For some unusual reason the once noble and innocent institution of Book Week must now be repeatedly sullied by stories of ill-conceived parenting. Following up from the ugly Nic Naitanui saga, where a mother proudly displayed her child painted in blackface – political correctness be damned – we’ve got another inexplicable Book Week costume.
This time, a father has dressed his son as troubled former AFL star Ben Cousins – complete with vacant expression and a dab of ‘cocaine’ on his nose. I’m sure that went down an absolute bloody treat at school.
First things first: why are kids being dressed as footy stars for Book Week? Is this a thing now?
As you might imagine, people piled on in the comments for the perceived glorification of drug use. The dad dove into the fray and defended the pic, saying his son had no clue of the implications and it was just a pisstake.
“To put all the butt hurt people at ease – he had no idea why he had flour on his nose and I told him to act silly and I got the pic,” the dad wrote. “It’s a piss take because of the Nic Nat issue – lighten up.”
Cousins is well-known for his history of drug use and penchant for going a tad too hard, and he has spent some time on rehabilitation facilities as a result. This has resulted in something of a weird online culture developing around him – especially after the 2010 doco Such Is Life, which documented his hard partying lifestyle.
Look, lets let this whole debacle go gently into the good night and stop turning Book Week into a blackface and cocaine extravaganza. Can’t we all just bloody dress up like James from James & the Giant Peach and be done with it? Wonderful costume and so, so easy to pull off.
Source: Daily Mail.
Photo: Facebook.
