You do realize that there is considerably less stigma to being an LGBT kid today than even ten years ago right? Many of them are even, gasp, popular. If anything, a hyper-religious kid would be just as ripe for ridicule.
Hmm. Perhaps I should be paying more attention to those “Catholics Come Home” commercials.
Really? They’re popular amongst the hyper-religious kids and would never be bullied by that demographic? Who’d have known?
That’s not what I said. I said LGBT teens aren’t as stigmatized amongst all high schoolers like they were even ten years ago.
And then I said that the hyper-religious kid will often be the subject of ridicule as well. Ever had a Jehovah’s Witness in your high school? The “why don’t you celebrate Christmas?” jokes start in first grade and never stop.
While he was at UF, it was pretty well known around Gainesville that he would ride his scooter without wearing a helmet. Given that the university was trying to convince all the students to wear helmets while riding at the time, it made for a very very minor scandal. (i.e. something for local columnists to write about on slow news days).
What do I know? I watch the news and all the talk is about bullying and it sounds frightening and a lot of it they say revolves around these kids. I believed them.
I mean you go online and read stuff like this
and I think, thank god they’re not stigmatized any more. Can you imagine what it USED to be like? Now, at least one kid out of 10 gets cut some slack.
In any case. I wasn’t pondering some random kid bullying a LGBT kid, I was pondering a fundamental conservative christian doing the bullying and the news kinda hints that this particular group might not be on board with the non straight lifestyle if you get my drift.
There’s your first mistake. The news sensationalizes everything. Just look at the semi-recent story of Phoebe Prince. The news originally painted it as a girl being absolutely tortured for months by a pack of Mean Girls. But when one reporter dug deeper, she found out that Prince 1) had a history of depression that traces back to before she ever entered school 2) was only “bullied” over a span over a few days and 3) attempted suicide after her boyfriend of a few weeks dumped her.
Nothing is ever as simple as the news makes it out to be.
Read for comprehension. I said they’re not AS stigmatized. Of course LGBT kids are still bullied. Just like I was bullied back in my high school days. And as I’m sure just like you were. Everyone was bullied.
But it is MUCH BETTER today for all kids than it was even 10 years ago. For your hypothetical gay kid and for nerds like me.
…well, OK, so I guess the thread is not about Tebow any more. Wonder if Theophane even has checked in to follow up…
What I don’t comprehend was what your point was in the first place? You did not say they were not AS stigmatized you said “you do realize” they were considerably less stigmatized and many were gasp even popular. So?
As you said, they’re still bullied. The post you quoted didn’t even talk about LGBT kids at all.
Of course, your “the media always gets it wrong” ( the story of that one straight girl totally blows away all the statistics I’ll grant you ) and “religious people are the real bullied ones nowadays” leads me to believe I get your point but just to be sure, how was your first post relevant to anything I’d said again?
Lets assume that after your anecdote above that I now do indeed realize it. So?
I’m not even sure what the discussion is about anymore. I guess all my replies in this thread go back to my first post in it. I think Tebow’s the real deal, so I don’t find it very likely that he was a bully. That’s pretty much it.
Other than the automatic anti-religious reaction from some I think most are like me, I don’t hate the kid I hate the hype. If you watch one game it’s easy to see he does not have the skills to be a pro quarterback. His team won multiple games this year but mostly on the strength of their defense and kicker. And tebow had some good running plays. tebow himself seems like a nice genuine guy. He just won’t be a quarterback long term. He doesn’t have the arm and the legs will go after being hit in the nfl. And I am totally non-religious and don’t particularly like public displays of faith.
I’ve always agreed with that (the not being a bully part, I don’t think he’s the real deal at QB ) and since Theophane never came back to defend his post I think we can move on from the bullying thing.
To an extent I suppose we are seeing a backlash against an overhype of Tebow, who may have been a perfectly fine Heisman-quality player, but that fact is a poor indicator of future NFL superstar status. Said overhype brought to us by sports media who decided to latch on to the human-interest angle of his piety as his “different” thing, knowing full well that on the one side the pious among the audience would say “Oh, yea! Witness for the Lord on the big stage!” while on the other side some of the more masochistic among the antirreligious would follow the story just to try to see him fail, win-win for the media. Annoyingly, the focus on the human-interest story means that people overlook whether he’s living up to the hype football-wise, thus insulating him from critics by making it look as if it’s merely resentment of his public piety.
Honestly, I’ve been ragging on Tebow because it’s trendy. I think the whole meme is rather funny and I’ve seen some clever jokes.
I don’t follow college football and passively follow the NFL (though I love watching the sport) and my reaction to Tebow as a player has been to be underwhelmed. I don’t think he’s that good, but he’s been winning and I don’t have the skills to evaluate whether I think he’ll improve. I’m rather indifferent to the Broncos and I don’t think I could even name another player on the team.
I tend to find all witnessing to be irritating, and I haven’t actually watched enough Denver games to notice him doing it more than anyone else. I roll my eyes at all of it or snark back at the TV anyways. Now there’s just a term for what players do… tebowing…and it makes me laugh.
I admit, I’m easily amused.
He’s gonna get crushed by the Steel Curtain this Saturday? 