Monday 10 November 2008

The One That Is Banging His Head Against The Wall Until It Really Hurts. . .

GLITTER GCSE OUTRAGE

Screams the headline of The Sun today.

Apparently, Glitter's 'Leader of the Gang'* is included on the syllabus for GCSE music, and it has, perhaps a little unsurprisingly, generated a good deal of faux bluster from the gutter press.

I for one do not think he should be on the syllabus, as his music just isn't very good.

The quote from some Deputy Head is a killer:

Boys and girls of 15 or 16 who select this song will go straight to the internet to find Glitter’s music. I dread to think what they may find searching online for him.

Probably some pictures of a bloke with mad hair wearing silver spandex, apparently the Deputy Head 'asked not to be named in case his daughter is penalised in the exam.'

I think that's code for 'we've made this interview up.' I find it unlikely that the AQA would penalise a 16 year old girl in an exam for something that her father said.

Note to those who jump up and bark when the dogwhistle is blown; you can't catch nonceism from listening to music recorded by a nonce 30 years ago. It isn't going to happen. The fact that your 14 year old son might start fancying 14 year old girls is not an indicator of being a nonce, it is an indicator of puberty.

*This now means that there are two songs to which the answer can only be 'no'. This little ditty and Jerusalem. 'Do you want to be in my gang?' 'No.' 'And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England's mountains green?' 'No.'

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