Anti-bullying signal-boost.

[gaudior]

People have been talking about bullying lately. Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project has drawn attention to the suicides of gay teenagers, and has inspired the Make It Better Project, to give youth and concerned adults the tools they need to stop bullying in the schools. (I strongly recommend MIBP's Take Action page, which has such useful links as information about The Safe Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 2262/S. 3739) and how you can support it). And both homasse and seishonagon linked to an insightful and useful article by Kate Harding, On Good Kids and Total Assholes.

I'm glad people are talking about this so much-- it's making me think about my own childhood, and how much I accepted kids making fun of me, ostracizing me, and generally making me miserable as "just the way things are." That understanding of the universe and my place in it had long-lasting effects, and I am delighted and grateful that people now are talking seriously about how to stop bullying.

(I may at some point make a larger post, but at the moment, I wanted to signal-boost. Yay, signal-boosting.)

--R

Comments

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

I've also seen a lot of friends, listening to the fat acceptance movement, get over their guilt about body size enough to actually do something about their health

Okay. So, right now my thought is that we have encountered two vastly different aspects (proponents?) of the "Fat Acceptance" movement. Because, this? Sounds like a great thing.

But what I've encountered is 1) people who claim that being fat is in no way detrimental to one's health (this includes Kate Harding), and 2) people who ostracize others in the movement if they decide to lose weight. And neither of those things, to me, is acceptable, even if the idea of support groups for people who are overweight/obese is a great one.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Okay. So, right now my thought is that we have encountered two vastly different aspects (proponents?) of the "Fat Acceptance" movement.

That's quite possible. I've never encountered or been part of a movement that didn't have a few very loud idiots. And I'm glad you're not objecting to the existence of the whole movement, which was my original interpretation.

I'm sorry that you've had to deal with (2). That's horrible. One of these days, humans will learn how to accept that people can choose differently from them without seeing that choice as a criticism.