Teen banned from prom for tasteful, Vera Wang-inspired Confederate flag dress
By Jeremy GlassApril 26th, 2012, 12:45 pmComments (39)
Remember senior prom? Limousines, expensive corsages, champagne, that stolen kiss from the girl you've loved since freshman year. Just kidding, no one does any of that stuff except in TV shows. Though, speaking of terrible ideas, a girl from Gibson County High School in Tennessee just got banned from prom for wearing a Confederate flag dress.
The high-school senior in question, Texanna Edwards (I made a conscious decision to not make fun of her name, because some things are just too easy) said that she was inspired to wear the dress because of the amount of Confederate flag garb Gibson County students wear on a daily basis.
It wasn't done to offend anybody... it was just done for the sole fact that I wanted a rebel flag dress because I thought it was cool.
And, really, what's un-cool about wearing the Confederate flag? Oh, right: slavery. And the Civil War? And that law that counted black people as three-fifths of a person? Those things. And, one more time, just for the Yankee-hating, "the South-will-rise-again" folk who are cracking their knuckles in anticipation of an angry comment battle, let me just say, slavery.
Texanna noted that she was immediately told to leave the prom, something that did not happen last year when she wore a camouflage dress. Of course, one pattern is a symbol of not being seen, and the other is a symbol for a large group of people that didn't want another large group of people to be seen as people, period.
Look, Tex, you have your whole life ahead of you. There will be plenty of soirees to attend and plenty of flag-dresses to be worn. Have you seen the Nepalese flag? Very slimming.
Commentarium (39 Comments)
"It wasn't done to offend anybody... it was just done for the sole fact that I wanted a rebel flag dress because I thought it was cool." She's either naive or disingenuous or both.
Didn't the Confederacy declare war on the United States? Wouldn't a Confederate sympathizer be a traitor?
Yes, but pardons were offered to anyone who agreed to swear allegiance to the United States after the war. Pretty much everyone did so (including Robert E. Lee). The big exception was Jefferson Davis, who was held in prison without trial for years (IIRC), but finally let out even though he would not take the pardon.
Wearing a dress from a long gone enemy of the US is hardly grounds for treason. Robert's point is equally vacuous; those pardoned nearly 150 years ago don't really factor into the debate, do they?
Kel, do you feel the same way about those who expressed support for North Viet Nam, Iraq or Iran? My backpack was made in Viet Nam. Shall I turn myself into the authorities?
I think that Pew Research poll nailed the sorry state of liberal America.
I understood the question to be about actual Confederates during and after the Civil War. Of course wearing a Confenderate flag dress today is not "treason." It's stupid and racist, but it's not illegal. Moreover, aiding any nation is not treasonable today because we are not at war with any nation. If you spy for Iran, you may be guilty of espionage, but not of treason, which is defined in the constitution as levying war against the United States or giving aid and comfort (i.e., providing assistance in levying war) to an enemy (i.e., a group at war with the U.S.). It's significant that not even John Walker Lindh was charged with treason, and he was found on a battlefield carrying arms against U.S. military personnel. "Treason" is effectively a dead letter as an actual federal crime.
So you're saying an essential element of treason is aiding a country with which we're at war? Nope, not the case as you suggest shortly thereafter. Also, "adhering" to an enemy might occur during a state or war but it simply is not a requirement.
Article III, section 3 of the Constitution: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." To be a traitor, you must either make war against the United States or "adhere" to its enemies, i.e., states that are at war with the United States. Adam Gadahn is the only American who has been indicted for treason in decades.
"Only in America!" - Haha... Ridiculous! How ridiculous! Now thousands know that dress... Was this the intention of that school?!
Rednecks...what can you expect...?
for the record, the three-fifths thing was a northern idea.
It was a compromise with Southern slaveholding states, so your point is slightly disingenuous.
You need to do some research before you comment, Er. The question involved representation in the House; the North did not want slaves counted at all while the South wanted a full accounting. 3/5 was a compromise but not in the way you suggest. Far from being "slight disingenuous," rick was completely on target. Nice attempt to use a big word though.
Once again, the facts of history are misconstrued for a different agenda... The 3/5 compromise was proposed by a Northern Senator... yes the North did not want slaves counted at all because they felt that would give an advantage to the Southern states in the congress at the time thereby keeping Slavery alive... the 3/5 compromise was proposed by Roger Sherman a Connecticut Senator... and James Wilson, who at the time was in Philadelphia.
Not miscontrued although misinterpreted, perhaps. Er was trying to be pedantic and missed the mark. So he not only looks close-minded, intellectually inconsistent and more than a bit dense.
