So this is where "society" is at now...
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If she qualifies as ugly, I must be hideous.
What the fuck is the matter with people? I guarantee the assholes making those comments ain’t supermodels themselves.
Wow. It’s no wonder women in this country have self-image issues. I’m glad she called them out and she is beautiful.
Fuckers.
Well, I’m obviously several levels below “hideous” if she’s considered “ugly,” so there’s that. 🙂
And yes. It would be interesting to post photos of the haters and see how they would measure up as cheerleaders.
I don’t know.
I mean, it’s a rival team and sports fans are fanatics and obnoxious about their teams and how terrible all aspects of other teams are. It’s been like that for a long time.
This doesn’t feel like bullying to me. At what point are we old enough to be able to deal with negative comments maturely?
A child getting bullied is one thing (and should be a matter of degree as I think that some adversity is GOOD), but an adult who gets negative feedback should be able to handle it without calling it bullying.
I don’t know how I feel about this. I don’t think she’s ugly, and she knows she’s not ugly, so why the fuck does it matter what other people say?
Because this is how bullying starts.
Yes, rival teams like to trash talk and this has been going on forever. But this wasn’t a photo of ALL Green Bay cheerleaders… it was one specific girl who was singled out. The ugly comments were specifically directed to her. And it’s not adult banter at a local bar where few people will ever hear it… it’s posted on Facebook for all the world to see. Including the girl being told she’s ugly. Including kids who will read the comments, think this kind of attack is acceptable, and proceed to attack other kids the same way. Including kids who already have low self-esteem because of how they look, and think there’s no hope for them if this lovely young lady is “ugly.” Kids who AREN’T mature enough to deal with negative comments maturely. Which is how we end up children killing themselves because they’re being bullied with this kind of crap.
It matters what other people say because it’s in a very public forum where kids are watching. And learning. And this is how bullying starts.
And just like everything else in life, there are things that happen that kids can misinterpret. Whether it’s bullying, drinking alcohol, swearing, violence on TV, or any number of activities/actions/events that an adult can handle, it’s the job of the parents to tell kids that it’s not okay.
We can’t police everything, nor should we try.
And we both know that there a lot of parents who don’t tell their kids what’s okay, and that’s the problem. Somebody has to stand up and say that it’s not okay to these kids for the sake of other kids. The girl was attacked. She’s fighting back by showing who the real ugly people are. She’s doing it for herself and for those who have nobody to stand up for them. This isn’t “policing”… it’s called “fighting back.” And if the cowards on the internet see that the people they attack might actually come back at them, then maybe they won’t be so quick to attack next time. No, we shouldn’t police everything… but people need to police themselves.
Yes, exactly. She has great support from her parents, family, and friends. Many do not. I worked as a Child Care Teacher with a school district for many years. When I hear people say, it’s the parents job…. I agree, but I also know that is not possible for all kids. There are a lot of parents out there who do not give a crap.
This is definitely bullying, but it is masked by another problem and that is too many people are incapable of supporting their star/team/cause/friends without tying it into debasing their star/team/cause/friends’ opponents. Instead of just rooting for the Bears, a positive experience, they also have to tear-down the Packers, which is a negative experience. Unfortunately people tend to get rewarded by like-minded individuals and this negative action gets reinforced.
I’m a lifelong Chicago Bears fan who bleeds blue and orange. I understand the natural rivalry thing between Green Bay/Chicago and if you aren’t familiar with both the historical significance and the intensity of the rivalry it would be hard to put this in context.
A large laundry list of back-and-forth atrocities have been committed by the supporters, and the players, of both teams going back decades. As vile as it is, and it must be called out for what it is, it actually isn’t all that unusual. There is an element of making other people villains that she’s taking advantage of as well. I can attest that whatever bad things you feel is being directed from one side is also or has also been directed back from the other. And so it goes.
But even as an avid Bears fan I think we have to step back and take a look at this whole thing from a rational perspective. What is sports in America? Sports, along with organized religion, is the opiate of the masses. It allows people to generate superficial identities and caters to the lowest common denominator in human character.
I hate to admit it, but let’s be honest…
The majority of football fans – not just Bears or Packer fans – are sluggard morons. And, in turn, they breed sluggard morons and train their young sluggard morons in the ways of sluggard moronism. To these assholes football is life and death. A loss to “the big rival” (and we Bears fans have been losing to Green Bay right regularly the last few years) is enough to ruin a some people’s entire month. A rational person would say a game is a game and life goes on; but rationality isn’t part of being a fan(atic). They put entirely too much emphasis on connecting the performance of their team with their own self worth. And, obviously, to harass this girl a person would have to have no self-respect to begin with.
I’m liking baseball more and more the older I get. Football is our gladiator sport, even down to the phony concern for player’s safety (the fans don’t care if a guy goes mental from a hundred head hits. Who are we kidding?)
We’ve crossed the line in this culture and in this society a long time ago. This, and the murder of 26 people in an elementary school, are among the many things that have stopped being shocking.
If fans want to trash-talk rival teams, that’s part of the sport and probably isn’t going to change. Particularly with deep-seated rivalries like this. My problem is that one girl was singled out. They posted the picture of one young woman who didn’t measure up to their ideals of what cheerleaders are supposed to look like and people called her ugly. That’s not trash talk. That’s just being mean. That’s being a bully. And when we get to that point, we need to step back and ask ourselves if this is really something we want to be putting out there… because how many little girls out there are going to measure up to these impossible standards? How many little girls will be called “ugly” because other kids see it’s acceptable to bully them that way? How many little girls will see the photo of this beautiful young woman being called “ugly” and walk away destroyed because they’re considered even less beautiful? And how many little girls won’t be able to cope with such torture and take drastic action? You’re right… we’ve crossed the line a long time ago. But it’s never too late to step back, take a look, and fight for something better.
Well she’s doin’ it right and more power to her. Rest assured, though, that there will now be Packer fans who use this as yet another reason to hate – and I want to emphasize that the word I mean to use here is hate – not only the Chicago Bears, but Chicago, Chicago fans, and for that matter all “flatlanders” (their name for people from Illinois, did you know?). So a measure of temperance ought to be instilled in all this. Before this is over – trust me – no one from either “side” is going to be short of atrocious behavior. Eye for an eye. Holier than thou. Pick a bromide. It will probably get some bear fan who shows up at Lambeau Field even worse treatment than they’ve been getting – in retaliation for the treatment Packer fans get at Soldier Field, who were given that in retaliation… etc. etc..
Actually the whole thing is stupid. It’s why I drink too much. I don’t know where it comes from sometimes. Honestly I don’t.
The problem is when people aren’t smart enough to know the difference between rivalry and personal attacks. Honestly, I think most people don’t understand that, and with the technology there is the platform for every horrible person to show their ignorance or inability to learn the difference.
I think this goes beyond the ‘cyberbulling’ label. I think this is actually violence against women, against the cheerleader herself. Epecially the guy who wrote in essentially threatening to rape her. (the guy who talked about having a bag over her head).
sigh.
women are so vunerable and I can’t believe this behavior is excused because of some ‘team rivalry banter’ excuse.
makes me wanna throw up.
bah.
pretty sad stuff here.