Students at Richardson High School raised a ruckus yesterday when faith-based dating expert and motivational speaker Justin Lookadoo gave a speech on how teenage boys and girls can make sure that they are “dateable.”
Lookadoo’s speech garnered national attention from the likes of Gawker, BuzzFeed, Pajiba and Jezebel after students took to Twitter to protest — using the hashtag #lookadouche — and some walked out of the presentation early for what they felt were demeaning and stereotypical statements regarding gender roles.
On Lookadoo’s site, he lists “Dateable Rules” for both sexes. ...
He also says that girls should “Let him lead. God made guys as leaders. Dateable girls get that and let him do guy things, get a door, open a ketchup bottle. They relax and let guys be guys. Which means they don’t ask him out!!!” ...
For the guys, rule No. 1 is, “Being a guy is good. Dateable guys know they aren’t as sensitive as girls and that’s okay. They know they are stronger, more dangerous, and more adventurous and that’s okay. Dateable guys are real men who aren’t afraid to be guys.”
Rule no. 10 for guys is, “Keep it covered up. Dateable guys know that porn is bad for the spirit and the mind. They keep women covered up.”
Read more:
#Lookadouche blows up Internet with sexist dating advice at Richardson High School
From The Huffington Post:
"A Dateable girl isn't Miss Independent."
"Dateable girls know how to shut up." ...
These are some of the "Rules" that my husband, my 16 year old daughter Chloe, and 13 year old son read on the website of Justin Lookadoo when my daughter came home Tuesday night and announced that there would be a "special assembly" the next day. The school provided no information about the speaker or subject, but rumor had it his name was Justin Lookadoo.
Out of simple curiosity, we consulted the websites for Richardson High School, the PTA and Lookadoo. We learned nothing from the first two sites, but were alarmed by the third. ...
As Internet-watchers already know there was an assembly, he was the speaker, and spoke to students about dating, relationships, and gender differences. ... He went on to make numerous claims about gender differences (never acknowledging the existence of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or pansexual students, let alone how they might conduct their own dating relationships) and even addressed the topic of (heterosexual) intercourse. ...
Justin Lookadoo is in no way qualified to address children in a public school setting. Mr. Lookadoo is a religious speaker who has published religious books with a religious press. He has also published many of his religious beliefs regarding gender roles (all based on a heterosexual model in which boys and girls are to pair up) on his website. This is his professional website where one finds a press kit and books him as a speaker. Clearly, these are his professionally publicized convictions. He is certainly entitled to believe anything he likes about God and gender and if he wants to speak about that in religious venues that's perfectly legitimate, but not a public school. ...
Read more:
Standing Against Ignorance: When Justin Lookadoo Came to Richardson High School
SuccubaSuprema writes:
This is appalling. Mind you, I live in the American South, and most women here (myself included) appreciate courtesy (I always thank a man who opens a door for me, for example; he knows I can open the door myself, and so do I, but he's being courteous rather than insulting my ability), but Lookadoo is not merely advocating simple courtesy with assertions like "A Dateable girl isn't Miss Independent." Some of us Southern Girls even ask guys out (especially on "Sadie Hawkins Day"). As an aside, I generally have to open things like jars and ketchup bottles (and sometimes even doors) for my dad, who is elderly and no longer has as much strength in his hands (or elsewhere) as he once did. I wonder if Lookadoo thinks I'm not "a Dateable girl" because of this (not that I would like to be asked out by him or one of his followers).
Rule number 10 for guys looks as if it is advocating the idea that "guys" should force women to wear burqas. One bit of Lookadoo's perspective (not quoted above), from his book Dateable, says:
Please, please don't tease us. To show us your hot little body … and then tell us we can't touch it is being a tease. You can't look that sexy and then tell us to be on our best behavior.
-- Source
Some (such as the author of the article just linked) have interpreted this statement as an attempt to justify "unwanted physical attention" (possibly even rape). Such attitudes have no place in the 21st century, let alone in an assembly sponsored by a public school.
Inviting a speaker of this type to address students in a public school, even in Texas, is a violation of the non-establishment clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Lookadoo is obviously a misogynist and a religious nutjob (and probably a homophobe and transphobe as well). His biases should not be promoted by any public school.
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