Comment by martinced | Hacker News Reader

Comment by martinced | Hacker News Reader

I think it's very finely done. I'm impressed by the quality of that animation and the voice is both great and touching in its tone.

I'd say part of the solution is explained in the animation itself: you don't have to feel this way if you're getting bullied.

Parents have a role to play. My parents always told me to not pay attention (I was the smallest kids in my class from 4 years old to 15 years old or so, so people would tease me all the time). And I didn't pay attention.

Then he talks in the animation about bearded girls: parents have to intervene here. I was a boy but when I started having a mustache, which looked silly in retrospect on the tiniest kid in the class, they offered me an electric razor. I hated that day the day it happened. But then I realized I had to shave.

Same for bearded girls: parents have to take her to do laser elimination of the beard. Common.

If parents have a fat kid, they should confiscate coke and sodas and force the kid to go exercice a bit. A daily run. Something. It was tennis and bycicling for me (not that I've ever been fat).

Sure bullying is lame. But acting like a victim is not ok.

I agree that fighting back is not always easy, but it's not always mandatory to physically fight back either. As someone else already commented here: if they insult you, you can fight back verbally (being smart makes it all too easy to be really mean in retaliation ; )

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent".

We're all past the age of getting bullied and we can understand that nobody can make us feel inferior without our consent. Now we have to remember to raise our kids properly, so that they never become victims.

No. I'm sure your intentions are fine, but this is not good advice.

We cannot keep perpetuating this idea that you have to fit in. That right there is one of the most harmful memes in our Western society today.

If a kid wants to use the razor to shave, that's fine. If a kid has a problem with obesity, yes, support that kid and help that kid find a better, healthier path.

But not in order to avoid oppression. Because it's better for his or her health. For her, or his, self esteem.

A person close to me was severely bullied when she moved to a new school. She was the only person with dark skin in a school of white Northern Europeans, at a time when there were racists in parliament and a serial killer was murdering persons of color.

What do you figure she would do to fit in?

It's the bullies that has to change. The silent bystanders. Us. We must say "Wow, you have beautiful facial hair". We must embrace diversity.

Not eradicate it.

This is bad advice.

Kids don't start out strong, they aren't magically born with all the skills they need to be an adult. And we understand this, which is why we have different norms for children than for adults. When someone has grown into adulthood they may finally have their shit together and they may have acquired enough self-confidence to be able to handle bullying. But kids are not that way. And though we should try to guide kids towards becoming more mature along the way to adulthood we should not expect and especially not require that they have the maturity of an adult just in order to live day to day.

Telling people not to become victims is often not helpful. It's good to be more self-reliant and self-assured. But that does in no way diminish the damage done by the perpetrators or their culpability for that damage.

> We're all past the age of getting bullied and we can >understand that nobody can make us feel inferior without >our consent. Now we have to remember to raise our kids >properly, so that they never become victims.

I don't think there is an age limit on being bullied. And while nobody can make us feel a certain way, they can certainly create an environment where it's an uphill struggle to remain positive.

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