Monday, December 10, 2007

Can You Judge A Homosexual By His Cover?

I was doing my shopping online (it's the only way to beat the crowds) and found myself on a site that at first I thought was Amazon.com:
But I was horrified to find out that I was actually on MassResistance/Article 8's website. The picture of those books had me fooled for a second. Of course I had to read the little blurb that went along with it:

Queering Elementary Education...

A mother was in a school guidance councilor's office in Acton (Now who could that be?) and snapped this photo. A major propaganda manual with the most insidious techniques for "queering" children. This is what the Parkers are battling against.

After I picked myself off floor from laughing so hard I looked at the books again, here's the list:
  • Webster's New Pocket Dictionary
  • Educating and Nurturing the Bipolar by Janice Papolon
  • Schoolgirls by Peggy Orenstein
  • Queering Elementary Education
  • Odd Girl Out
  • Odd Girl Speaks Out
  • Queen Bees & Wannabe's
  • Reviving Ophelia

Of course, I have never heard of ANY of these books (so much for me being the HUGE homosexual activist) however it did get to me asking a number of questions:

  • Would a guidance councilor have allowed a parent to just pull out their camera and photograph their desk?
  • Is this picture actually even real?
  • Do I need a new dictionary?

Be that as it may, this picture looks like a setup. I'm guessing that a person, not a guidance counselor, owns these books and has them because of an issue they think they have with their child. And, if the picture is real, well, I'm glad that the public school administration is using relevant texts to handle some situations and they're not relying verbatim on the Bible.

One more note, if the picture is real, what kind of parent would bring a camera to school for any other reason other than a school play?

5 comments:

mchristian said...

As a professional gay pornographer I find this offensive on many levels -- the least of which being the absence of my own damned titles! I think some book shipping is very much deserved!

Fiddler said...

The last four have to do with the particular difficulties many girls have in navigating adolescence, especially as related to the loss of self-esteem; I know those by sight.

Looks like "Schoolgirls" is on the same topic.

And clearly the concept of "queering" meaning anything other than MAKING KIDS GAY is lost on these folks.

But I think someone just put all the pink books in a pile and took a photo.

Fiddler said...

Oh, they're reaching...Ms. Amy's latest post is about polyamory.

While a number of the poly folks I know identify as bi, there's plenty who ID as straight, too.

I know one couple who's in an opposite-sex marriage, but they're still actively polyamorous, and it seems to be working just fine for them. I like to bring them up when certain people are squawking about how the gays are undermining marriage.

Anyway, I have to wonder again, what business is it of hers or anyone's who someone else is sleeping with? I wish people would understand that, just because you don't KNOW your Dunkin' Donuts server is a queer poly pagan doesn't mean she isn't, and no, you don't actually have any right to know that about her.

bostonph said...

The Amazon description is
Queering Elementary Education is not about teaching kids to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or straight. It's not part of a sinister stratagem in the "gay agenda." Instead, these provocative and thoughtful essays advocate the creation of classrooms that challenge categorical thinking, promote interpersonal intelligence, and foster critical consciousness. Queer elementary classrooms are those where parents and educators care enough about their children to trust the human capacity for understanding and their educative abilities to foster insight into the human condition. Those who teach queerly refuse to participate in the great sexual sorting machine called schooling where diminutive GI Joes and Barbies become star quarterbacks and prom queens, while the Linuses and Tinky Winkies become wallflowers or human doormats. Queeering education means bracketing our simplest classroom activities in which we routinely equate sexual identities with sexual acts, privilege the heterosexual condition, and presume sexual destinies. Queer teachers are those who develop curriculum and pedagogy that afford every child dignity rooted in self-worth and esteem for others. In short, queering education happens when we look at schooling upside down and view childhood from the inside out. This groundbreaking volume demands we explore taken-for-granted assumptions about diversity, identities, childhood, and prejudice.

I'm reminded of the case in Forest Lake, MN where a similarly oriented parents group browbeat the school into letting them meet there, then snatched teacher's personal books from their desks.

CrackerLilo said...

So, mostly books about bullying and low self esteem among females. No wonder Amy Contrada sees a problem with that stack.