[Ansteorra] Voluntary taggingMessage

[Christie Ward]

Runa said:
> I know this is a serious but yet a little 
> funny discussion. But all of the sudden
> the title "Voluntary tagging" gave a 
> vision (and those who know me have no
> doubts that my brain is twisted) of
> cattle in a line, holding an ear out to
> have a tag punched into it.
 
No, no, no! You leg-tag Pelicans. Ear-tags go on Lions. But remember, Lions may bite when tagged!
 
In my experience, the people who run up to newcomers and say in outrage, "REMOVE THAT {insert color here} BELT! That's reserved only for {insert name of order}"... are invariably fairly new themselves. 
 
Often the ones who are most aggressive about doing this really believe that THEY (or their Significant Other) should be a member of {insert name of order}.
 
What I hate about this is that when the story is retold, they never tell you that Grizella the Jealous said this. No, they claim it was "some Laurel" or "one of the Knights". Even though Grizella doesn't have that award, and is not a peer's student, and so forth. 
 
Then as people "play Operator" with this tale, it grows in the telling, until we have some newbie-eating people-hating bitch-queen of a Laurel abusing some hapless newcomer, who bursts into tears, has a massive heart attack, and vows never to attend an SCA event again, then dies horribly. Or something along those lines.
 
I wish we could stamp out the custom of color-coded belts for squires, apprentices, and proteges, because those are not ranks, it is not a period practice, and as we all know, it leads to restricted wardrobe choices for everyone else.  I'd much rather see the students identify themselves by wearing the badges or livery of their teacher.
 
Actually, before I was a Laurel, the most flattering thing anyone said to me was "What, you are not a Laurel yet??!!" My work got to speak for my quality instead of my waistline.
 
::GUNNVOR::