• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

  • HOME
  • SHOP
  • ABOUT
  • FAQ
  • CONTACT

High School Censorship and Jimmy Somerville Singing

November 6, 2013 by WendyB

On Monday, I wrote about the theory that 14 is a key age for determination of musical tastes. Of course, all of one’s teen years are musically memorable. Fourteen is just the start of it. Personally, I have a lot of love for the music of 1983, when I was 15 (Kajagoogoo!).  Then, in 1985, when I was 17, one of the albums I was fixated on was Bronski Beat’s Age of Consent. (I wrote about it in a 2009 blog post on albums that changed my life.) I loved singer Jimmy Somerville’s falsetto and the album’s gay-rights message. I loved Age of Consent so much that I hand-wrote a review of it for my high school paper. Guess what? That essay turned up in a pile of papers my parents gave me while cleaning out my childhood home. The blue writing is mine, the red writing is a teacher’s. Please pardon the use of the word “preferences” (that’s what we said/thought back then in small towns) and the awfully stilted writing. Damn! I guess I wasn’t a child prodigy after all!

bronskibeat.jpg

Click to enlarge.

In case you can’t decipher the handwriting, the teacher decided that my essay was “questionable to use” due to the paragraph about Bronski Beat’s out and proud homosexuality. The teacher’s notation on that paragraph reads “rather not!” Seeing the review again, I found this reaction remarkable enough, but what really blew my mind was the typed letter attached to my review. GeorgeB — my right-of-center, Republican father — protested to the school system’s supervisor of curriculum. His letter reads in part:

dadreply

Click to enlarge.

The letter ends: “Students have the right to express themselves, as do all citizens of this country.” Wow! A round of applause for GeorgeB, please! He must have been thinking, “Where did this child come from?” but he stood up for me anyway. Another interesting fact is that the review and letter are both dated May 1985, a month before my high school graduation. Instead of indulging in senioritis, I was looking for a fight. (I do suspect that I knew exactly what reaction my Bronski Beat review would get.)

I was reminded of all of this by a great video that’s gone viral on teh Internets in the past couple of days. Last month, in Berlin, a street musician was singing Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” when Jimmy Somerville himself came along and joined in.

I die! And the way the musician asks Jimmy, “Is it you?” makes my day.

You might also like
What Wendy Wore: Wigless at Katy Perry
Best Dressed at the Grammys, Plus Other Musical Fashions
Someday We'll Find It

Filed Under: music, vintage WendyB photos

Previous Post: « Jewel of the Month: Earring Homage to Eminem and MMLP2
Next Post: Throwback Thursday: Frankie Say Relax »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. stacy says

    November 6, 2013 at 5:20 pm

    You just never cease to amazing me my beautiful friend! I love everything about this post, I applaud you AND GeorgeB! Go GrandrapstaG!! I also adored Bronski Beat… must have played Smalltown Boy a bizillion times!

    • WendyB says

      November 6, 2013 at 5:21 pm

      I definitely thought I was a misunderstood gay boy back then. LOL.

  2. georgeB says

    November 6, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    Mahwah HS was so conservative that I felt like a liberal and almost voted democratic. That still gives me the shakes. I do remember the library censorship article. They thought it was about their library. Heck, they only had two books.

    • WendyB says

      November 6, 2013 at 5:37 pm

      Thanks for doing the right thing, Dad! <3 xoxoxo

  3. Brie says

    November 6, 2013 at 6:14 pm

    I always found it strange that high school newspapers always censored in such weird ways. At my high school the same reaction would have happened if you had turned in this review. Yet, people having extreme views and stirring the pot in the student newspaper in trying to defend female team members not being allowed to have a celebration of winning the city basketball tournament at assembly but celebrating the men placing third, was allowed to be published. It makes me glad that I am no longer in high school.

    • WendyB says

      November 6, 2013 at 6:16 pm

      I would question the sanity of anyone who longed for his/her high school days! 😀

  4. déjà pseu says

    November 6, 2013 at 8:10 pm

    That Bronski Beat album was one of my favorites too! Love that GeorgeB went to bat for you.

    • WendyB says

      November 6, 2013 at 10:34 pm

      Yay, GeorgeB!

  5. Suzanne says

    November 6, 2013 at 9:22 pm

    This was just brilliant! TFS

    Really put a smile on my face. Plus I just love that song and was a bit obsessed with Bronski Beat myself.

    It is wild looking back on your paper like that. As Canadians we are much more Liberal minded and I doubt that anything of the sort would have happened here. I remember kids in my school that were openly gay at the time and it wasn’t a big deal.

    bisous
    Suzanne

    • WendyB says

      November 6, 2013 at 10:34 pm

      Always good to meet another Bronski fan!

