Really, people? Really?

[meridian_rose]

Young girl bullied for liking Star Wars. Story at Star Wars Blog; also Go to Geek Girls, ACTIVATE!! has the details and you can leave a comment in support of Katie. If you tweet, add the hashtag: #MayTheForceBeWithKatie to show love for girls loving scifi.

Is it me or is bullying starting earlier than ever? And to be bullied for liking something that's "for boys" so a girl feels she has to conform by getting a pink water bottle rather than one from her favourite fandom - just makes me rage.

Comments

[talath-dirnen.livejournal.com]

Ha-ha!!! Show me that people I KILL them!!! I love cars and F-1 Races from 10 years old. Is racers and cars only for boys???

*CRAZY*

[ale-rambles.livejournal.com]

aww Poor girl! :( that's heartbreaking, and she's soo young, but I've been reading all the blogs and articles about it, and the level of responses is overwhelming.
I hope she'll feel much better after knowing that there are thousand of females fans out there, and not all boys think SW is for boys-only either. :)

[meridian_rose]

I know! Grrr! I hate seeing adverts where only boys play with pretend tools and only girls play with pink cookery toys! Let children play with all sorts of toys and read all sorts of books and they will decide what they like!

[meridian_rose]

Yes, at least that's something good to come out of this, so many people supporting her by saying they are fans too! Because I was raised in a household that loved scifi I had no idea this was not a "normal" thing for people generally or girls in particular; even now in fandom I meet many more females than males so I find it odd that people still imagine Star Wars or any other scifi or fantasy is somehow "for boys/men".

[ale-rambles.livejournal.com]

I actually grew up in a culture that didn't understand scifi much, but it was certainly Not-for Girls! XD

So I grew up watching Boy-Shows and never even met another girl who liked any kind of scifi until I was about 20something and joined a fanclub (A Trek club to be exact, but that was before internet fandoming ROFL).

I was still the only girl into Star Trek, for example, but the Star Wars club had a pretty equal amount of boys and girls (and we were not enemies, in fact, we did a lot of scifi events together :P)

[16beckyb.livejournal.com]

Women have been active in science fiction fandoms for years.

The Star Trek fandom brought back a cancelled TV series from the 60's - they kept it alive, they arranged conventions, they wrote fan fics. Finally their pressure brought the show back for 9 movies (another one in the works) and 3 more television series.

What does this have to do with anything? The ST fandom, despite the stereotype that has been generated over the years, was completely dominated by women.

[meridian_rose]

Exactly! And yet the myth persists that scifi is for boys or that girls will only watch if there's more romance than action - or that men won't watch it if it's appealing to women! In RL it's harder to find women who watch anything other than soap operas and reality tv but in fandom generally it's easy to find other women to connect with.

[meridian_rose]

Life before the internet! However did we manage :D
I'm so glad you found other fans to connect with!

[mistress-triple.livejournal.com]

wtf? i was always more into boy things then girls. i played football with guys all the time. never with girls.
i was bullied from two older girl in kindergarten and from that moment on i knew to stood up. in elementary school no one touch me. but that is not the answer.

teachers should put the stop into bulling. there are too much of it

[meridian_rose]

I've never liked sports but I always liked boys better to study with - less "bitchy" than girls. And badminton was an okay sport when we played with boys as well, more friendly :) (I was always the one who was picked last for teams in netball, rounders, hockey, etc, and it was one more thing for the other girls to be nasty about; whereas in badminton we just got into sets of four without arguing)

I agree whole heartedly about the bullying needing to be stopped now. We are hearing so much lately about the terrible effects of bullying amongst teenagers. If children are taught early enough about not being hateful perhaps, just perhaps, they'll learn not to be hateful later in life.

[mistress-triple.livejournal.com]

true, boys are less bitchy. maybe that was also the reason why i preferred to be with boys :D

i think we need to learn children patience.

[greatshow.livejournal.com]

Teachers can't stop all or even most of it, though. It's especially difficult to stop in high school, where the kids are smarter, slicker, meaner, and borderline adults, if not adults already. There are always going to be a group of girls spreading rumors about other girls, for example. There's a reason so many people say high school is hell. With boys, yep, certainly aren't as bitchy/messy as girls, I agree, which is one aspect I can favor males for.

[greatshow.livejournal.com]

Then again, I have come across some pretty bitchy males, but they are usually gay (LOL).

[meridian_rose]

I think we're hoping that lessons of tolerance can be taught early on. High school is too late for many kids, who've spent their whole lives picking on those who are different with no consequences. I dread to think how awful some kids are going to be at high school if they're already starting to bully at such a young age.
It was disheartening seeing some people on one of the blogs claiming that it wasn't bullying. As if verbal abuse, being made to feel you are somehow 'wrong' and socially unacceptable, is nothing to get upset over. That's the sort of attitudes that need tackling, though I don't know how; with young kids might be the only option since some of those saying it's not a big deal are parents and clearly aren't going to instil tolerance and respect into their kids.

It shouldn't be up to teachers to do everything. It's up to parents to teach their kids respect. And it's up to society as a whole to stop mistreating people. No easy answers or ways to deal with this :( On the other hand, so much support for this girl is a good thing, letting her know that so many others are "different".

[greatshow.livejournal.com]

Very well said.

And anyone claiming verbal abuse isn't bullying is just being plain silly or stupid. Do people actually believe that to bully someone you must physically beat them up? Just look at girls. While many boys go to the physical, most girls don't have to go to that level; they do it (bully) in other ways, such as rumor-spreading, as I mentioned above. Internet stalking/abuse has already taken the lives of young teens (the bullied teens ended up committing suicide). So to say that verbal abuse -- words -- do no harm...it's just completely ignorant. That old saying "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is not entirely accurate.