Girl couldn’t be “stjärngosse”

 

  • A girl in third grade in a Stockholm school was not allowed to be a “stjärngosse” (star boy) because the headmaster and the teachers wanted a traditional and beautiful Lucia procession. Above a typical Lucia group, of the kind you see in Swedish schools on the day of Lucia (December 13) with a Lucia, her attendants, “stjärngossar” (with cone-shaped hats), “tomtar”, and gingerbread men.
  • Chose something different or do some math instead. That was the options a girl at Enskedefältet’s school in Stockholm got, when she asked to be a “stjärngosse” (star boy) in the Lucia procession.

  • “We want a beautiful Lucia procession,” says the headmaster to Ajour.se. The girl, who is in third grade, had made up her mind: She wanted to be a “stjärngosse”, but the music teacher refused, and the girl got the ultimatum. When the girl’s mother heard about it and contacted the teacher, she was told the school’s Lucia procession was traditional. “That means all Lucia attendants are girls and all the boys are star boys,” the teacher wrote in a mail. The mother then replied that her girl feels both like a girl and a boy and would therefore like to be a star boy. That mail was met with silence. Says the school’s headmaster Svante Lööf: “As I see it, it has nothing to do with gender. We just want a traditional and beautiful Lucia procession.” The girl decided to be a “tomte” in the procession instead. Obviously “tomtar” are allowed to be girls at her school.