by Katrya Ly and Kristie Hoang, Editors-in-Chief
On Tuesday, an upset student removed a Bell Week poster reading “Edison girls don’t shave,” and has since drawn mixed attention from the student body.
Students were drawn to the issue when a 20 second video was posted on Twitter of student Isabelle Abbott (‘18) tearing down the poster. In the video she said, “This is not allowed. Girls shouldn’t have to shave themselves. Girls shouldn’t have to shave.”
Since the video has been posted, it has had over 200 retweets and over 400 favorites on Twitter. The video itself was not posted by Abbott, but by a friend.
@Isabellewabbott @feministculture pic.twitter.com/5GzynBqzIR
— care (@carolinedevitaa) October 27, 2015
“I had asked [ASB] to take [the poster] down first and one of the people said that they couldn’t because they couldn’t replace it,” said Abbott. “So I decided to rip it myself the next day, because I don’t think anyone should have to see that.”
Abbott did not directly talk to an Associated Student Body [ASB] member. Instead, she had two friends talk to an ASB member about it.
According to ASB Parliamentarian Lindsay Brown (’16), offensive posters are taken down and replaced if a student notifies supervision, the principal or an ASB member. In addition, Brown explained that posters go through an approval process by the Parliamentarian and Publicity committee to avoid creating offensive posters.
“We don’t intend for anything to be offensive. [The poster idea has] been okay with the Fountain Valley kids for many years,” said Brown. “I wish [Abbott] took more action in letting ASB know that the poster was offensive…we just want to please the kids.”
Students have responded both negatively and positively to Abbott’s actions.
“I don’t think that it’s allowed to just ruin [ASB/Senate’s] hard work,” said Vivian Le (‘18). “If she had a problem she should have voiced her complaint with ASB themselves; probably have more of an impact than just shouting that as people pass by.”
Others feel differently. They believe that by ripping down the poster, Abbott brought attention to other allegedly offensive posters.
“I honestly think that she did the right thing. She went to ASB and they didn’t do anything about it,” said Kristin Vo (‘18). “She took a stand when nobody did. I 100 percent support her.”
According to Senate member Vivian Dang (‘18), in response to Abbott, other students began removing posters.
“Because of [Abbott] other students started tearing down other posters and they accidentally damaged everybody else’s hard work,” said Dang. “We don’t actually support the message, and posters are just meant to be a fun way to show FV spirit, but I guess some people take it too seriously.”
As of now, Abbott has not received any consequences for her actions. She does note that ASB members have apologized to her for the poster.
“I knew that it meant that someone wasn’t happy with our work and they felt so bad that they took it upon themselves to take it down,” said Brown. “We [make/hang posters] this because we love the school and it’s upsetting that someone did this….it was a series of unfortunate events.”
*Baron News invites anyone who feels strongly about this topic to write an opinion piece of 200 or less words. Submissions will be looked over and possibly published. You can email your submissions to: fvhsbaronbanner@gmail.com
Perhaps she could’ve just removed the poster in a less violent manner, so she doesn’t ruin the hard work of a senate member, but still shows her concern. Not to mention, she also ruined another poster in the removal of the controversial poster. I understand how some individuals could take offense to that poster, but there are better ways to handle these things. If I were offended by a poster, I would just ignore it. The poster is just a joke; some posters are used to insult Edison anyways, so if “girls” are included, it becomes incredibly wrong? Students from Edison don’t come onto our campus to rip off our poster because we insulted them.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
A very important quote to reconsider. Isabelle had previously asked ASB members to remove the poster, but they refused. I’m also pretty sure that a poster with the word “Barons” didn’t take a whole lot of effort to make. A joke’s a joke, but you don’t go around calling people racially offensive terms while claiming its a “joke” and that they should chill. To each their own, but I believe that Isabelle was completely justified in tearing down the poster. Good job, Isabelle! ^o^
From Garden Grove.
First off, this is ridiculing people’s personal decisions. Why would you make fun of someone for doing or not doing something (shaving or not shaving)?
Second, shaving goes against some people’s cultural and familial beliefs. Some people’s parents don’t want them to shave.
Third, Isabelle Abbott’s point isn’t that shaving is wrong. It’s that insulting such a broad range of people for something that really has nothing to do with you, is inherently wrong. Sure, it’s a “joke”, but it is something that will offend people. A lot of people and their beliefs. Plus it’s a horrible “joke”. You have a terrible sense of humor, even your mom doesn’t think you’re funny.
Fourth, this poster is ugly, and probably took ASB about five minutes of “hard work”.