I'm just curious - is using the phrase 'intellectually inconsistent' over and over again considered proof of intellectual consistency?
True Patriot, I think it must be, at least to Greg and all his many aliases. Using aliases to make the same point in the exact same way must also be a symptom of intellectual consistency. Or of course there's this alternative: an example of a sad, bitter person without much life that comes here to troll. I think I'll go with that one.
"tasteful" and "Confederate flag" do not belong in the same sentence.
tongue in cheek, obviously
This dress is AMERICAN and I'd give it to my daughter for her 13th birthday.
"adjective describing entire country = good" huh? Bad fast food is American. The Khmer Rouge flag was Cambodian. Jeffrey Dahmer was American. Would you give your daughter a dress with him on it?
SHEESH
Duh, you didn't really mean that seriously, did you? That Dragon might find the dress acceptable because it's American certainly doesn't imply that everything American would be acceptable, does it?
Intellectual inconsistency at its finest. Pew Research, I salute you for demonstrating that which has been in evidence for years.
It just means that just saying something is "American" isn't a justification (and that's his/her only stated justification) for wearing it around. A lot of bad things are American. A lot of good things are American. But "a flag representing a splinter nation's attempt to preserve slavery as a way of life" is not a good thing to wear, American or not. C'mon.
...the Japanese enslaved many in northern China in the 30s and 40s. By your logic, anything other than outright condemnation of Japan is support for slavery, correct?
No again! But wearing a dress featuring the Japanese war flag (which is still taboo in Japan--because a lot of Japanese people are quite rightly ashamed of the shameful things Japan did during the war) would be a shitty thing to do. And saying it was okay for you to do it because "it's Japanese" wouldn't make it any better.
The Confederacy, the Confederate flag and the civil war were not only about slavery. Read some history books, why don't ya.
Not saying that wearing this dress was in good taste at all, but assuming that all of those who fly, wear or otherwise display the Confederate flag are racist or pro-slavery is just ludicrous.
But then again, liberals in general, and Hooksexup readers/writers in particular, can't discuss the weather or the flavor of skim milk without inserting a racist insinuation somehow, so I guess this shouldn't surprise me.
Skim milk is racist against Chinese people--THAT is a fact.
the Nazi's weren't only about persecuting Jews...but that wouldn't be a good defence for wearing a dress based on a Nazi flag.
Hahaha... a 'racist insinuation'? Man, you do not have to 'insinuate' shit about the Confederate flag, it was a symbol of a war that people fought and died for to preserve the 'Southern way of life' -- SLAVERY -- and 'state's rights' -- TO OWN SLAVES.
But I am just beating a dead horse because 'and' was spot fucking on.
'very slimming' was a low blow
This. Call her out on obviously being naive and dumb enough to wear the dress, but a fat joke? C'mon. We're not in high school.
Body shaming is only bad in Hooksexup-land when it's used against people with whom Hooksexup identifies. When the object is young woman from the south, it's fair game.
BUT if her dress had Che Grevera on it (the murderer who tried to have bombs planted in Grand Central station in NY and called blacks lazy drunks) She would be super hip!
Duh. Che is now kitsch. It's going take a good two or three generations of hipsters, from the south no less, to turn the Confederate flag into kitsch.
It is perhaps among the most ambitious endeavor of hipsters, that with trying to bring back pogs.
Go do some research, it is "a" confederate flag.
In fact it is The Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia.
So it is not a flag representing the entire Confederacy, it's the flag of a particular military unit.
Not quite the same thing.
Don't be introducing facts into the argument, blah. There are liberals here who like to act open-minded, intellectually consistent and intelligent while the Pew Research poll (and their arguments) show they are none of the above.
Stupid or not, no one is questioning her inspiration for wearing the dress: "she was inspired to wear the dress because of the amount of Confederate flag garb Gibson County students wear on a daily basis." Are students allowed to attend school wearing clothing depicting the flag? If so, it would be hypocritical of school officials to make her leave the prom for wearing the flag.
Of course, bad taste is a more acceptable reason for making her leave the soiree.
This is also true. And I hope she was given the opportunity to change and return, if she so pleased. It is always unfair to penalize people for rules that they had no means of knowing, even if those rules are 'don't implicitly defend slavery at the prom.'
On the other hand, she could act as if she lives in a country that has a First Amendment that allows her to express herself in virtually any way she chooses.
That if she wanted to wear and America flag (or burn it), she would be saluted as a icon of free speech.
Now you say something