[Parlay44]

Father-daughter dances banned in R.I. as 'gender discrimination'

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/natio...2144.story



By Rene Lynch
September 18, 2012, 12:06 p.m.
Father-daughter dances and mother-son ballgames -- those cherished hallmarks of Americana -- have been banned in a Rhode Island school district after they were targeted by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU, the self-proclaimed guardian of the nation's liberty, says such events violate the state's gender-discrimination law. The organization challenged their existence following a complaint from a single mom who said her daughter was prevented from attending a father-daughter dance in the Cranston Public Schools district.

The story has created a furor both online as well as in Cranston, a community located south of Providence and considered one of the safest places in America.

The phones at Cranston City Hall were already ringing off the hook bright and early Tuesday morning when staffers unlocked the doors. The outrage prompted a reaction from Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, even though he has no control over the schools.

"I am utterly disappointed to have such a time-honored tradition under attack," Fung said in a statement that urged parents to turn their fury on the school district. "I implore the Cranston School Committee to review this decision and find a way to make this work for the children and their parents. I encourage all parents that are upset with this decision to contact their school committee members and make their voices be heard."

Oddly enough, the policy change was apparently made months ago but only came to widespread public attention on Monday. That's when Sean Gately, a candidate for state Senate, announced that he will seek to change the policy back if elected, according to the Providence Journal.

The newspaper said schools Superintendent Judith Lundsten told school organizations in an August letter that the district's hands were tied: Although federal gender-discrimination laws exempt such events, Rhode Island's law does not.

For its part, the ACLU scoffed at the uproar, calling the change "old news" and defending its legal position in a statement laced with a touch of snark. Here it is, in part:

"The controversy that has suddenly arisen in a political campaign over father-daughter dances in Cranston is old news -- the matter was amicably resolved with school officials over four months ago. And it was resolved for a simple reason: the school district recognized that in the 21st Century, public schools have no business fostering the notion that girls prefer to go to formal dances while boys prefer baseball games.

"This type of gender stereotyping only perpetuates outdated notions of 'girl' and 'boy' activities and is contrary to federal law.

"[Parent-teacher organizations] remain free to hold family dances and other events, but the time has long since passed for public school resources to encourage stereotyping from the days of Ozzie and Harriet. Not every girl today is interested in growing up to be Cinderella -- not even in Cranston. In fact, one of them might make a great major league baseball player someday.

"We commend the school district for its resolution of the matter, and are sorry to see some people turning it into a political football -- a game that they may think only boys should be interested in."

[SpiderKing]

Just another instance of "If I can't have it, then no one can!"

This situation is reminiscent of Germaine Greer stating that kissing your daughter goodnight is sexualizing children. Of course she knows this personally, being childless and all. Poor Germaine, she's Exhibit A in how spinsterdom affects a woman's mental health.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...gdc#t=198s

[Timoteo]

More feminist bullshit to drive a wedge between men and their daughters. It's a shame that mothers won't stand up and shout this shit down, but women that are divorced/separated from the fathers of their kids probably love this nonsense. So much for putting the welfare of your children first, huh?

[WanderingSoul]

Ridiculous. I guess they should cancel all parent/children functions since not all children have parents. What about the poor orphans?

[Excelsior]

(09-19-2012 09:54 AM)Parlay44 Wrote:  

"[Parent-teacher organizations] remain free to hold family dances and other events, but the time has long since passed for public school resources to encourage stereotyping from the days of Ozzie and Harriet. Not every girl today is interested in growing up to be Cinderella -- not even in Cranston. In fact, one of them might make a great major league baseball player someday.

[Cincinnatus]

Maybe if the woman had procreated with a decent man, and been a decent enough woman herself to keep a man around, she wouldn't have this fucking issue.

Such bullshit. The A.C.L.U. is being fucking ridiculous too.

[xsplat]

I'm glad I've been living on Mars in recent years.

I'm less offended at the stupid arguments the ACLU is giving for it's case than the notion that the government has any business regulating the forms of social gatherings.

I know public schools are a branch of government, but this socialist controlling of society from the top down through edicts is scary shit. Micoromanaging community standards is not a job for the government.

Control freaks. They love "diversity" when it favors their agenda, hate it when it is pro male.

[teh_skeeze]

(09-19-2012 09:54 AM)Parlay44 Wrote:  

"[Parent-teacher organizations] remain free to hold family dances and other events, but the time has long since passed for public school resources to encourage stereotyping from the days of Ozzie and Harriet. Not every girl today is interested in growing up to be Cinderella -- not even in Cranston. In fact, one of them might make a great major league baseball player someday.

I could have been a great major leaguer too, except for that fact that I couldn't hit a curveball. I imagine a girl having her first plate appearance going something like this.

[Timoteo]

Men and women, and the relationships between mothers and fathers with their daughters is different. The premise that men and women are, or should be treated equally in all aspects of life is fundamentally flawed. They rail on and on about deadbeat dads, or dads not taking an active enough role in the lives of their children, yet on the flipside they support THIS. Just because there aren't any mother/daughter dances, does that really mean that it's somehow unfair that they have these functions for fathers? Shit, why didn't some genius think up the idea of a mother/son dance to even things out? They wouldn't do that, because it's a better solution to punish men. Just because ONE single woman is unhappy, all other families must be punished.

[Parlay44]

(09-21-2012 01:44 PM)Timoteo Wrote:  

Men and women, and the relationships between mothers and fathers with their daughters is different. The premise that men and women are, or should be treated equally in all aspects of life is fundamentally flawed. They rail on and on about deadbeat dads, or dads not taking an active enough role in the lives of their children, yet on the flipside they support THIS. Just because there aren't any mother/daughter dances, does that really mean that it's somehow unfair that they have these functions for fathers? Shit, why didn't some genius think up the idea of a mother/son dance to even things out? They wouldn't do that, because it's a better solution to punish men. Just because ONE single woman is unhappy, all other families must be punished.

Why can't Uncle Bob just take her to the dance?