Think about the images, texts, phrases, and videos our eyes
scan each and everyday… Do you ever look
at the way they connect to one another, much like a woven rope, each piece adds
something to the discussion. Each one of those piece is unique, much like
every person; however society has ingrained into the minds of these
individuals a certain way of life, gender norms, and morals. It has long
been thought inappropriate to go against societal norms, yet there has been a
trend of males and females being labeled as different, including students that
are GLBT or even associated with these “kinds” of people. With labeling follows
ostracism, bullying and sometimes even suicide. Due to these forms of
abuse, organizations have since been formed in order to counteract the
injustice against those who may be considered “different”. Exposure of
this type of abuse has been publicized through all types of media, including
several anecdotes of children and their
tragedies regarding bullying, images depicting what these children face on a daily basis, and video trying to encourage and
support those who are different, so that further tragedies do not occur.
Each of these carries with it, strengths and weaknesses and provides exposure
to a variety of audience.
Blog entries are becoming increasingly popular with the assortment of tragedies
spreading across the US due to GLBT bullying. The
Seth Walsh story has become one of the most nationalized cases of
bullying leading to suicide. Seth Walsh was bullied since the 5th grade, and even after several attempts
to communicate with school officials, they ignored calls from Wendy Walsh,
Seth’s Mom. Not only was Seth bullied by other classmates, at one point
teacher called him "fruity" in front of his entire class. The
ignorance of the school system was ironic considering they are the
"leaders" and should be promoting tolerance, yet they were the spark
needed to light the fire of bullying that continued.
Seth endured a life that no child should ever have to go through; the community was in shock
at tragedy of his suicide. Pre-suicide, Seth asked his mom for a pen,
said he was "going to play with dogs in the backyard", Wendy later
found Seth hanging from the family tree in the backyard. In the note
Seth wrote before, he expressed his love towards his family, noting that he blamed
bullies "for bringing you this sorrow". The anecdote discussed
is one of ignorance of the school system, followed by the tragic suicide of
Seth when he was only thirteen. This
young man was, “not happy with his orientation”. Each detail fuels more
anger and a need for change to anti-discrimination and anti-bullying policies.
Because a community was shattered, many scrambled to put together a
support system for other children, so that this
wouldn't happen again.
This hits home for many parents who have children that are being bullied, and offers
motivation to become activists in the campaign to install permanent
anti-harassment policies within the school system. The Blog was begun by
Wendy so that other parents and children
would not have to go through the suffering that she and her family went
through. In addition, the blog targets schools to increase their
anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies and since there has been change.
The U.S Departments of Justice and Education and did a full fledged investigation
of how the school administrators handled the harassment. The
conclusion was that for over two years Seth had been previously bullied and the
schools had done nothing to punish those responsible. The people
responsible for protecting our children had
lacked to fulfill that very responsibility and let down not only
the families but more importantly Seth. It is unfortunate that it
takes such a tragedy to cause change; however the outcome of this blog is the
future protection of other youth.
The image
on the left is taken from the, “NO MORE! Campaign Against Youth
Bullying”. This particular campaign is an advocate for safe schools,
targeting school administrators and parents, in the process of ending anti-GLBT
bullying in the school system. Users may
post blogs of how they have gone about change in their school system, as well
as ask for help to promote change. The
images shown on this site, each articulate a fear of individuals, who felt
targeted at school. The site was created
in order to provide a movement to ensure safer schools, similar to “The Seth
Story”, as well as providing a way to promote tolerance in learning
environment.
Notice how the image propagates the male stereotype of
homophobia. There is an unsaid golden rule when it comes to using a men’s
restroom; you are to use the stall furthest away from other men, in this case
it would be the two end stalls. The derogatory comments are aimed for
those who seemingly already break social norms by being GLBT or “different”,
and therefore pointing at the middle stall which would continue the trend of
violating a social norm.
By further analyzing the image, notice the harsh lightening symbolizing a cold,
unpleasant environment for particular students. Also, the orange of the tiles
make the urinals and the writing particularly stand out, highlighting the
obvious problem. There is definite irony is the fact that each urinal is
exactly the same, yet a label somehow changes its meaning. It is
unfortunate that many children are afraid to
leave classrooms and enter into the cruel world of bullying. Much like, “The Seth Story”, the message is
very clear, every child deserves
respect, and a safe environment, and this is exactly what this campaign is
aimed at. Out of unfortunate instances,
incredible support systems have since been created to prevent further bullying;
both the “The Seth Story” and the “No More!” campaign have done exactly this.
A piece of information often disregarded is GLBT bullying is hope. Hope
is a sense of something better coming out of a bad situation in this
case. Many are bullied for a majority of their childhood and feel hopeless for a better life, often leading to
depression or even suicide. Back in
2010, in partnership with Terry Miller, author Dan Savage created the “It Gets
Better” campaign in response to an obscene amount of suicides among the youth
population. The responses range from youth individuals wishing to offer their
support, to the president of the United States , which adds credibility
and is a prime example of authority. The "It Gets Better" campaign
provides more personal support systems to GLBT youth, showing that there are
people who will stand up against intolerance, and through that it can get
better.
The video done by
the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, was posted to the “It Gets Better”
campaign website, and is appropriately called “True Colors”. Through the use of apostrophe, the men make
direct eye contact throughout the video, which shows a focus audience and
connects with those that may be having a hard time with bullying. In
addition, the group slowly approaches the camera, which works together with the
lyrical composition in adding a sense of community. The
lyrical composition works in harmony with the crescendo throughout, by starting
with “You with those sad eyes” and finishing with the supportive simile,
“You’re beautiful like a rainbow”. From
beginning to end, the entire song is a huge metaphor for the life of an
individual who has been through bullying, starting off slow and soft with
increasingly added volume to symbolize the support and love made available to
them through sites such as, “The Seth Story”, the “No More! Campaign against
Youth Bullying” and the “It Gets Better” project.
There is visible emotion from each of the singers,
providing an atmosphere of sincerity and hope. There are men of all ages
and ethnicities that are singing, and symbolizing a support system
larger than just friends. By the end of the composition, each of the men
has their families at their sides, which is just an utter sense of hope and
support. The message is, being different is something to celebrate not to
be ashamed of, and there are people everywhere that will like and support
regardless of sexuality or a “difference”.
The last words spoken by the crowd are, “It Gets Better!” This text proves to be effective for all
types of people because it shows a community, a vital piece of information that
all children and teens should know. In
addition, it provides inspiring words and stories of each individual without
having to do one-on-one interviews. The
emotional tension between the artists and the audience is clear, and very
overwhelming.
Commonalities in these types of texts are
not uncommon. Bullying is and has been an increasingly tragic problem,
especially among the youth in our culture.
Each of the outlined sources has excellent resources for the GLBTQ
population as well as youth, who are deemed “different” by society. Most
importantly for them to know is that there are people willing to help
and support them. The sources used have
come out of circumstances that many children face everyday, and some may be too
afraid to step forward. Each of these
movements have fortunately begun to change schools policies, such as the
Student Non-Discrimination Act, and will continue to do so, because everybody
deserves respect.
Works
Cited
Gill, Elizabeth . “Stop Anti-Gay Bullying: Seth’s
Story.” American Civil Liberties Union . 16
December
2010. Web. 15 March 2013.
“It Gets Better: Gay Men’s Chorus
of Los Angeles ‘True Colors’.” Youtube. 26
October
2010. Web. 16 March 2013.
Swanson, Lauren. “Anti-Bullying
Campaign.” “No More! Campaign Against
Youth Bullying. 11
February 2011.
Wed. 15 March 2013.
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