let's question the newsworthiness of this

the other night on the local news, they showed a grainy picture of a girl in a fancy dress, on the arm of a boy in a football uniform, standing on a football field, and they captioned the picture with the dual fact that this girl had been elected to homecoming court and she has down syndrome.

why was this news? i mean, she's a courtesan, not the queen. that's not news. besideslywise, it's not like homecoming queens make the news BECAUSE they are homecoming queens. the local newspaper nor the local newscasts provide any type of listing of homecoming royalty at any of the myriad local high schools.

one concludes the news folk deemed it newsworthy because the young lady has down syndrome.

which begs the questions... why was this news?

is it news that a child with down syndrome is attending public high school? that such a child has friends who like her well enough to elect her to a homecoming court?

the blurb was something along the lines of how sweet it was for these high schoolers to have elected this particular young lady to the court.

again, why? one concludes from the available evidence that the high schoolers' actions were deemed both sweet and newsworthy precisely because the young lady has down syndrome.

given:
- homecoming courts are not generally deemed newsworthy.
- this specific courtesan was deemed newsworthy.
- the only characteristic of this young lady that was mentioned in the blurb - besides her courtesan status - was that she has down syndrome.

therefore: children with down syndrome who do something endemic to typical children their age are deemed newsworthy simply for the fact that they are doing something typical. children who are typical and who facilitate typicality for a child with down syndrome are deemed sweet simply for the fact of their facilitation.

hmm.

really?

i mean, what is out of the ordinary here? that a high schooler is elected to homecoming court? that a high schooler has down syndrome? that a child with down syndrome is popular?

c'mon. we all see the obvious assumption: she was elected solely because she has down syndrome. and, hey, THAT'S FINE. it's really okay to give a child who's not typical an opportunity to do something that is typical.

however.

what NOT FINE is calling this particular election out on the local news, which in essence reverses this young lady from a child with down syndrome to a down syndrome child.

and in the end, i think we can all agree: the truly newsworthy story here is that homecoming courts aren't really typical at all; they're dens of misogyny and as such should be eradicated.