Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Making-up is hard to do

"I think it's stupid. When people come to school in the morning they're going to look really scary." This is one student's reaction to the banning of make-up at her school in Devon, UK. The ban, affected about 400 young teens (11-13), and follows their forays into cosmetics which resulted in some of them being taunted with cries of "Oompa Loompa" from older students. An Oompa Loompa more correctly refers to the small orange characters in Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate factory, rather than young girls who have applied too much foundation that looks like fake tan. The principal has ruled that 4-18 year olds may wear makeup if it is "correctly applied".

Of course, people's colouring has caused concern for some for a while - why it was such a relief when, earlier this year, Crayola launched a new line of washable multicultural skin-coloured markers. "From a pink-toned beige for the palest of skin tones to mahogany, tawny and terra-cotta for every shade in between, Crayola promises kids’ drawings will be much more realistic" reported the Calgary Sun. Ten-year-old elementary school student Julia Moseley appreciates the new colours. “I think that they would be helpful,” the fifth grader says, “instead of doing the same old colour and making someone look like an orange Oompa Loompa.” Let's hope she's kept some of the pumpkin-coloured crayons, just in case she finds herself in Devon!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

lets not forget crayons for faces experiencing other things too!! Black for a really bad mood, red with white blotches for a temper tanty, white with red blotches for an upcoming wrestle with the flu, brown with yellow, purple and blue flecks for someone standing next to a smoker, light green for someone about to vomit, dark green for a drowning victim...wow and pumpkin orange for someone who is intellectually challenged and thinks orange is the colour of someone with a nice tan.
Lordy, and I thought there couldn't possibly be whole villages full of morons...wrong!
D xx