.
In my day, too!
By one of those two guys or both!
This was apparently a real tough “thug” school, and this principal was sent in to clean up the mess. He told the tough guys they could be suspended or else be humiliated by sitting in a public place and holding hands with one another for an hour. The thugs chose humiliation, and now they are trying to retaliate against the principal—with the help of the ever-so-sensitive-to-homophobia media AND YOU GUYS. The principal is the good guy, folks.
This actually can be an effective punishment. My sister-in-law did this when my two youngest step-nephews would be fighting with each other. As I understand it, they would stand there humiliated, holding each other’s hand, often squeezing. But it apparently did cut down on the fighting by making the alternative worse as far as the boys were concerned.
Kiss and make up. Then report to the principle’s office for weekly spankings.
...But it apparently did cut down on the fighting....
***
Best way to cut down on the fighting is for the parents to ignore it. Fighting with siblings is normal, and it teaches kids how to work things out, and, ultimately, it makes them closer. Unless mommy or daddy gets involved.
Parents who jump in and ask dumb questions like, “Who started it?” are interfering in their children’s development.
On the rare occasions when my kids’ spats would escalate, my favorite comment was, “You’d better settle it before I do!” I have no idea of what I would have done to “settle it” because we never reached that stage, as the feud would end with one of them saying something like, “Okay, you can play with the ball, but I get to play with the truck, then.”
“Wait a minute! This sounds like homophobia!”
Agree. This is sounding more and more like a hate crime. Now if they made the boys kiss in public (and I mean kiss), they would have an entire army of supporters.
...they just didn’t go far enough.
That is just gross. The fathers of those boys ought to knock the tar out of that principal. Back when I was in school they would have too.
some attitudes about some kinds of behavior are of our own creation - in our owm minds - and not intrinsicly about things that are - by nature - unmasculine or unfeminine
they are often only unmasculine or unfeminine because that’s how we have grown up to think of them
the further back in time you go, when you can find drawings or early photos of teenage boys and of men, simple physical closeness and affection was easy to see - it was not sexual, it was SO NOT sexual it was thereby free of modern taboos that identify it as always sexual
in Lincoln’s day, and earlier, men shared a bed, often a small bed, and thought nothing of it; it was not thought of as unmanly, because no one thought of it as unmanly;
two strains in western culture have gradually changed this; both those trying to lift everything “gay” up - lifting-up and promoting “gay” identity, and deep concerns by those who are NOT “gay” to NOT appear so; both of these trends have been excessive, turning every bit of male mutual physcicality into homoeroticism by both those wanting to promote homoeroticism and those concerned about it
in Korea (and some other Asian societies) close male friends, including adults, can walk hand-n-hand in public and no one assumes “oh they must be gay”
when I was in the military in Korea it was not out of the ordinary to see two or three young Korean soldiers lounging together, arms and legs all-a-jumble, on single twin bed; it was totally NOT sexual; not even “romantic”; just guiltless ease of a physically warm relationship; not about orgasims; about friendships and childlike innocense in them
it was also about innocense - you would have had to tell them they were doing something “effeminate”, something “sexual”, something “unmanly”, something “wrong”, and then they’d probably ask why it was wrong, and none of your explanations would do any good because they had never known your kind of thoughts on the subject; all the “bad” connotations for what they were doing were not part of their thoughts; they were not play-acting in an unmanly and feminine way; they were not becoming aroused; they were not being romantic; they were innocent of all the bad ideas you might have had for their behavior;
yes, in our culture right now it is a badge of shame, or a silly badge of “pride” when two young men hold hands
it should be neither
our culture has lost something when those are the only two options most people think of as true
men holding hands or not holding hands is not a question about to be “manly” or not; it’s a question about perception, and perception is most often like beauty - in the eye of the beholder and not in some quantifiable intrinsic value
Try again.
Where in US “culture” has it been acceptable for two straight males to hold hands? This kind of talk sounds like cultural anthropologists’ justifications for anything.
Where in US “culture” has it been acceptable for two straight (never mind otherwise) males to hold hands? This kind of talk sounds like cultural anthropologists’ justifications for anything.
It’s no wonder public school authorities just lock themselves in the office and let the inmates run the asylum. This principal is catching it from all sides: the thugs themselves, the namby-pamby school bureaucrats and their media allies, and now the knee-jerk social conservatives. He’ll probably resign and let a PC black woman take the job.
There are far better ways to deal with boys fighting than humiliation that resembles homosexual interaction (which the libs actually like anyhow). When I was a youngster in primary school back in Ireland (this being the 70s), the punishment was a number of blows with a stick; that quietened even the most pugilistic of offenders down. You can bet that the hand-holding won’t change the boys’ behavior. Corporal punishment still exists in the USA, even in schools, and the libs cannot drive it away even through lawfare.
http://artofmanliness.com/2012/07/29/bosom-buddies-a-photo-history-of-male-affection/
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/08/24/the-history-and-nature-of-man-friendships/
one of my uncles, in the 1940s, and my grand dad, of the same generation as that uncle, were best of friends and were known to hold hands at some point, when we were all together at big family gatherings; my grandma became the chief comforter to that uncle on my grand dads death - he was unconsolable - even though she was grieving herself; no one in the family ever gave us any negative comments about the closeness demonstrated by my uncle and grandpa
may dad though, a decade later, made a comment, in front of me and his other sons, verbally frowning on it; while my mom stated immediately that dad was right because times changed and we shouldn’t let people think poorly of us, we should fit in; we asked her about grandpa and uncle Harley, were they queer; she said no,m they were best friends and added that was a different time;
fitting in represents conformity, and it is usually based on our perceptions; nothing has any more value than the value we decide it has; there is nothing biblical that says “manliness” means lack of and lack of demonstrable, platonic affection; just reread what scripture has to say about David and Johnathon
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.