I, for one, still have numerous questions about the story of the 12-year-old girl sent home from her school’s “Culture Celebration Day”, after turning up in a dress emblazoned with the Union flag. Not least because, according to the girl’s indignant father, she was told that “she gets to celebrate being British every day”.
Really? Does that mean she’s allowed to wear the Union flag dress to school every other day of the academic year? And if so, does the same apply to all the girls at the school – and, for that matter, all the boys? On a typical morning, do the school’s pupils march through the gates in Union flag dresses, singing Rule, Britannia! and clutching a pork pie for teacher? I think we should be told.
For me, however, the real mystery is this: If this girl wasn’t supposed to wear an outfit celebrating her own country’s culture, what should she have worn instead?
After all, the event was supposed to foster “inclusion”. Refusing to let her join in the dressing up, therefore, would have constituted “exclusion”. And that wouldn’t have been fair, would it?
But in that case, what else could she have worn? An outfit celebrating some other country’s culture? Say, a sari? A grass skirt? A burqa?
I hardly think so. Because that would have constituted “cultural appropriation”. Which, as we have all been required to learn in recent years, is colonialist, offensive and racist. As a result, attending a fancy dress party in, say, a feathered head-dress or a sombrero, is now a serious no-no.
Then again, perhaps cultural appropriation is no longer deemed a heinous crime against fashionable thought. Not now that so many purveyors of such thinking proudly wear keffiyehs, to demonstrate their heartfelt support for Palestinians. Or, alternatively, their burning hatred for the people they usually remember to call “Zionists”.
On the subject of which, allow me to offer parents a small piece of advice. If your own daughter’s school holds a “Culture Celebration Day”, for pity’s sake don’t put her in a dress emblazoned with the Israeli flag. Never mind sending her home. The teachers will probably try sending her to the Hague.
As for the girl in the Union flag dress, her school has apologised to her and her family. We’ll just have to hope that others in education – and elsewhere – learn from the furious public outcry. We all know that many self-professed progressives regard British patriotism with contempt. What we don’t know is: what makes them think their contempt is shared by anyone other than our country’s foes?
I, for one, still have numerous questions about the story of the 12-year-old girl sent home from her school’s “Culture Celebration Day”, after turning up in a dress emblazoned with the Union flag. Not least because, according to the girl’s indignant father, she was told that “she gets to celebrate being British every day”.
Really? Does that mean she’s allowed to wear the Union flag dress to school every other day of the academic year? And if so, does the same apply to all the girls at the school – and, for that matter, all the boys? On a typical morning, do the school’s pupils march through the gates in Union flag dresses, singing Rule, Britannia! and clutching a pork pie for teacher? I think we should be told.
For me, however, the real mystery is this: If this girl wasn’t supposed to wear an outfit celebrating her own country’s culture, what should she have worn instead?
After all, the event was supposed to foster “inclusion”. Refusing to let her join in the dressing up, therefore, would have constituted “exclusion”. And that wouldn’t have been fair, would it?
But in that case, what else could she have worn? An outfit celebrating some other country’s culture? Say, a sari? A grass skirt? A burqa?
I hardly think so. Because that would have constituted “cultural appropriation”. Which, as we have all been required to learn in recent years, is colonialist, offensive and racist. As a result, attending a fancy dress party in, say, a feathered head-dress or a sombrero, is now a serious no-no.
Then again, perhaps cultural appropriation is no longer deemed a heinous crime against fashionable thought. Not now that so many purveyors of such thinking proudly wear keffiyehs, to demonstrate their heartfelt support for Palestinians. Or, alternatively, their burning hatred for the people they usually remember to call “Zionists”.
On the subject of which, allow me to offer parents a small piece of advice. If your own daughter’s school holds a “Culture Celebration Day”, for pity’s sake don’t put her in a dress emblazoned with the Israeli flag. Never mind sending her home. The teachers will probably try sending her to the Hague.
As for the girl in the Union flag dress, her school has apologised to her and her family. We’ll just have to hope that others in education – and elsewhere – learn from the furious public outcry. We all know that many self-professed progressives regard British patriotism with contempt. What we don’t know is: what makes them think their contempt is shared by anyone other than our country’s foes?