It is that time of year once again, when the boys and the girls battle it out to see who reigns supreme at YLHS. But while this is all in good fun, we must remember that we almost didn’t have a Battle of the Sexes (BOTS) this year for fear that the tradition may have taken on a mean-spirited element.  In order to keep this tradition around, a new rule has been put in place: no bashing the other gender. All we can do is promote our own. We can ague about the rule and watch the week slip by. We could ignore the rule and jeopardize the possibility of having BOTS in the future. We could apathetically sit around and hope other members of our gender step up  to carry the torch. Or we could embrace the spirit of competition by defending our gender without offending the other.

Here’s the issue: some people feel that the easiest way to make their gender look better is by putting the other gender down. Mustangs, we are better than that. We certainly have the wit and intellectual ability to keep this light-hearted and fun. Rude terminology and impolite references show weakness in our thinking and turn what should be a long-running tradition into an excuse for people to make social statements that really don’t need to be made in this venue.

So dress out for dress up days, participate in the competitions and lunch-time activities, and cheer for your gender at the rally on Friday.

Mondays – Girls wear bow, Boys wear hats.

Tuesdays – Girls wear floral, Boys wear flannel.

Wednesday – Girls wear Pink, Boys wear Active.

Thursday – Girls wear dots, Boys wear stripes.

Friday, Girls wear pink, Boys wear blue.

JP Kouri (12) wants to say this to the boys of YL: “I gotta show some respect to the girls. This year we might actually have some competition… but it still wont be enough.”

And Riley Rose (11) wanted to say: “I think all of the ladies will have no problem dominating the boys in competition. I’ proud to be a girl because girls rule!”

Let the better gender win…(cough, cough…BOYS)!