Warning: disturbing images. There are two young girls trapped beneath this gargantuan ribbon-and-bling waterfall. One reported headache and neck pain at the end of the school day, but both sustained only minor discomfort.
Maybe the homecoming mum started out as a sweet token from a boy to a girl, which honored the wearer’s unique personality and interests, but as tends to happen in this competitive and size-obsessed culture, things got out of hand…
I will get flack for this—I realize it is a southern tradition—but I simply do not understand the homecoming mum thing. When did walking around with a parade float attached to your chest become cool? This is just my opinion, but wearing this $50-$500, double-digit pounded flowery, glittery and sometimes noisy monstrosity ranks right up there with gurning, camel wrestling and other odd customs of the world. I appreciate that other people value the ritual, but it still makes my brain hurt.
(On the other hand, maybe it’s a joke, a bit, and if that’s the case — haha. Hilarious and touché.)
In one Texas high school, reason seems to have prevailed. According to a spot on NBC 5 the other night, two Southlake Carroll kids decided to take the money they might have spent on the mum and donated it to Cook Children’s Medical Center, which makes good sense to me.
They probably aren’t the first to do something like this, but they are the first I have heard of.
If you have a photo of an outrageous mum, please send it to me at chughes@advocatemag.com.
