by Erin Rook
South Jersey elementary school has canceled a Women’s History Month fashion show after parents expressed fears their sons would be required to wear women’s clothing.
According to NBC Philadelphia, students at Maude Wilkins Elementary School were told to wear outfits from a particular time period to show how women’s fashion had changed over history.
But one mother protested when her son told her he was afraid of being bullied for his participation in the pageant.
“His exact words were ‘Please, please mommy, don’t make me do this,’” mother Janine Giandomenico said.
School officials, however, said the whole thing is a misunderstanding. In a handout sent home to parents, administrators said students were not expected to cross dress, just to highlight and explain some type of period fashion.
“If your child is a young man, he does not have to wear a dress or skirt, as there are many time periods where women wore jeans, pants and trousers,” a letter to parents said.
Giandomenico took her outrage to the Internet, where friends and strangers joined her in questioning the validity of the school project.
Wilkins principal Beth Norcia wrote a letter to parents Monday, notifying them that the fashion show had been canceled and that it was “never our intention to have boys dress as women.”
Meanwhile, girl students across the country are attending school in pants and studying the works of Shakespeare, whose plays were historically performed by all-male casts with men “cross-dressing” to act out female roles.
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