Miss Mustang

Thesis Statement: Due to the dominance of masculinity towards Mr Mustang, members of our school should be open-minded to allowing a female version, or gender inequality will be highly proven. 

In 1972, the 19th Amendment was adopted to guarantee protection against sexual discrimination for women under the law. Our 39th President, Jimmy Carter, even proclaimed August 26, 1978, would be known as Women’s Equality Day. But, how much sexism actually decreased? Did it end completely, or was it slowly dramatized into hidden elements? Everyday, it still happens around us in a different format for us to view. Whether that is males making their partner feel guilty if they don’t cooperate sexually. Or male making offensive comments and rebutting with, “It’s just a joke”. 

Mr. Mustang is a popular event that takes place here at Strongsville High School. It usually features ten senior males competing against one another to win a charity donation. There are numerous rounds of voting to narrow down the selections, a time when they produce music video campaigns, and an event in the school gym when they show off their ability at the final. Nonetheless, there has never been a female version with no real explanation for the response. 

Going out of my way for a long time to make this event happen has transformed my train of thought into working behind the scenes to find the real reason for the unfairness. I have learned a lot from people’s excuses and from Mr. Mustang’s conduct. I will challenge you to be vocal about an unsolved problem. There will be several experiences explained and new ways established to accomplish our goal. In the end, there will be a game plan for a Miss Mustang to occur.

There are a lot of girls who are unwilling to take action and advocate for change. Due to a lack of attention, this condition is gradually becoming unheard of. Girls at SHS rarely raise their voices loudly enough to declare their want to compete in a Miss Mustang. The less this is spoken, the less attention it will receive if no one knows about it. Girls may gossip about their excitement for Miss Mustang if it were to arrive but in the end, there isn’t a place of action leading towards the goal. 

The administration at SHS, as well as many of our peers, will continue to dismiss Miss Mustang with invalid excuses. If there is a strategy spoken or shown, the act of seriousness about this inequality will be taken more literally. If we work hard enough to make Miss Mustang recognized, it will spark additional interest in our surroundings. The majority of you even said you would support Miss Mustang if it was to happen, I didn’t expect too much hostility. It was basically half in half whether you guys thought there was a real reason behind it never occurring, and others said there wasn’t one. We will have a promising future if we come together to embrace and are willing to engage in order to locate a sponsor and               generate enough money that people will want to be recognized for.

My solution for ensuring Miss Mustang arises now or in the near future by taking measures to unite people on agreement in order to get the authority’s notice. When I made my attempt a year ago, I started a change.org campaign to gather signatures from those who supported this notion. Because the petition almost has 200 signatures already, I believe it would be logical to not use the same method for voice. Together with the mobile petition, I designed a poster and presented it throughout the school. The document included a QR code to the petition as well as my contact information for further investigation of the idea. Finally, I sent an email out to the principal and just about every teacher in our education system explaining why there should be a proposal for this issue.

I realized though, that as much as I am expressing ways for Miss Mustang to occur, it was only me doing so, despite people’s attempts in the past. One voice can only go so far on its own, I needed more people behind me verbally just as much to show evidence of approval. Whether it was me speaking to the principal by myself and him not giving me much direction, or emailing teachers separately from every club just to decline me, it didn’t work. My actions were very well recognized when I was interviewed for the Lantern newspaper by Isaac Zabarsky last year on my in-depth thoughts on this matter. So many girls came to me, saying they always wanted to participate and nominate themselves if there were an opportunity, including myself. But, I grew tired, it was frustrating to endlessly try with no one being direct of where or who else I can go to for sponsorship. 

Now that Mr. Mustang is recurring right now in the spring, my theory is to spread the word now to create a Miss Mustang for when it has dialed down. It’s important to shift my ways of engaging people and change the path to show my ambition towards work. Automatically, I’d like to create new posters. To add on the poster will be a QR Code. This QR code will be linked to an already made google form for people to nominate themselves. There will also be a hopeful date on there for when we expect the Miss Mustang to occur. When I gained support from the principal, I asked him what an ideal next step would be and he responded saying I should find a club to sponsor and promote my event. 

