Our queen
Another stanza of the epic Men Are Better at Everything:
Missouri High School Crowns Male Student as “Homecoming Queen”
It’s tempting to say “Let them have that one” because wtf is a “homecoming queen” anyway? There is no homecoming king, nor are there beauty pageants for men in general, so why does this creaky antiquated “all women can do is stand around and look pretty” brand of competition keep hanging around?
But, it does keep hanging around, so it is just one more insulting theft for men to insert themselves into such contests.
A high school in Kansas City, Missouri, is facing mockery after crowning a trans-identified male student as “Homecoming Queen” this past weekend. After the news hit social media, Oak Park High School quickly turned [off] the ability for the public to comment on their X post congratulating High School senior Tristan Young.
The girls he cheated are of course expected to smile and hug him and pretend they’re ecstatic.
No homecoming king? Really? Our high school did; I always assumed it was the norm. (There I go, typical entitled Westerner, assuming their own life is what is normal!)
Well, at least girl don’t have to worry about the downsides of being a horseface anymore.
I’m not American so it’s not a tradition I really know about, but IS the homecoming queen supposed to be the most beautiful? Rather than just generally the most popular and best-loved?
@Piglet #3
It was definitely a popularity contest when I was in school about a hundred years ago, but of course, the traditionally pretty girls were always more popular, so I’d say at least back then it was both.
Well, he has great hair, and going by the last photo shoulders and biceps any bloke would be proud to have.
I’m an American but I know nothing about homecoming queens apart from what I see in stories like this. I went to a tiny little girls’ school and it was Not A Thing.
I have to say I think my school was right not to make it a thing. Why on earth have such contests? Other than to make everyone else feel inadequate?
Okay, so, here’s the short version of Homecoming For the Uninterested, from someone who attended a fairly large high school, but didn’t give a rat’s ass about the social scene outside my own nerdy group:
Originally, it was a college event, centered around one of the early football games, and was meant to inspire students with school spirit, and alumni to come back home (hence the name) and, incidentally, be inclined to donate to their alma mater. The game is almost always soft-rigged, where the visiting team is the weakest in their division, or for weaker teams, from a lower division school. Losing Homecoming is generally seen as the sort of thing that gets the administration looking for a new coach. A good showing at Homecoming, OTOH, often gets the alumni to open their wallets and make fairly big contributions.
Over time, various customs grew into traditions. One of these was the “Homecoming Court”, led by the King (yes, most schools have a King, too, though they’re usually not as big a deal) and Queen, who basically serve as Masters of Ceremonies for a variety of events. They’re typically supported in this by a Court consisting of various other royal titles, a Prince and Princess being quite common. Since a lot of this is student-run and organized, these are generally ‘elected’ positions, which yes, means they’re a big popularity contest.
And in America, we have this thing where teenagers want to grow up fast. So the highschoolers started emulating the college scene. Of course, it’s relatively rare for homecoming to be so focused on the alumni, fairly few of whom will bother to attend past their twenties, at most. But the Court appeals to a lot of folks desire for pomp and circumstance, so they also get to elect a King and Queen (I think the ‘lower court’ positions that you find on college campuses are often ignored entirely–if you ain’t the top dogs, you’re an also-ran).
Overall? Really, I think this particular trans-invasion is probably something that can be let go without much comment, mostly for the reasons Ophelia laid out in the originating post. If nothing else, it shows up just how silly and absurd the high school social scene can be.
Sadly I am someone who can’t let ANYTHING go without much comment. It’s my idenniny.
All this, without pretending that he’s actually female?
“it shows up just how silly and absurd the high school social scene can be.”
An interesting essay on *why* it is silly and absurd.
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
My high school (catholic, around 1000 students) did the homecoming thing. I forget if one or both king and queen were elected. We also had a homecoming parade and a homecoming dance. Parade on Friday, game on Saturday, dance on Saturday night, as I recall. And there was the senior (class) prank. The standard prank was toilet papering the trees and sign on the front lawn of the school, and house for sale signs on the front lawn.