It’s pretty sad to see that an ASB would condone this message, and that many “young adults” of this school cannot understand the fact that you should never make fun of anyone because of their personal decisions or cultural beliefs. It’s THEIR body and THEIR life, not yours.
this comment actually made me barf
She is if legal age, an adult. She destroyed property that was not hers. She did NOT go to ASB her ‘friends’ did. She didn’t use all the resources available to her but rather chose to become destructive, to get attention, I presume. Firstly, the reference was in jest, secondly, it’s considered good hygene and grooming, has been for decades. If she chooses not to shave that’s her … issue, and she should deal with it privately. There should definitely be consequences. Her consequences should be fitting of destruction of property. She needs to be used as an example that there is a right way and wrong way to handle things in life and destruction of property is the WRONG way. This world has gotten out of hand with this ‘I’m offended’ by everything culture that this PC agenda has created.
Actually buddy that little (’18) you saw, means she’s graduating with the class of 2018, so she’s 15 or 16. Nice try though. and if it’s such a hygienic necessity, why don’t men shave their legs? it’s an oppressive body shaming gender norm.
She could be older though, so not necessarily 15-16.
She might not be 15-16 just because she is graduating in 3 years.
She’s 15.
As an alumni from FV and having been on Senate for two years, I would’ve been absolutely livid to see all of ASB/Senates hard work just being intentionally destroyed. You don’t realize how many hours were put into making the posters and hanging them up just for this one week. The fact that she wasn’t the one to talk to ASB herself is ridiculous. She can’t say that she asked ASB to take it down, when it was her friends that did. Like it’s been previously stated, this idea of a poster has been used for many years and we’ve never had an issue. Also, all of these posters are a joke and for fun. All in all, the way she handled it was just immature and kind of seems like she was looking for attention.
Alright, so what if it was her friends who took down the poster (the friends who talked l ASB)?
Regardless, people complained and ASB didnt respond correctly
All I was pointing out is that she shouldn’t be claiming that SHE talked to Asb because she didn’t. If it was such a big issue to her, instead of ripping it down, she could’ve gone to an authority figure greater than ASB to report it as offensive. There are other actions than just to destroy the work that her peers did to make bell week happen at FV.
It’s great to see that Baron News and FVHS is very transparent and nice to see that school staff does not juts sweep the issue under the rug. Keep up the great work Barons!
Obviously it’s a joke, but I side with Isabelle. There are numerous of jokes that senate could’ve played out, but they decide to play out some of the worst. Such as, an Ebola one from last year and this one here. The topic, that the poster pertains to, has been a controversial subject on social media. With a new uproar for feminism, she seems to be outraged through the influence of the new feminist movement. However, she caused a domino effect of more people tearing down posters. This ruined the dedication people have put into the posters that have been ripped down after. Moreover, the student is only one out of many who go to the school, so it could be perceived that ASB didn’t see her concern as major. Saying that the poster couldn’t be ‘replaced’ is unfortunate because another poster could’ve been made. Just one poster wouldn’t have taken a lot of time out of the day despite the busy schedule around this week. Now, a few more have to be replaced or made up for (if they’re going to be replaced.) Nonetheless, it’s a shame that the event had to lead up to something so controversial.
Tolerance means “Although I disagree with what you have to say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.” She’s not very tolerant. In fact, she is against freedom of expression. It doesn’t matter how offensive something is, you don’t destroy property just because you disagree with it. And what if that poster was true? What if Edison girls really don’t shave? How does she know? Did she take a census? And if they don’t shave… that poster didn’t say it was a bad thing! It was a harmless poster, and she CHOSE to take offense to it. This girl is no heroine.
Other posters have those similar lines too. She doesn’t know how much time ASB/Senates spent to make the nice posters so she just teared down one and ruined the other posters next close to it! Just don’t look at if it bothers you!!!!
I take it she must not shave.
lol
lol
It’s nobody’s business and inappropriate to express a sexist opinion like that, expecially from a person who is involved in school politics, it is more of a judgment and an insult than anything else…I can understand a pep rally message or an announcement that benefits a school program…that would make more sence, this is just stupidity, I think Isabelle did the right thing, a personal opinion like that doesn’t belong on the school walls,… or you can tun with it and open the flood doors and permit people to put what ever they wish on the walls of the school….and by the way, this is not art, or freedom of expression, if it was I could hang up a sign that says your face looks like a butt hole and it would be ok.
I am honestly shocked that people are thick headed enough to still be opposing this. She took down a poster at a public high school publicly shaming young girls (who are already insecure enough) because they don’t/can’t/aren’t allowed to shave, it should not have been hung up in the first place. yeah yeah sure it was just a joke and whatever but that doesn’t matter because it is still bringing down girls who don’t follow the social norm and shave. Also everyone talking about her destroying their hard “work”. if drawing a leg that looks like a chicken wing and writing a sexist phrase is hard work then I’m disappointed in your definition ofof hard work. The poster was offensive and needed to be taken down, period. if she had gone through all the work and waited all the time to get into contact with ASB and everything they would have apparently just taken it down anyway, she just speaks up the process and got rid of a sexist demeaning poster.
