Thoughts on the Latest Issue, Pt. 2: Geek Culture and Bullying

TIFFANY FITZPATRICK
The Signal

“With great power, comes great responsibility.” – Uncle Ben, Spiderman

I know that quote to the point that I didn’t even have to look it up before I typed. I do know there are different variations and attributions, but that specific quote comes from Uncle Ben.

I love that it’s okay for me to know that quote. I’m a bit of a geek, a total word-nerd, and some (most) may even (definitely) claim that I’m awkward, at best, in most social situations.

But that’s cool, because it’s trending now.

I don’t know why. Is it the “New Girl” society syndrome? Being weird and quirky is in now but it’ll go away, as trends do, before too long?

Or were my parents right – I’m older now and so are those around me, and now we collectively value knowledge and analytical thinking and all things branded different?

Is it that we’re older now so our own weirdness less embarrasses us? Are we all only a few years away from the embarrassed “mom” groan coming from the backseat because, although we’re convinced it’s cool to be uncool now, our absolute lack of cool is only a symptom of our age – a disorder our children will (rightfully) fear is extremely contagious?

Because we will embarrass our children. Then we’ll laugh, loudly but to ourselves, as we tell them “That’s my job!” when they complain, because we know that it will neither make it better or help in any way.

It’s okay to embarrass them. Parents should be unapologetically themselves. It sets a good example and it can be a healthy method for teaching children how to deal with uncomfortable situations.

As long as it doesn’t go too far.

In this issue’s column “Not Quite An Aesop’s Fable: The Dad Who Cried Bully,” Kelsey talks about the football dad who is embarrassing his son’s entire team by filing a bullying complaint against the opposing, winning team’s coach.

She calls the complaint “an insult to kids who are truly bullied.”

The column makes a lot of good points, but that sentence is one that really caught my attention. Because those few words speak a lot of truth.

Anyone who has ever played any game, ever, knows that it’s not-so-awesome to lose. It feels bad and makes even the most mature losers want to stomp their foot, just a little. It stinks to play well into six hours of Monopoly, only to lose to the kid brother who lucked into the prized Park Place/Boardwalk combination.

It stinks to practice for months only to come in second to a team that seems like it’s simply running on good luck.

With sports, especially football, it really stinks to be the people in the stands, rallying behind a team and pouring energy and excitement into your support, only to watch them lose come game day.

But absolutely none of that compares to being a kid who tries every day to fit in, who practices and perfects the little things that he thinks will help him do that on weekends and during summers, without fail and with more dedication than a professional athlete, and who still comes home every day feeling like he’s losing at life.

Those kids are why there are anti-bullying measures in place. Those kids are why we need to protect those measures from being abused and torn apart until they’re nothing more than the punch line of a joke.