I have taken the initiative to apply for creating a new club called “Feminist Club”. If no existing club would back Miss Mustang and take a chance, I figured I’d have to start something from the bottom up. The Feminist Club will fund the Miss Mustang event, offer frequent Female Teacher Appreciation, self love letter, body positivity canvas paintings, and affirmation mason jars. Not only can I make Miss Mustang materialize this way, but I can also build a lovely environment for girls at this school to encourage one another. The Feminist Club urgently needs members to initiate all of these projects and allow our voices to be heard. The next step in expressing our inventions is through media activities. I have received the opportunity to speak on the new podcast called, “Mustang Talks”. I’ll be speaking on Feminist Club next week, and explain how I’m hoping to get Miss Mustang to come this Spring or next year when I’m away. We also have received promises from the most popular SHS Instagram accounts, including “SHS Seniors of 2023”, and “Mustang talks”, to promote both the feminist club and Miss Mustang. Finally, an Instagram account will be made for the SHS Feminist Club. That account will display every upcoming event and activity.

Whether or not Miss Mustang happens, there is a very clear picture of how life will continue at SHS. Strongsville High School will continue to be represented as a male dominated school. There are so many roles at SHS that play significant parts. Only male jobs and students at this school appear to be more well-known. Even from your responses, the majority not only agreed that males continue to dominate society, but also at SHS, more instances of female disrespect occur. For instance, Bill Wingler, the principal, and Eric Kassel and Sean Collins, the assistant principals. The football coach with Mr. Cirino, or the soccer coach Kyle Veirs rather than Chloe Fadenholz. Or Mrs. Rose and Miss. Icher not getting as much credit for their roles in musicals as Mr. Jenkins. They are still the dominant representation for Strongsville High School.

Nevertheless, with something new, everyone will be recognized and given equal possibilities. The number disparity between guys and females at our establishment is unclear. According to the National Center for High Statistics, Strongsville has almost 2,000 students who attended here at SHS, the years 2021-2022. The number of females is 945 and the same for males. The seniors of grade 12 have 534 students in total, about 56.5% of those are female who are never getting a chance to nominate themselves for Miss Mustang. Thanks to the SCS Staff Directory page, I also took the liberty of counting the 191 Strongsville High School staff members listed on their website. There were 58 female teachers and 48 male teachers among the 106 total. The cafeteria employees were 12 women and 0 men. Four of the five guidance counselors are female, leaving Mr. Young on his own. And daily aids come to 21 females with only one male worker. The majority of these persons we see or assist every day are female.

Miss Mustang is consistently ignored when SHS becomes untrustworthy in explaining their cause, despite the fact that 62.3% of females stand behind them..Frequently, girls will continue to be labeled as dramatic. The common issue with Miss Mustang is that the student council believes homecoming is sufficient for both genders to be crowned. No one sees where we are coming from since we are classified as, “dramatic, sensitive, and take things too seriously”. Yet, it is ultimately fairness that is shown through homecoming, prom, athletics, formal, or Sadie Hawkins dance.

Right now, you have the simple opportunity to support an event for a low cost. You have the ability to promote and encourage an incredible charity to win in the end. You have the right to express your support for SHS folks and what you believe would be a positive change. If you don’t want to draw attention to yourself, at the very least help promote and encourage the Feminist Club. As a result, there will be even more people to help arrange Miss Mustang. Secondly, I will have a better opportunity to transmit the torch to someone else after I graduate, ensuring that Miss Mustang will continue in the future. You will be remembered for making a positive difference in your high school experience. You will get to see all the fun videos that females would film to put out for a change. See the difference in their chosen charities. And end the male domination that this school has continued to deny. 

Overall, there isn’t much of a solid reason why this event is so bad. Members of our school should be receptive to allowing a female version because of Mr Mustang’s superiority of males; else, sexual imbalance would be glaringly obvious. Please acknowledge the issue and communicate the negative impact to your surrounding community. Hopes for Miss Mustang in the near future. Thank you for your time.

                                                                       Works Cited

SCS Staff Directory – Strongsville City School District. www.strongnet.org/quicklinks/quick-link-2?utf8=%E2%9C%93&const_search_group_ids=198%2C195%2C197%2C194%2C196%2C191%2C200%2C201%2C192%2C193%2C199&const_search_role_ids=1&const_search_keyword=&const_search_last_name=&const_search_location=59.

National Center for Education Statistics. Search for Public Schools – Strongsville High School (390448401730). nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=3904484&ID=390448401730.

“Sign the Petition.” Change.org, www.change.org/p/bill-wingler-there-should-be-a-ms-mustang-at-shs-not-just-a-mr-mustang.

Zabarsky, Isaac. “Miss Mustang Petition.” The Lantern, strongsvillelantern.com/702/news/miss-mustang-petition.