Keep in mind that ASB and senate are making hundreds and hundreds of posters to cover the school. On top of that, they spend about 7 + hours hanging all those posters in their free time to make Bell week happen. so actually it is hard work. Not the hard work that you may be thinking of but it is. On behalf of senate since I was on senate for 2 years when I went to Fv, each senator is required to make 50+ posters each and Asb over a hundred. So sorry if their poster ideas aren’t meeting up to your qualifications. Coming up with posters that everyone will like is hard. How about you try it and see how you feel after you’ve made 50-100 different posters.
I was just at Edison HS. They had a banner that said FV pho high school. Didn’t see any students taking that poster down. I guess Edison is less PC than FV.
Check out at 5.38 at the left of the screen. One banner says, ” What the Pho barons?” I am not pc but isn’t that kind of racist towards Vietnamese?
https://vimeo.com/118819629
The fact that people are complaining about “all the hard work” that goes into the poster. Look at the poster. That probably took 5 minutes or less to make, and it’s not like they were forced to put that slogan on there. Yeah she ripped off another poster but it was by ACCIDENT, she had no intention in destroying any other posters. There’s nothing wrong with not shaving, and it should not be a social norm. Putting up these posters at such a young age is detrimental to young teenagers (girls and boys). Boys will see these posters and start to think that it’s ok to make fun of girls for not shaving/ expect girls to shave. Girls will see these posters and believe that in order to fit in they will have to shave (and that they will bring shame to their school by not shaving). Anyone who thinks this young BRAVE girl is in the wrong needs to re-evaluate their morals.
It’s great to see that Baron News approached this from a non-biased point of view and laid down the facts; yet, it’s still so sad to see people these days getting so worked up about absolutely everything.
Man, reading these comments with popcorn makes it so much fun….
Omg I can’t even believe anyone would care this much. When I went to fvhs I don’t even remember reading half the posters let alone caring what they actually said. It seemed as if the poster was more of a joke rather than being offensive. Kids today.
For those of you siding with Isabelle, did you not notice that she was smiling near the end of the video and that her friend who was recording laughed momentarily? If they had taken “real offense” to that poster, they would have neither laughed nor smiled about what they were doing in that video… Therefore, it seems like they did it for the sole purpose of reaching out for public attention and not for something serious. How could anyone take them seriously when they were not being serious about the supposed issue? Can anyone care to elaborate on that…?
From Garden Grove.
First off, this is ridiculing people’s personal decisions. Why would you make fun of someone for doing or not doing something (shaving or not shaving)?
Second, shaving goes against some people’s cultural and familial beliefs. Some people’s parents don’t want them to shave.
Third, Isabelle Abbott’s point isn’t that shaving is wrong. It’s that insulting such a broad range of people for something that really has nothing to do with you, is inherently wrong. Sure, it’s a “joke”, but it is something that will offend people. A lot of people and their beliefs. Plus it’s a horrible “joke”. You have a terrible sense of humor, even your mom doesn’t think you’re funny.
Fourth, this poster is ugly, and probably took ASB about five minutes of “hard work”.
It’s pretty sad to see that an ASB would condone this message, and that many “young adults” of this school cannot understand the fact that you should never make fun of anyone because of their personal decisions or cultural beliefs. It’s THEIR body and THEIR life, not yours.
I do not agree with what she did. She took it far it was a joke about Edison for the bell game I can guarantee you if you go to Edison and look at their posters they will have some just like that and it’s not a big deal cuz it’s a joke and shouldn’t be taken so seriously. We’re in high school now, not elementary school. She also ruined all the hard work of whoever made that poster which is not cool
These haters are saying that she’s caring too much about a poster, but who’s the one spending all their time criticizing a girl? over what?? A 30 second video of her taking down a poster?? I would think hating a girl over a poster is a lot more illogical than what she did. Throughout the week, 70% of the posters were either ripped or fell down because of the wind and made the school look like a mess. I never saw anyone complain about it. Throughout all these years, people tore posters, and still nobody caused a big rage about it. But once a girl rips one poster because it’s misogynistic, out of all the damaged posters in the entire school, oh man, the feminazis are out of control!!!
Sure there could have been a better way of handling the situation, but what if there was a poster saying “Edison girls are fat”. Wouldn’t that also stir an outrage or would it also be “just a poster for bell game, God!” They are the same exact thing. Expecting women to shave, expecting women to weigh a certain number of pounds, they are both society’s expectations for women on how they should look. It’s not about being “politically correct” it’s about being considerate. Some women are unable to shave, whether it be for religious reasons where women are expected to stay humble with their bodies or simply because their parents don’t let them, or maybe it’s just because hey don’t want to. There were so many other great posters that were not about living up to society’s beauty standards and yet they were far better than this one.
And to the comment above, so what if she smiled? I smiled too; the entire time I watched the video I was smiling because I was proud of her taking a stand for other women who don’t live up to society’s expectations. But low and behold, when a girl does something out of the norm to take a stand, she’s called an attention seeker. How surprising.
Some people get butt hurt over everything now.