I see where a high school principal in Guelph has jeopardized his career by using the word "skanky" in an address to students. Seems that with the advent of the warm weather, a certain percentage of his students have been dressing for the beach instead of for the classroom, hence the "dress scholarly, not skanky" admonishment from the principal.
Well!
Needless to say, the Committees to Eliminate Vice in Thought and Language are all over the poor guy.
"Skanky?" Oh my... all of a sudden we're into slut-shaming and oppression of women by the patriarchy and all kinds of stuff that is fuel for the flames of imaginary radical feminism...
Make no mistake; the think tank here at Falling Downs is 100% aboard for letting women decide how women want to dress.
That's not the point here.
Girls in high school are just figuring their stuff out, as are the guys. Unfortunately, a lot of the girls, having been saturated with pop culture representations of what it means to be female in this culture, pick up their cues from all the wrong sources.
Advertising.
Music videos.
After fourteen or fifteen years of being bombarded with the same message, ie the highest calling for a woman is to be attractive to men, it's no wonder that many young women find affirmation in the attention they get from males.
Want more affirmation? Get more attention.
That's why some teenage girls walk down the halls of their high schools in beach attire. They get lots of affirmation for wearing skimpy tops and shorts so short they're gonna get sun-burn on their ass-cheeks.
And that, if I understand the situation, is what Principal Scot Bishop down there at Centennial CVI was trying to address.
So, Mr. Bishop meant well when he pleaded with his students to "dress scholarly, not skanky."
You can bet the kids knew what he meant.
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