Here are a couple of scenic shots I took by the hospital. Okay, if you read my blog at all, you can't be surprised that I'm a total lame-ass. Tonight, I'm tired. I didn't sleep very well last night for no reason in particular, and I've decided to lean on my new favorite crutch these days and put up another post from the other blog. This one was written in January of 2006 when Coadster was in 8th grade and it's a bit of a rant. Shocking, I know. Anyway, here we go:
I kind of have a thing for water towers. For some reason, I find them interesting.Since I've been talking about lists the last few posts, I figured I'd add one more thing. Actually, I wasn't talking about lists per se - I was talking more about why I don't make lists but then I made a couple and so now I'm worried people may start calling me organized and screwing up my whole M. O. What's next? Will people start calling me tidy or girlie or rich and forcing me to start a campaign directing them to the picture in the previous post where I was wearing chaps and running a chain saw to dispel the evil rumors?
So, on with this topic of lists which happens to be very timely in my house. Some kids in my daughter's class compiled one of those horrible lists that have probably existed since the beginning of time. It named off about 2o of the girls in 8th grade and attempted to cut them down. Instead of the crumpled piece of paper that went from sweaty hand to sweaty hand in my school, this kid used a blog site called the "bitch site" to post all the disses. In true junior high form, each girl listed had something wrong with them; either they were hot but crazy or cool but ugly. Any well endowed girls were accused of stuffing their bras, some girls were described as fugly and the worst were the girls that were "fat fugly bitches who smelled bad". Coadster was on there. She was described as ok but ugly. I told her that was bullshit. Guys in junior high will call a girl ugly because they think it's the worst insult they can give. She was just surprised anyone knew her well enough to add her to the list at all.
I did control myself from saying, "Coadster, you tell those boys that they're shallow stupid assholes with low self-esteem. You let them know that you're mom thinks you're beautiful and they should all go straight to hell!" I really wanted to say it, but I knew that if I did, Coadster would roll her eyes so hard that they would never come back down and we'd only see the whites for the rest of her life. Instead I said, "Don't give them any power by posting a response. If everyone ignored them, they'd stop because it wouldn't be any fun." She promptly disregarded everything I said and spent a half hour composing a scathing comment on their site. I'm sure I would have done much worse if I were her age.
They didn't tear the guys apart individually but instead made a list entitled, "Gay Ass Faggots" and put about ten boy's names under it. I'm not sure if the "gay ass" part was supposed to be as opposed to "straight ass faggots" or if the guys on the list had heterosexual arms and legs and only their asses were gay. If I hadn't already told Coadster not to comment, I might have left one myself to ask for clarification. Then I thought about entitling my own blog post, "Lists and the gay ass faggots who make them" but I didn't want someone who didn't know me to think I was serious. I don't really think that way, I just make fun of people who do.
The thing that kills me about all of this is that the whole listing off of the ugly bitches and sluts in junior high has existed forever. I'm sure that some of those early cave drawings were really pictures of the fugly fat Cro-Magnon bitches who smelled bad. Will we ever evolve away from that kind of shallow, insecure tearing apart of our peers in junior high? Sure, now they use a blog instead of a crumpled piece of paper, but the sentiment is still unchanged. So, really all we've done is created better devices in which to dispense the same, stale, cruel, pubescent torture.
10 comments:
It's not surprising considering girls are much harder on themselves..as for the ""Gay Ass Faggots" they usually are.. and for a boy to not have much ingenuity in saying a girl is ugly..There are different types in school,, Blogging about it like you said has only chnaged how the message is passed on..very true and very sad..
Churlita,
No, it'll never change.
rel
It's like a burn book. Ahhh, I've heard of such things.
I'm from the hicks--if we talked shit it was straight to someone's face.
I remember once my wife read an article in Cosmo and convinced me that I would like it if she stuck her finger up my ass. I allowed her to do this and then asked her to stop. Halfway through it, I realized that I wasn't getting much pleasure from the act and that it indeed made me feel like a "gay ass faggot." I think the moment a man has ever experience the feeling of his backside wet with KY, they then qualify as members of the "gay ass faggot" club. So yeah, head sholders knees and toes are all hetero, but(t) there are other parts of the body that have gone both ways.
It's the strangest thing, but I honestly didn't know such a thing happened. Good thing, too. I came with that 'smack down the bullies' and 'oh, really? You want to see the power of words? Shall we unleash one or two on you?' gene. I'm sorry, I'd have been sitting right beside Coadster, cooking up a reply.
Man, that would have torn me apart if that happened to me in high school. I love your comment about the whites in the eyes...
That's awful! I know that stuff happens, but fortunately not to me (I would have died) or to any of my kids (I would have killed). Well, it probably happened, but none of us knew about it....
There is nothing much meaner on this earth than a 13 year old boy, especially when you are a 13 year old girl.
The rumor that went around about me when I was in the 8th grade was that I was a lesbian because I had never been kissed. It could have been a lot worse so I didn't mind.
Yeah, I remember this - killed me. I would have written back to them and called their moms or something, but that woulda been the worst. People are such jerks.
Mrs.,
Jr high is a scary, scary place for most people, I think.
REl,
Sadly, you're right.
Susan,
That's good. Maybe we should move to the sticks where people are upfront and then it's over.
Todd,
Hmmm. That's a quaint little story. I knew there was a reason I didn't read Cosmo. Thanks for using such great detail to explain how certain parts could be more hetero than others...I think.
Booda Baby,
Coadster would have loved to have loved to have had you around for that.
Nor,
Me too. Coadster was surprisingly not all that phased by it all.
LauraB.,
I'm glad you all made it through unscathed.
Lady,
Wow, I wonder what they would have thought about me.I didn't get kissed until I was 19.
Poptart,
Enough of us called the school that that site got shut down the next day.
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