  6. Tuesday says

    November 7, 2013 at 6:18 am

    Censorship of any type is one of my pet peeves. I think it’s pretty awesome that you were able to recognize that in high school and even more that your parents supported you.
    I belong to a really cool book club called Books & Beer. We meet at the local Irish pub, drink beer and discuss the month’s selection.
    We did a theme this past summer, called the Summer of Banned Books. We live in a very rural part of Florida (don’t even have a bookstore in the county). We put out press releases and the local fish wrap ran them each month, and a great reporter did a well-written article after our September meeting.
    I think even in 2013 we still have to keep the awareness up front and out loud.

    • WendyB says

      November 7, 2013 at 1:41 pm

      I’ve avoided book clubs like the plague but if there were beer involved … hmmm….

      I love your summer theme!

      • Tuesday says

        November 11, 2013 at 5:50 am

        You’d love it! As all good clubs do, we have a motto:

        “We may not finish the book, but we always finish our beer!”

      • WendyB says

        November 11, 2013 at 11:21 am

        Excellent motto!

  7. Lynn says

    November 7, 2013 at 7:52 am

    Even from your HS days, you were destined to be associated with ProPublica. Three cheers for the Brandes/Steiger alliance!

    • WendyB says

      November 7, 2013 at 1:41 pm

      We’re all about the 1st Amendment here.

  8. Twisted Skirt says

    November 7, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    Love it all!!
    & I also love that the anti-spam word was Barbados, my favourite place x

    • WendyB says

      November 7, 2013 at 1:41 pm

      Me too and I haven’t been there in so long!

  9. drollgirl says

    November 7, 2013 at 1:37 pm

    THREE CHEERS FOR YOUR FATHER (even though he is a republican — lol)!

    • WendyB says

      November 7, 2013 at 1:42 pm

      You know things are bad when even the right wing is angry!

  10. Lisamareedom says

    November 7, 2013 at 6:37 pm

    you shit stirrer! And yays for Dad!

    • WendyB says

      November 7, 2013 at 11:48 pm

      Always a troublemaker.

  11. Terri Berry says

    November 8, 2013 at 12:11 am

    I didn’t know about any of this. Must’ve been busy reading old hate letters. Pretty impressive dad! He takes on idiot rabbis and stupid high school teachers!

    • WendyB says

      November 8, 2013 at 12:16 am

      I’m going to have to email you about the rabbi story!

  12. Miss Cavendish says

    November 8, 2013 at 9:36 am

    Love it all.

    • WendyB says

      November 8, 2013 at 3:24 pm

      🙂

  13. Alice Olive says

    November 8, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    Bravo to your father!

    For some reason, this makes me want to re-watch Orlando for a hit of Jimmy Sommerville!

    • WendyB says

      November 8, 2013 at 3:24 pm

      Been thinking of that movie for a while now!

  14. Cluny says

    November 9, 2013 at 5:41 pm

    I am in love with your father! How wonderful of him to take the time to write that note!
    Hugs, Cluny

    • WendyB says

      November 11, 2013 at 11:21 am

      Uh-oh, mom is going to get jealous! 😉

  15. Jet aka Punk Glam Queen says

    November 15, 2013 at 1:49 am

    Great post, go Dad! Censorship is a major peeve of mine, told off a 5th grade principal who was trying to censor Gwensday’s reading — at that age shouldn’t they be thrilled the kid was not only reading but reading at a high school level? Asshats. The video at the end was the icing on a great post! I too loved how he asked “Is it you?” XXX

    • WendyB says

      November 15, 2013 at 1:55 pm

      Ridiculous trying to censor a kid’s reading!

      • Jet aka Punk Glam Queen says

        November 15, 2013 at 3:25 pm

        Agreed, besides shouldn’t they have been more worried about the kids who didn’t read at their age level or worse, couldn’t read at all? We all know how those kids slip through the system & that should’ve been her concern, not a kid reading well above her grade reading level. Ugh. Censorship, I can truly say its something I HATE. (And I don’t use the word hate often!) Still blown away by the letter your father wrote, he really told them!

Primary Sidebar

MEET WENDY BRANDES

Award-winning designer of fine jewelry inspired by women's history and pop culture. A former journalist who writes about jewelry, fashion, medieval history, news, feminism, dogs, cats and whatever else is on her mind. Blogging since 2007.
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

ARCHIVES

CATEGORIES

Facebook Pagelike Widget

POPULAR TOPICS

NEWSLETTER

Subscribe for Email updates.
* indicates required

Original jewelry designs, photos and text are © Wendy Brandes 2007-2016. All rights reserved.

© 2016 · FOODIE PRO THEME COPYRIGHT BY · SHAY BOCKS GENESIS FRAMEWORK · BUILT ON THE WORDPRESS