I have recently seen a few commercials for this campaign:
I understand the sentiment behind the message, but it is also somewhat troubling to me. It seems to me to be acquiescing to the status quo and sending the message that gay teens should deal with the bullying they receive now, because it will get better in the future.
Shouldn’t the message be directed at the unacceptable behavior of the bullies?
I suppose I see the value in helping kids cope with the current climate towards homosexuality, but at the same time I think sending them the message that they just need to get through this tough time and things will get better is missing the larger problem…they shouldn’t have to deal with this at all.
Do you think this campaign sends the right message to gay teens?
It’s not acquiescing to the status quo, it’s making the perfectly true observation that gay teens will have a lot more control of their life after high school than they do during it, and they shouldn’t let their current problems blind them to the possibility that their future may well be brighter than their present. It’s about combating teenage tunnel vision.
No, they shouldn’t. And women shouldn’t have to deal with sexism, and minorities shouldn’t have to deal with racism, either - but they do. Homophobia, like other social ills, isn’t ever likely to go away completely. That’s one reason helping gay kids develop strategies for coping with it is important.
The message of the campaign is “don’t kill yourself.” It started last year in a response to a couple of high profile suicides by gay kids - last I heard, they are much more likely to committ suicide than other teenagers. There are already campaigns against bullying. The message of that campaign is that even if they’re being bullied, it’s not always going to be like that.
Yeah, I actually thought this might be more of a campaign against teen suicide…it is just for a specific population.
Artemis, I agree that no one should have to deal with any discrimination, but that is not the world we live in. However, the types of messages we deliver to the groups that you mention are not, “don’t be depressed because you belong to some repressed group”. The message is usually, “it is wrong to oppress group X”.
Perhaps my whole issue is easily dismissed by looking at this as suicide prevention campaign, rather than a gay rights one. I still feel like it is taking some of the focus off of the wrong doing of the bully and putting it the responsibility on victim to re-frame their reality. Not that that isn’t a beneficial strategy sometimes…
But I think you’re misunderstanding the message a little. The point is not “Just put up with the bullying, and eventually it will stop,” although that may be what a kid ultimately has to do; the point is, “Don’t kill yourself, because there’s a better life waiting for you.” But it doesn’t actually recommend putting up with the bullying; in fact, I would imagine that *more *kids might be motivated to try to fight back against the bullying if they believe that there’s a future for them, then if they just feel like giving up entirely.
And yes, there should also be other messages directed at the bullies, telling them their behavior is unacceptable. But this isn’t about the harm that other people do; it’s specifically about the harm that kids do to themselves, and so it’s rightly directed toward them.
As others have said, it’s an anti-suicide campaign, not an anti-bullying campaign. Telling someone who feels helpless enough to be suicidal that a) bullying is a bad thing that shouldn’t be happening or b) you should be doing something to stop it (implying that somehow you are responsible for the treatment you are enduring) does nothing to prevent suicide.
I fully support anti-bullying campaigns, but given the prevalence of bullying, and the fact that many still see it as an inevitable right of passage, I think an immediate response to the suicides of gay teens is more necessary and more likely to be effective.
It is. Dan Savage started the campaign after a couple of suicides. The only one I remember is Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers student who killed himself after his roommate used a webcam to spy on him making out with another student and then posted it online.
Correct. It’s not about gay rights. It’s about the risk of suicide among gay teens.
I think it’s helpful - it shows the non-gay population a new side of things and it tells gay teens that suicide is not the answer because this will not be the rest of your life.
How was Dan Savage supposed to create a nationwide campaign to get homophobic bullies to stop picking on gender nonconforming high school kids?
He couldn’t do a damn thing to stop bullies. But he could post a video explaining to victims of bullying that it doesn’t last forever. That there’s a possible future for you, rather than just blankness. To show kids that you can become a gay adult, and the problems of high school are transitory.
And the biggest problem that lots of kids face isn’t that they’re bullied by other kids, is that they don’t have the support of their family or other adults. A black kids can go back home to his black family and talk about racial problems. But a gay kid is going to come home to his straight parents, and a decent fraction of those gay parents are going to be anti-gay in various ways themselves.