Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Illiteracy Is More Disgusting than "All the Way Jay"

Last year, there was a school here in California that held a fundraiser at a local Hooters restaurant. The restaurant donated a percentage of sales from that night to the school. Parents and the community were outraged that a school would resort to such a low class way to raise money.  And Hooters is so...so...inappropriate for kids.  Well, kids were not the target audience for the fundraiser.  Adults were.  More specifically, adults who like to look at nice tits.  I would have gone but I was too busy with something not nearly as much fun.

Well, it has happened again, Sort of.  Clavering Primary School in the U.K. threw a fundraiser for the school that included some pretty hot male strippers.  To be accurate, it was The Friends of Clavering that hosted the fundraiser. Over 100 women showed up to support the school.  No children were allowed.

My first thought when I heard about this was, "Woohoo! Where's the number of the PTA president for my kid's school? This idea beats the jog-a-thon (for the fit families) or the pancake breakfast (for the fat ones) any day!"

Then I started reading the reports of all of the outraged parents and community members. There was actually a parent who said she was going to withdraw her child from the school because she didn't want her sweet baby "using computers funded by such a disgusting event."

The company that provided the hard-bodied, hard-working strippers is a reasonably reputable company that participates in fundraisers for schools and non-profits all the time.  Apparently, others who are buying computers for schools, funding cancer research, or helping the homeless don't mind mixing a hot stripping fireman with their fundraising.

This reminds me of the movie Gone with the Wind (I love that movie, by the way). There is a scene in which Belle Watling, a well-known prostitute and brothel madam, makes a donation to help Melanie Hamilton's charity to support the South's cause in the Civil War. But Belle doesn't think she's worthy and doesn't want Melanie to tell anyone about the donation because she's sure that all those good and respectable folks won't want money from anyone like her.  Of course, Melanie accepts her donation gratefully and with a big heaping of class and respect.

Melanie knew what the other folks didn't know, and what the mom pulling her kid out of school because of the computers funded with (whispering) stripper money clearly doesn't know - that sometimes the cause should be the focus.

How many of those folks complaining about the morality of the fundraiser were pulling out their checkbooks to support the school so the stripper fundraiser wouldn't be necessary?  Probably none, or very few at best.  Why?  Because people seem to have a problem putting money where their morals are these days. It's easy to complain from the holier-than-thou cheap seats.  It's hard to be part of the solution.

One of the strippers calls himself "All the Way Jay." That name just makes me smile. If I had been there, I would have been right in front with a fist full of bills for Jay and my checkbook open to share the love with the school.

There is nothing disgusting about male strippers and All the Way Jay. However, there is absolutely something wrong with schools that are not funded well enough to provide basic supplies for learning in the 21st Century.

That is really disgusting.




5 comments:

Victoria said...

Oh Kat, one more reason to love you - GWTW is also my favorite movie!

Speaking as a former PTO president, I can tell you that you can't please everyone. Poker runs were suggested for a fundraiser, but quickly voted down by those who were more concerned about the image it projected for the school.

Um, big picture, the district is in financial trouble and the superintendent is a coke fiend.

But they'll yell and scream about the kids having stuff like field trips or parties...but won't help out.

That's probably what those folks who held that fundraiser at Hooters and the school that had those strippers thought too.

It's ignorance....

The Missus
a.k.a. Victoria

Cara Janes said...

As usual, you nailed it! You should send this in as a Letter to the Editor. Excellent post!

Ryan Beaumont said...

Dear Kat,

I wish I could say "Frankly my dear I don' give a damn," but that won't fit.

So I'll just say "fiddle dee dee" and "tomorrow is another day."

Kat just say it, deep down you wish you could move down here to the land of grits and biscuits and live with me at Tara!

Mr. Dryden said...

Preach it sista'!

Love you Kat, I feel the same way when I read about the Hooters thing. People are just so incredibly uptight, we as a culture need to just stop paying attention to the uptight ones.

So the mom wants to pull her kids out of the school? Go for it. It's your choice.

Seriously. :)

Anonymous said...

I feel bad for the guy married to the Mom who wants to pull her kid from the school. And I agree with Mr. Dryden, it's too bad as a society we don't just say "Ok fine, remove your kid" but instead these people get media attention or attention from elsewhere giving them the positive feedback they need to keep acting uptight and prudish.