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Friday, October 28, 2011

Any number above zero is too high

I shouldn't like Bobbi French. I mean, the woman is living the life I want and I should be crazy jealous. Let's examine the evidence against her.

1. She's tall. (She refers to herself as a giraffe.)
2. She's thin. (Don't listen to her about this. She's thin.)
3. Her silver hair is even more gorgeous than mine ;-D AND AND! she has the bone structure to wear her hair cropped a la Jamie Curtis. Who, I might add, Bobbie resembles.
4. She's smart. As in, she's a doctor smart.
5. She's living in France with a gorgeous husband who cooks and rubs her feet. And there are no surly teenagers or cats weighing her down.

Need I go on?

But here's the thing. Because she's so damned funny and intelligent and witty and kind and interesting and humane and because she's from Newfoundland (it matters, y'all), I am forced to overlook all those superficial reasons for not liking her. I adore Bobbi French. And as if I needed another reason to adore her, there's this post which will give you some context for the video below.



Now get out there and spread this message around. This has to stop now. My kids are going to hear about this tonight when they get home and every day after. I'm going to be a cd stuck on repeat, a record with a needle stuck, a gramophone....well,  you get the idea. It's not enough for me to remind them that bullying is wrong and will not be tolerated, but they also need to spread the word among their friends and they need to shame and shun anyone who still thinks bullying is okay.

But I'll be honest with you, adults are a big part of the problem. The high school where Sophie will attend won't even allow a Gay/Straight Alliance to form. That's an adult problem, not a bullying problem.

I'm pledging here and now to call this bullshit out wherever I see it. I hope you will, too.

22 comments:

  1. So not knowing Bobbi French, I take away from your post that she is a well educated, witty, homosexical????

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  2. Except for that whole gorgeous husband, former psychiatrist who specialized in working with at risk youth, yes, Nix. Silly.

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  3. Thank you for introducing me to Bobbi French, I've got her all hooked up in my reader now.

    It appalls me that this sort of bullying still goes on.

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  4. Kids don't learn that shit in a vacuum, and no, that's not blaming the interwebs or hovering all Orwellian over the offspring, merely getting them to recognize bullshit, and subsequently call bullshit on the bullshit, but you already know that, mon homie.

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  5. We have a political party (and its religious arm) that profit from pushing this, R.G.
    ~

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  6. Calling out bullshit whenever ... Perhaps the metaphor ... please take a flyswatter and put an end to war.

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  7. It's so sad that all of these people are committing suicide. It really does break my heart.

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  8. Bobbi French rules.

    And, I pledge to do the same, Lisa!

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  9. Both of your posts are excellent. The bullying of anyone who dares to be different is an outrage.

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  10. and all these religious right wing conservative wingnuts who shovel their rampant homophobia at us have one foot in the closet, and the other in some men's room in some airport somewhere. continue...

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  11. I know I shouldn't be surprised *at all* that a school (any school, really) in the U.S. wouldn't allow a gay-straight alliance to form...yet when I first heard this, right in that instant when I let my own reasoning reign, it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard.

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  12. That's a great rant. I dearly love the whole "assembly-cops-consequences" part because he is absolutely right. The kids who bully need to understand they bear some responsibility.

    At the same time, so do school administrators, teachers, the parents of other kids. They are responsible for not being proactive enough against anti-gay bigotry. They are responsible for not creating policies that address not only sexual difference, but any difference as a positive thing. They are responsible for sitting at home and carrying on about the dangers homosexuals pose to our way of life. All this adds up to laying the death of these kids at the doorstep of a whole lot of people, and being explicit when they are told, "Live with this corpse for the rest of your life. It's yours. You bought it, you paid for it."

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  13. I hear you--- my oldest kid used the word "retarded" as a catch all phrase.
    It bothers the hell out of me & I called him out on it every time.

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  14. Excellent posts - both of them, and perfect video. MG and I were just talking about this today. Being gay is not a huge issue at our public school but we are the exception.

    No Gay-Straight Alliance? What are they so afraid of?

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  15. Bobbi's great, is she not? And this was one disturbing post. So awful, it happens everywhere. Kids needs to be so brave out there with all the Internet traffic as well, and parents have to know what is going on! Ciao cat

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  16. I, too, vow to call Bullshit! more often. The older I get, the quieter I've actually become. You'd think it'd be the reverse.

    But now that I think about it, you know why I'm quieter? Because I hate getting into it with a bully!!! I need to start standing up to them again. And we all know there are both child and adult bullies.

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  17. Yes! We have to stand up to this bullshit -- because I totally agree: it is coming as much (if not more) from adult influence than from ignorant teens. B

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  18. All I can say is that both my sons have gay friends who they say are wonderful and happy and accepted by their peers. My children tell me that homophobia is a thing of my generation, not theirs.

    I hope to God they're right.

    We need this change. We need it now.

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  19. Who needs skinny thighs, anyway? Not you, Lisa, you've got the cup-size advantage.

    I loved this rant on Bobbi's site, and as the mom of a gay boy, it does my heart good to feel supported. (He just went to a protest against that crazy "God hates fags" chick yesterday. I'm so proud of him.)

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  20. I was really gratified to learn that my 15 year old nephew got involved in protesting his (Catholic) school's outlawing of a Gay-Straight alliance.

    When I think back to my own high school years and the likelihood of such an alliance and any student's (particularly boys) support of such a thing, it becomes apparent about how much things have changed, despite the desperate attempts by bigots fighting it under the guise of religion.

    It's up to parents. Bigotry, homophobia, intolerance, anger - these are not natural tendencies. If a kid is walking around with these things, it's learned.

    Sure glad Mercer went viral on this one.

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And then you say....

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