Tasteless Formalwear Is Not Hate Speech

One potential downside of have the name Confederate Yankee for your blog is that you feel obligated to comment when someone does something stupid with the Confederate Navy Jack, the flag now most associated with the Confederacy becuase of the War of Northern Aggression.

And so people have asked me to comment on the young woman in Lexington, Kentucky who was kicked out of her senior prom for wearing a dress she designed that was patterned after the more popular cousin of the Stars and Bars.

Well, what exactly do you expect me to say?

It is a sequined dress folks, and I have a hard time associating formalwear with hate speech, even if her taste is questionable. Quite frankly I think the dress itself is ugly, but she has every right to sue on First Amendment grounds for being denied the right to be mocked and ridiculed by her classmates for her horrible fashion sense. Strapless with sequins? My date knew better in the late '80s.

I'm much more offended that citizens of a half-breed state like Kentucky think they're legitimately Southern, though I'll give them the benefit of the doubt based upon some of their cultural contributions.

Let's just hope that some of the scholarships that she claims she lost weren't for fashion.