If You Don't Want To Be Bullied, Leave Your MLP Bag At Home

[Crezth]

forget it. be proud.

 

[useless]

I think it's absurd im suddenly a "fake liberal".

 

[Leoreth]

Did I?! or was it you who made that comparison?

Seemed to be in direct response to what the mother had said. Apparently I misinterpreted, apologies.

Not that I agree with your sentiment of "if you don't want to be bullied, don't be different". It's still blaming the victim.

 

[Farm Boy]

If only the school's response hadn't been so Simple Jack we could probably have a decent discussion here. While I don't think anyone deserves to be made to fear their days throught the constant terror of actual bullying, there is a point to be made in the fact that some behaviors are probably not going to win you friends. And that, in and of itself, is fine. The world does not owe you friends. Nor do other children owe this kid their friendship. Nor will girls owe him interest in a couple years. Life isn't actually like the plots in MLP. People will make fun of you. It's not a school's job to pick friends. That said, telling the kid to leave his bag at home is stupid. So is comparing this to rape. Even if I buy that this is simply a matter of scale in the reaction it's still actively offensive that this has been compared to sexual violence.

 

[Leoreth]

I agree about the last bit.

And of course no one can force other kids to be friends with or nice to someone who for example overtly likes MLP. But I'm sure there's a wide middle ground between bullying someone and being forced friends with them.

 

[Farm Boy]

Probably, yes. Bullying seeks its target out. Stalks it to make sure it's scared and inferior. But meanness and isolation can be destructive in the same general sort of way depending on the person, and that is something you have to be careful of. How much do you encourage self expression in children and try to balance that with socialization, peer relationships, and self esteem?

 

[JollyRoger]

The way some of you people talk it's as if im only one step away from becoming Fred Phelps.

God Hates Nags

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Seemed to be in direct response to what the mother had said. Apparently I misinterpreted, apologies.

Not that I agree with your sentiment of "if you don't want to be bullied, don't be different". It's still blaming the victim.

It was in direct response to what the mother said. She made a stupid comparison in one extreme direction. If you accept that as a valid analogy, you have to accept comparisons to the other extreme, which is similarly stupid. ..and what I said isn't at all to blame the victim. He hasn't done anything wrong. In the perfect society where all children are like little angels, he wouldn't be bullied for his MLP-box.

 

[NovaKart]

It's funny how the extreme fandoms on this board have been MLP and Tom Petty.

 

[Kyriakos]

^There are also some of Sonic the Hedgehog around (at least in the Other Games forum).

 

[Hygro]

You're hilarious.

Not sure how I'll suddenly become a transphobe, racist or homophobe in my later years, but since you seem to believe you know everything about me, why should i even trust your opinion? Oh wait, I don't.

These are the labels we are told to care about. It so happens that these labels matter, but we're always "told" the labels years after we should already know better. 40 years ago only being called a racist would be widely considered insulting. The trick is not in knowing the labels so you can be a good saluting tumblr grunt, the trick is in understanding the underlying mechanism of people hurting others for who they are. While no one is born a MLP fan, people are born and shaped in the ways that they can't help but to fall in love with certain aesthetics.

Those aesthetics help them express who they are, and for that to be stifled and they to be shamed for it is oppressive.

Not that I'd want to live in a society where I can't rib someone for what they like, but to not treat them with disgust or contempt, to literally tolerate their taste, is the way it needs to be.

The post you were responding to was basically saying you will become the equivalent of sexist/racist/etc to future generations if you're just following a script or party line and not embodying the logic that wrote that script or informed that party.

I just want to ask, do you think believing that a sub-culture on the internet is weird is comparable to thinking that people of a differing race or sexuality or ethnicity are somehow lesser people and deserve the historical discrimination they've been subject to?

You seem to be implying it is.

I don't think a 9-year old is going to feel the bullying is anything less than an attack on his very existence for being shamed for liking what he likes. Regardless of not having, as Farm Boy calls it, historical victim cred, he's personally going to suffer in that moment of torment as he would if someone were to bully him for liking boys instead of girls.

 

[Formaldehyde]

It's funny how the extreme fandoms on this board have been MLP and Tom Petty.

One person is hardly an "extreme fandom".

Besides, what does that even mean? I think many of their critics are far more "extreme" in their hostility towards bronies.

 

[NovaKart]

It's just a funny, to me anyway, observation. Don't take it too seriously.