The watching porn on public transit is a bit beyond my ken, too but, sadly, finding the most egregiously horrifying way to cut another person down to size? That's where I lived at that age and I was far from the worst.
I remember when I was in 7th grade, our Homeroom/English teacher had what, at the time, seemed like a hilariously large, clown shoe of an ass. All us young gentlemen used to take turns distracting her so, when she turned around, those she was facing away from could take turns throwing spitballs at her butt, pretending to measure it with our hands, fake smack it, and a host of other things I won't repeat. The point is junior high kids, especially boys, are the biggest assholes and body shaming is not uncommonly the torment du jour.
It would be nice if the much heralded future showed the promise of changing from that but, sadly, I think it's the human standard from here to eternity.
I'm inclined to agree (that we're just assholes, particularly at 13). Certainly, there was little that went on at Hewitt that was overt in that way, but the internecine cruelties of girls can be pretty stunning, they're just a bit more veiled, or at least constructed far more strongly around the idea of multiple untrustworthy factions all behaving badly.
Indeed. I think that's the age where the boy's club mentality truly begins. I'm glad you wrote that email. If we all collectively shrugged and said "kids, whatcha gonna do?" then they wouldn't learn. Even if the lesson is as simple as "Don't poke the bear with a stick or you will get mauled" it beats saying nothing and having the lesson be "You are the young princes of the galaxy and woe to any lesser thans who dare bask in your glory".
Yeah the email was sort of "really, this was just vaguely irritating to me, but queer-themed bullying... blah blah blah .... DEATH/SUICIDE.... blah blah ... educate your damn students."
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Date: 2010-10-06 03:10 pm (UTC)I remember when I was in 7th grade, our Homeroom/English teacher had what, at the time, seemed like a hilariously large, clown shoe of an ass. All us young gentlemen used to take turns distracting her so, when she turned around, those she was facing away from could take turns throwing spitballs at her butt, pretending to measure it with our hands, fake smack it, and a host of other things I won't repeat. The point is junior high kids, especially boys, are the biggest assholes and body shaming is not uncommonly the torment du jour.
It would be nice if the much heralded future showed the promise of changing from that but, sadly, I think it's the human standard from here to eternity.
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Date: 2010-10-06 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-06 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-06 03:20 pm (UTC)