Nah, he probably had sisters, or cousins, or nieces, and he understood he had to take that one for the team. He’s proud today. He tells the story & laughs!
Look at that photo. It's such a small part, but he posed for a great photo. I only notice as an adult who has tried to take a photo of kids. Man, they don't know how to "smile naturally" or take any direction. Then this kid nails "smile like you like me against my wishes" or whatever direction was given.
I mean, OK for not picking some random girl and mocking her particularly but what about all the girls in the audience that look like the kid? It's still a pretty fucked up joke in retrospect.
I don’t think the problem was the photo, the problem was the reaction of disgust, and the fact that the whole purpose of the photo was to laugh at the ugly person. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say maybe that’s not the best way to go
Can you imagine casting for "Ugly Girlfriend?" Can you imagine being the girl who got the part? Can you imagine being a girl who got turned down for the part, especially if the mean kids in middle school found out? "haha did you hear Stephanie is too ugly to get cast as 'Ugly Girlfriend' in the John Hughes movie!"
They're not degrading men. They just know that if someone finds out that boy was the ugly girlfriend photo, the worst insult they can reasonably make out of it is "dude, you're an ugly girl." To which the boy can say, "yeah, that was the whole point."
This men's rights nonsense is stupid, but even more stupid when the complaint itself doesn't make sense.