F'real? I did not know that.

I saw the full video, and All I am saying is...
the answer to the age old question of where were girls like that when I went to high school has been answered.
They are danes

God bless the forums - if we were to argue anywhere else, we'd end up not giving the other party a chance to speak, shouting over everyone, rioting, looting, pillaging, raping, and watching Britney Spears movies while watching society crumble as a whole. Go Nuklear Power Forums!

*ahem*

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but those that are on stage are not being forced. So it's safe to assume that they're there of their own free will. If they want to take their clothes off, all the power to them - they might have their own motives, such as removing the tension on asking out a crush (just imagining him in his underwear might work better if he's actually in his underwear) In Undergrads, they had the "Naked Rally" episode, and yet there was nothing wrong with that. It's like in France, they put snails on pizza - it's different from our methods, but who are we to judge? We get naked our way, they do it their way.

And Rai - I'm not that pretty. Not by a long shot. But I'd be up there, shaking "mah 'thang" - and based on what the bathroom scale told me earlier, it'd be a while before "mah 'thang" stops shaking.

Yep, I teach middle and elementary school English in rural South Korea. I've done substitution work at high schools as well, and it's a hell of a nice environment to teach in. The biggest problems out here are kids sleeping in class from staying up late to study and some of the high school boys occasionally smoke on school grounds.

The problem with that attitude is that these are children. Tall, mature-looking children, but children none the less. Most of these kids don't have the cognitive capacity to connect things like sex and disease/pregnancy in their minds. Having an authority figure encouraging them to engage in proto-sexual behavior, on school grounds none the less, isn't doing anything to help these kids develop sexually responsible behavior.

Considering Senior High School students children is... well, frankly? Asinine.

These are people who, in a few months, are going to be entering the workforce, either to get themselves through college or to support themselves and families. These are further people who have, more than likely had sex before... and are already acting sexually responsible or irresponsible, as the case may be. This event is very unlikely to change that.

I mean, I'm not going to say that I'm totally cool with teachers encouraging this kind of thing, if only because it reeks of the ew nasties with these guys getting their own students naked. I mean, I wouldn't feel comfortable sitting in a class trying to learn from someone who just judged my naked body and ability to strip. Someone who was, undoubtably, and most likely still is, thinking highly sexual thoughts about me.

Unless the teacher was hot. Then it'd be ok.

If they're freshmen on the other hand? Oh yeah, I'm with you. Those didn't look like freshmen bodies, though. Although it is, admittedly, hard to tell with the shitty ass quality. ...Still though, pretty hot.

That's just the thing, though. In modern society, we have no official coming-of-age rituals. Kids do seemingly foolish, risky things to prove they are growing up because no one else has set up rituals to prove that for them.

The purpose of an initiation ritual is to move an individual from one fixed status to another fixed status. For example, you move from being a child to being a man. This is marked by a bar mitzvah for Jewish people. For a lot of people who aren't raised in such a traditional structure, they might assert their manhood by having sex, doing drugs, getting into fights, anything viewed as manly.

For females, their first period marks their 'womanhood', but NOT really, because there are so many other qualities associated with what it means to be a woman. Girls can get their period as young as 8 years old, but no one would claim they are now women. A female also has to have a well developed body: breasts, hips, whatever. How is this relavent? The teachers in this Danish school set up a ritual that directly speaks to this coming-of-age time period, where these girls are finishing up puberty and have the confidence to assert their qualities. People don't just make up crazy, insane traditions and people just lose their mind and celebrate it. This strip tease, although unprofessional, is the closest thing--and maybe the only thing--that is welcoming these kids into adulthood. It's not surprising AT ALL that they'd jump at the chance to perform.

So, from this perspective, cracking down on these teachers or students would be a bad idea. Humans need rituals, especially initiation rites marking the coming-of-age. So, address the issue, come up with something to take its place if it offends people, but don't crack down on people for doing what's simply natural.

Most of these kids aren't even done physically maturing yet, let alone mentally. Maybe they aren't children anymore, but they sure aren't adults. Regardless of what they're about to go out into the world to do or not do, high school isn't the place to explore one's sexuality any more than it is a place to explore one's violent tendencies. Aquisition of academic knowledge is what school is for. Becoming an adult is what the home and their own free time is for.

Regardless of this debate, however, is the fact that this behavior happened on school grounds with teacher participation is unacceptable; can we at least agree on that?

The rituals, regardless of any merit they may or may not hold, were inappropriate for school grounds. Teachers should no more be judging striptease than they should be refereeing bare-knuckle bouts.

To my mind your argument is much more in support of developing legitimate rituals than (for lack of a better term, please forgive me) excusing the current ones.

Well, this is Europe, where sexual intercourse is probably not dissimilar from a rousing game of volleyball. I mean, take out the striptease contests and you might as well take out all extracurricular activities. And honestly, "stripper" is only a stone's throw away "cheerleader". Even if these girls were pressured into this one way or another, it still remains that every public high school in the U.S. is guilty of the same sort of duress. We've been telling growing young women for generations to exercise their sexuality for the good of the school, and that if they do, they get to be one of the popular kids.

Also, about high school seniors not being adults... people don't really get any more mature after that. I don't know what makes anyone think so. Everyone I've met, regardless of how old they are, is generally childish. You've got the people with addictions, the high divorce rates, and folks who are just all-around assholes. The people we call "adults" aren't special in any real way other than their physical age. They still make bad decisions, but usually more frequently and with more consequence, than children do. The mature, happy, and responsible working adult is a myth.

On another note, these girls are all way too hot. The ugly ones must have declined to participate. I'm halfway convinced that the whole thing is a hoax of some sort.

I dunno, I'm more mature now than I was in high school. High school me was kind of a prick. Part of the problems you've listed with modern adults have less to do with adulthood, I think, than how we're preparing people for it. That seems like a whole other thread though.

Well, for one, exploring one's sexuality is all kinds of harmless compared to outliving violent tendencies.

You can't expect people who spent half their waking time at one place for 13 years of their life to leave everything private at the door. Especially not if they're becoming sexually mature during that time. I do agree school's for learning first and foremost, but that doesn't mean no fun at all. For example, it's also for socializing.

Mind you, the thing that sparked this discussion was only a video. Any statements of students who feel humiliated or abused by this are remarkably absent. Either they were all silenced by the school administration or this is a school that must have remarkably good atmosphere to even consider holding an event like this.