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- Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,soc.college
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!bgsuvax!jnomina
- From: jnomina@andy.bgsu.edu (A.P.K.)
- Subject: Discrimination
- Message-ID: <C04vuJ.6E5@andy.bgsu.edu>
- Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 17:13:30 GMT
- Lines: 80
-
-
- Hi. I'm in a bit of a predicament for a couple of reasons,
- and I'm not sure what my response to the situation should be,
- and besides, this might open up another thread of discussion (Oh
- NO!!!) <grin>
-
- I'm ex-military (for those who don't know me from Adam yet),
- and when I returned to the States and Civilian life, I was quite
- the Johnny Kleencut type. I wasn't before the military, having
- hair almost down to my waist (when wet) and listening to The
- Rolling Stones and bad-mouthing the country. Nice quote from
- An Officer and a Gentleman, huh? Anyway...
-
- When I returned to the States, I remained the Johnny Kleencut
- type and started college. Soon, however, I noticed a pattern.
- I was frequently asked if I had drugs, wanted to party, etc,
- although I considered myself to be the geeky type at that point.
- I didn't get it. So I started to make some observations. I
- want to shy away from generalizations, although what I'm about
- to say may well sound like such. DISCLAIMER: I know that as
- a generalization, this isn't true for _everyone_, however, it
- does seem to be a majority response. It seems as though the
- majority of heavy partiers around here are the Johnny Kleencut
- types, if we're to go on looks. They are the ones who can
- afford to be doing drugs while in college. They are the ones
- least likely to be viewed as dopers. They are the ones who can
- blatently get away with it, and do. This was not for me...
-
- Being a poor, starving college student with a mild past
- of partying myself, and wanting nothing to do with that
- life-style anymore, I decided to let my hair grow again. When
- viewed as being too poor to afford drugs, the questions stopped
- rolling in my way nearly so much, thusly I'm able to avoid that
- part of my past which I may still find to be a temptation from
- time to time. (And NO, I never did anything heavy in my
- youth, but even smoking a little grass can be a temptation
- during severely stressful times.) Now I have longer hair
- again, though no where nearly as long as it used to be.
-
- Jump to today... I'm burnt out on school, having attended
- three years now with absolutely no breaks (not really even between
- semesters, having jobs and such.) I have to take some time off
- but I have to get a job if I'm to survive while "taking a break."
- Some "break," huh? Ah well. So next week I have a job interview
- lined up, and everyone keeps telling me that I simply HAVE to
- get my haircut before I go in for an interview. I don't have
- any desire/intention of doing this, for two reasons. One, I
- have no desire to conform to the closet-druggie standard of
- being a Johnny Kleencut look-a-like (which is a blatent farce
- which I find disgusting.) Not only that, but I view the
- societal standard of men having to be clean cut to be sexual
- discrimination against men. No, I've no intention of wanting
- to wear makeup and earings and skirts next! I keep myself
- shaved and my hair clean and combed and I'm no dirtbag or
- anything. But forcing men to conform to the standard of having
- hair kept exceptionally short, and then perhaps not being
- hired on the grounds of being a "longhaired maggot infested
- freak of nature" (to quote Rush) is a form of sexual
- discrimination, is it not? Not only that, but it's too
- reminiscent of the way Hillary Clinton conformed to the standards
- of being a "preppy-type" just in order to further her husband's
- cause of running for president. It would almost sicken me
- to lower myself to such a standard just to get a much needed
- job.
-
- Hopefully, my predicament is fairly clear at this point.
- Is it considered sexual discrimination not to be hired on the
- grounds of having longer hair than is deemed appropriate? Am
- I correct in asserting myself in such a manner, or should I
- conform to the standards of this society? Couldn't it be
- considered a form of stereotyping that warrents such behavior
- against me on the mere grounds of length of hair? I mean,
- I'd pass any drug test, I've nothing to hide. I only grew my
- hair long again to avoid the temptation which just 15 years
- ago came from the opposite direction of HAVING longer hair.
- Well, any comments or such are obviously being solicited, so
- would be most welcome.
-
- Jim
-
-