Ok, a receint story about a chubby female news anchor went viral when she "called out" a e-mailer, who in my estimation wasn't saying "hey fat fuck lose some weight", but the way he says it is "being overweight is unhealthy"
Now lets not get into wieght as the topic, the issue is what constitutes bullying and what does not.
How can an anchor who chose to be a puplic figure argue that some no name is the bully?
To me that would be like Rush Limbaugh or John Stewart complaining that a dissenting viewer is the bully. No one told either of them to get into the public eye.
Bullying to me isn't merely bitching or or poking fun of someone or something. Bullying is the difference between captivity and the ability to leave a situation. If one is not captive it is not bullying.
ESPECIALLY in issues of becoming a public figure. EVEN IF someone called this reporter a "porker" SURE it might be cruel, but it isn't like she is in a classroom where she is being held hostage by other students or a teacher who WOULD BE bullies in that context.
Otherwise if all of us got to define who gets to say what about who in all contexts by merely defaulting to "bully" anytime we hear something offensive, free speech wouldn't exist and we could all justify the murder of each other.
Bullying can only be defined in terms of captivity vs the ability to counter or ignore. If you are trapped, then it is bullying. If you are not and you can use your own voice and or leave or ignore, then it is not.
AGAIN this isn't about this woman or her weight. This is about the missuse of the word "bullying" regardless of who is offended or why.
If we don't restrict "bullying" to terms of captivity, we open ourselves as a spedcies to putting government in the position of becoming thought police.
The danger in missusing "bullying" is that it can errode the right of republicans to bash Obama, and the right of democrats to bash Mitt Romney.
It can't simply be "you offended me".
In the case of this women I would say to her, yea, it sucks that people say things you don't like, I don't like being equated to Hitler because I am an atheist. But especially when one is in the public eye, like a reporter, I am sorry, but you have far less to complain about than say an overweight middle school student who is bound by law to go to school.
She had every right to say "you are being an asshole" or "you are missinformed" and "I am happy with my body". But he did not put a gun to her head and she was not captive and on top of that if she were secure with herself she could simply say "your an asshole" which if she wanted to argue might be the case, but being an asshole doesn't make one a bully.
Now lets not get into wieght as the topic, the issue is what constitutes bullying and what does not.
How can an anchor who chose to be a puplic figure argue that some no name is the bully?
To me that would be like Rush Limbaugh or John Stewart complaining that a dissenting viewer is the bully. No one told either of them to get into the public eye.
Bullying to me isn't merely bitching or or poking fun of someone or something. Bullying is the difference between captivity and the ability to leave a situation. If one is not captive it is not bullying.
ESPECIALLY in issues of becoming a public figure. EVEN IF someone called this reporter a "porker" SURE it might be cruel, but it isn't like she is in a classroom where she is being held hostage by other students or a teacher who WOULD BE bullies in that context.
Otherwise if all of us got to define who gets to say what about who in all contexts by merely defaulting to "bully" anytime we hear something offensive, free speech wouldn't exist and we could all justify the murder of each other.
Bullying can only be defined in terms of captivity vs the ability to counter or ignore. If you are trapped, then it is bullying. If you are not and you can use your own voice and or leave or ignore, then it is not.
AGAIN this isn't about this woman or her weight. This is about the missuse of the word "bullying" regardless of who is offended or why.
If we don't restrict "bullying" to terms of captivity, we open ourselves as a spedcies to putting government in the position of becoming thought police.
The danger in missusing "bullying" is that it can errode the right of republicans to bash Obama, and the right of democrats to bash Mitt Romney.
It can't simply be "you offended me".
In the case of this women I would say to her, yea, it sucks that people say things you don't like, I don't like being equated to Hitler because I am an atheist. But especially when one is in the public eye, like a reporter, I am sorry, but you have far less to complain about than say an overweight middle school student who is bound by law to go to school.
She had every right to say "you are being an asshole" or "you are missinformed" and "I am happy with my body". But he did not put a gun to her head and she was not captive and on top of that if she were secure with herself she could simply say "your an asshole" which if she wanted to argue might be the case, but being an asshole doesn't make one a bully.
