The US blogosphere has a new twit-of-the-week:FX: drumroll
Step up for your award, Doug Anglin of Milton, Massachusetts. And damn you to hell for making a certain Bee Gees song my earworm companion. For that you get mocked in the antipodes as well.
Poor Dougie. Apparently he's not doing too well at school, and is concerned that he won't gain admittance to the college of his heart's desire. Seeing as he's a hunka hunka cool dude studster, it couldn't possibly be his own fault for like, not doing all his classwork or not turning up for his math midterm, could it? Nope, it's all the fault of that nasty, nasty school for discriminating in favour of the girl students:
Among Anglin's allegations: Girls face fewer restrictions from teachers, like being able to wander the hallways without passes, and girls are rewarded for abiding by the rules, while boys' more rebellious ways are punished.
So, young Dougie's dad, Gerry Anglin (who conveniently is a lawyer) has filed a civil rights suit against the school. Considering his dad (or someone from Milton with exactly the same name, dear Gerald) has run for political office in the past, this is a canny move, as there can be no accusation of attempted monetary gain from this lawsuit, nononono. It's all just good old public-spirited high-mindedness, pointing out systemic unfairness like making rules and rewarding those who follow them while penalising those who don't.
Seeing as there are elections later this year, I encourage all Massachusetts (oh my poor brane) voters to carefully monitor any Anglins on their ballot and perhaps feel free to paper their electoral district with the picture above.
Props to vesti for the pic. Read more from Twisty, Pandagon and Pinko Feminist Hellcat, and a peek at the reaction from a proud exposer of liberal media bias here. And that Bee Gees earworm? It has cruelly morphed into the theme from the OC. No punishment is too severe for such a heinous act. Fly, my pretty mockery-meme! Fly wide! Infect the world!
2 comments:
Yeah, I heard about this the other day, too.
I sang for a few years at a church in Milton. It was always interesting driving there -- my regular route took me through Mattapan, a relatively poor, largely black area of Boston. Mattapan is ugly -- no green space, lots of grime, potholes, litter, peeling billboards, loiterers, ramshackle buildings, etc. Then you cross a particular intersection and suddenly you're in another world -- clean, well-paved streets, trees, pretty streetlights, nice single-family houses with yards. That's Milton.
The Miltonians are protective of their boundaries and nervous about their neighbors. Very Republican, with conservative parishes and a heavy Martha Stewart influence. Huge sense of entitlement and "traditional" values. I can easily see Milton producing a Dougie. That said, I can also imagine Milton producing schools that reward the girls for being "nice" and don't demand as much from them academically as from the boys.
Local news have reported that some of Doug's female classmates have agreed with his assessment of the situation. But even if that's so, to my mind it's not exactly the first thing Milton needs to examine itself about.
Thanks for passing this along!
I'd be interested to hear more details about some of the accusations, like the teacher that requires students to "decorate their notebooks", but I doubt we're going to hear them, because this case is probably going to slink away and hide under a rock somewhere when it's clear public sympathy isn't on Poor Widdle Dougie's side.
Sitting still and doing your work is the essence of school, young Mr Anglin. Welcome to reality.
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