Born this way.

Taunting and bullying.
.
I woke up this morning with Gaga's Born This Way running through my head.  I watched the Anderson Cooper interview Sunday night, I had seen the interview before, but watched the rerun again - thus embedding the music in my head.  The worst thing about Gaga for me is the flaunted, in your face eroticism of her act and clothing.  Outside of her performance art, I'm sure she is a 'nice' person, who vehemently disagrees with Roman Catholic teaching.  Her anthem to encourage youth and the arrested developed to believe they were born to be a freak, for some reason has even influenced the most sober journalists like the senile Barbara Walters, talk show hosts like Pastor Oprah, and now seemingly, the federal government - as in the Obama Administration.  Acts of the Apostasy has some good coverage on the government lying to gay youth, so I won't get into that here.
.
I'm not sure Gaga is really all that influential with her anti-dogma - she's a showgirl after all, parroting provocative concepts on how to incorporate performance art into one's lifestyle.  Perhaps her devotion to Madonna of the Perpetual Rebellion is a result of feeling alienated in Catholic girl's school.  I don't care - it's her schtick.  Yet the political opportunists are the ones who seem to believe she's a prophetess of some sorts, and therefore exploit her in the process of exalting her.  Manufactured pop stars with an agenda get to be boring really fast - which may explain why Born This Way dropped in the 2nd week of sales.
.
"Do you really want to hurt me?"
.
Yes we do.  Anyway - believe it or not, this post isn't about Gaga.  Nah-uh.  Last evening I went out to eat and this kid comes in with his mom and brother.  The kid was dressed with cat-in-the-hat stripped elbow length gloves with the fingers cut out, a top hat, lots of chains, skin tight really low rise pants, lots of piercings and accessories and belts, and he kind of, sort of looked like Ron Weasley trying to be Harry Potter. 
.
My first thought was, "Now how can this kid go to school without getting beat up."  Then I said to my dinner companion, "This is the type of kid who should be bullied."
.
My friend protested, "That's disgusting.  What's wrong with how he looks?  If he was bullied, he might be the type to bring a gun to school and kill everyone."  My friend obviously knew he was a weird kid and a potential mass murderer, yet he disagreed with my hyperbole.  I of course deliberately failed to moderate my tone.  I so wanted to call Dottie Hinkle at that moment.
.
Seeking attention.
.
Seriously, the kid obviously had issues and his mother is probably an alcoholic or insane.  No - I don't know that for sure - the mother being insane, I mean.  Single mother, permissive, tolerant, and incapable of discipline is the more likely situation.  The kid obviously doesn't get enough attention from one parent, hence the cat-in-the-hat costume.  Someone should tell him that bullying is a form of attention.  Nevertheless, it occurred to me that a little bit of criticism from one's peers, even mockery for dressing like a comic book character, or getting pushed around a'la Napoleon Dynamite can be character building and go a long way to help a kid to mature and better assimilate into society.  Quite honestly, I am of the opinion that a certain amount of taunting and bullying is not all that bad - it helps form a person; suffering develops empathy, and so on.  If my friends never taunted me about using drugs and drinking so much, I might be dead today.  Everything in moderation of course.
.
I know there are those who will say bullying is responsible for teen suicides - but I'm not so sure.  As for the issue of teen suicides, I think as a culture if we stopped advocating killing unborn children, the sick and the elderly, teens would no longer get the message that death is a way to deal with the problems of life, or to avoid conflict, or as a way to gain fame and recognition.
.
What?
.
Editor:  Serious posting will resume shortly.