Ok, my input is a mixture of what I believe the song has meaning of and what it evokes in my own personal memory and my own interpretation.
Personally, I went to an all boys Catholic high school in the mid-late nineteen nineties. And the song has such a resonance with my experience of being bullied there. Ironically enough, as I'm sure many of you might find it just a mere coincidence, my high school was called Saint Joseph. I was teased for being gay. The school was full of and remains to be extremely homophobic.
The objectification of divergent forms of sexuality had always been looked at as taboo, strange, frowned upon.
During my junior year, one of the seniors had decided to revolt against the reeking of homophobic rhetoric at the school: and now I retrospectively look at what he did as a rather admirable thing. He showed up to Saint Joe's 2001 Senior Prom in full drag "made up like a woman" and with a male date: just to make a counter-statement. That the school, the following year had to make strict regulations in spite of the incident.
The school made it mandatory that the (then all male) senior prom attendees bring a date of the opposite sex and in "proper" attire.
So this song has an intensely meaningful depth for me, since I'm gay and wasn't harbored a safe space to come out in the late 1990's Chicago suburbia.
I don't mean to defame the school, since they have since redeemed themselves by turning the school co-ed and rumor has it that they now have a GSA (Gay Straight Alliance)....
who cares, ultimately high school in America is a big joke, and i only remember it as a blur. :)
Oh, suburbia. I live in it, and it's true. There is this homophobic nature and air around me. Which is why I go to a school in the actual city with a more carefree atmosphere, but even there there are people who use gay as an insult. It is the biggest joke, and my generation is the punchline.
Oh, suburbia. I live in it, and it's true. There is this homophobic nature and air around me. Which is why I go to a school in the actual city with a more carefree atmosphere, but even there there are people who use gay as an insult. It is the biggest joke, and my generation is the punchline.
Ok, my input is a mixture of what I believe the song has meaning of and what it evokes in my own personal memory and my own interpretation.
Personally, I went to an all boys Catholic high school in the mid-late nineteen nineties. And the song has such a resonance with my experience of being bullied there. Ironically enough, as I'm sure many of you might find it just a mere coincidence, my high school was called Saint Joseph. I was teased for being gay. The school was full of and remains to be extremely homophobic.
The objectification of divergent forms of sexuality had always been looked at as taboo, strange, frowned upon.
During my junior year, one of the seniors had decided to revolt against the reeking of homophobic rhetoric at the school: and now I retrospectively look at what he did as a rather admirable thing. He showed up to Saint Joe's 2001 Senior Prom in full drag "made up like a woman" and with a male date: just to make a counter-statement. That the school, the following year had to make strict regulations in spite of the incident.
The school made it mandatory that the (then all male) senior prom attendees bring a date of the opposite sex and in "proper" attire.
So this song has an intensely meaningful depth for me, since I'm gay and wasn't harbored a safe space to come out in the late 1990's Chicago suburbia.
I don't mean to defame the school, since they have since redeemed themselves by turning the school co-ed and rumor has it that they now have a GSA (Gay Straight Alliance)....
who cares, ultimately high school in America is a big joke, and i only remember it as a blur. :)
Oh, suburbia. I live in it, and it's true. There is this homophobic nature and air around me. Which is why I go to a school in the actual city with a more carefree atmosphere, but even there there are people who use gay as an insult. It is the biggest joke, and my generation is the punchline.
Oh, suburbia. I live in it, and it's true. There is this homophobic nature and air around me. Which is why I go to a school in the actual city with a more carefree atmosphere, but even there there are people who use gay as an insult. It is the biggest joke, and my generation is the punchline.