That was beautiful. I could have done without the false (in my experience) stereotype that CPS is that over-reactive and the claim no one asked how the bruises happened or what he meant by karate chop. But it got much better from that part on.
I agree Ginger. I think many would be able to find a connection with the sentiment expressed herein. I was "the fag" through most of my younger schooling. I feel what he has to say completely.
Ah, whoops. I guess I was late to the party. Oh well, hopefully those new members who haven't seen it can enjoy it, and everyone else can just go do something else.
Well, I only brought it up, because, I'm tempted to again offer an opposing viewpoint on this video, but considering the episode it caused last time, I just wanted it to make it clear that the opposing viewpoint does exist -_-
Okay, now I'm curious. The video seems to be an uplifting video that says that everyone is beautiful in their own way and to not listen to people who insult you. Unless I'm missing a viewpoint? You can tell me, I promise I won't start a war.
Well, the guy starts off with an overly dramatic voice. Then, he goes on to compare himself (a kid lucky enough to have a grandma who could afford to feed him pork chops as a kid) to a girl with a physical deformity and a foster child who tried to kill himself. If you go to 4:25, you'll notice he puts himself in the middle. This video is self indulgence at its worst. I would have taken it more seriously had he not included his own "tragedy" and focused entirely on the other two, who for sure, warrant some sympathy.
Oh, I thought the nickname 'Porkchop' was a reference to his weight, because he mentioned he was overweight.
Nope, he had a cute game with his grandma, that led to a misunderstanding with the school administration, resulting in his "first nickname." Surely you cannot compare an overweight kid who, I quote, says "life was pretty good," to an orphan and a girl with a defect covering ~half her face since childbirth. Maybe you agree up to this point, maybe you don't. But I want to go a step further. Obesity is (not in all cases) but in many, a symptom of self indulgence. It is not the same as true misfortune, such as dead parents or a physical deformity. Some things in life you earn, other things you don't. It is of no surprise to me, that out of the three picked on subjects of this video, the only one whose "problem" could be attributed to self indulgence, also happens to be the one who made the video. And again, of course he puts himself in the middle.
I don't think a ten year old can think like that. Bullying is horrible, no matter the reason. Bullies will find a reason, trust me. I don't think the severity of the actual abnormality is the issue, you could be thin, fat, have glasses, be in a wheelchair, have braces or have a weird name. The point is that bullies are wrong and you are worth something.
Yeah, yes, and yup. I think it's pointless to compare one person's degree of suffering or reason for being bullied with another's. We can each only experience our own life, through our own eyes and ears and experiences. To start comparing leads to a train of thought that says, "Unless you are suffering this (mark an arbitrary point on the door frame) much and for this (pick an arbitrary color with which to mark) reason then you cannot ride Space Mountain." Getting pedantic about what flavor of bullying the author mentions is just that, pedantic, and misses the entire point of what the author is giving here. Bullying happens. It happens for as many reasons as kids and adults can dream up, and sadly, in this venue, people are terribly creative.
I'm picked on my this "smart" girl in my class who thinks I'm an idiot. She's one of those "love is a weakness" sort of person, but it extends to common courtesy in her case. She may be "smarter" than I am, but I'm polite, classy, and kind (not popular, but that doesn't matter). For some reason, in her mind, my doing things other than study makes me less of a person than she is and gives her the right to be mean to me.
It's her defense mechanism for her low self-esteem. She has to put everyone else down so that she is at the top. If she makes everyone else dumb than she is the smartest person. But I'd bet on you in a writing competition any day so she can't be that smart.
I couldn't find it, not sure what search terms to use, so if you can, yes please, I would like to see it. I thought the narrator said he was fat and that's why he fell out of the tree. But regardless, I'm not sure how you can say, well the reason you were bullied wasn't as bad as the reason someone else was bullied. My son was bullied because he was timid. Younger kids and weaker kids are bullied by older/stronger kids all the time. I was bullied in one school because I was a transfer student. Everyone else knew each other, my friends were now in another school. The reason one is bullied is a separate issue from the effect.
I'm not attacking the message as I am I looked for it, too. Unfortunately, it all got deleted (which means you really missed out). I'm not so much against the message as I am against the messenger. We have three cases. An orphan, a girl born with a "dog" face (terrible, I know), and a fat kid with a loving grandma who feeds him good food. All three of them are bullied. OK, that's bad, but.... Case 1 and Case 2 have serious issues that extend beyond public schooling. Furthermore, these issues cannot be so easily fixed. Case three likely has an eating problem. Big deal. There are ways to fix that. Wreybies mentioned having a cut off line, and my response to that is, absolutely. There are problems that an individual can fix, and then there are larger problems. A self indulgent individual likens his fixable problems to other's people problems who are not fixable. I absolutely refuse to have sympathy for the kid in the video (who again, had the audacity to center himself among the other two) when people like those other two exist.
I see, so this is about your personal issue with fat/obese people? Do you then discount the child who's bullied for who knows what social factors? Does that make it minor and solvable?
My family didn't have a lot of money and my mom made some of our clothes, so I would be the brunt of the bullying at my school. Just because my shoes had the wrong logo and my last name was easy to turn into an insult. I decided to become the class clown and make them laugh at my own expense. It was the best I could do.
"Bullying should be stopped" is a policy in and of itself that I absolutely agree with. The policy should be blind. No one should bully. Agreed. When asking for my sympathy, I have the right to differentiate between real problems and whiny problems. This video is not advocating this policy so much as it is begging for sympathy. The way this video is delivered, I don't so much see "bullying has this and this effect on x% of children from ages a to b and policies to prevent bullying can be implemented by _" so much as I see a guy with an overly dramatic voice, who was provided an overabundance of food as a child, not being able to let go of the past. It's not an invigorating video, it's a self indulgent one.
Hey, that's a real issue and you absolutely have my sympathy. It's cool you were able to do something about it, and of course how you were treated was inexcusable.
Perhaps this is why we have such different takes on this spoken word poem. I don't hear someone asking for sympathy at all. I hear someone offering empathy.
I hear someone saying, words hurt but in the end there is beauty. To me that's a metaphor for prevailing against the pain.
