Welcome to the revival. For those of you unfamilliar, here's a quick recap.
I began teaching myself HTML during junior high. I took a class then and once more at high school level. One of my first projects was “Abercrombie Hater”. I was in the 8th grade, and surprisingly I reached an ample fan base. I got literally, thousands of hits. People, for whatever reason, took stock in my opinion. There were plenty of others that agreed to disagree without any disrespect. And of course, I got the same old, tired responses. “You’re poor and FAT! That’s why you don’t like Abercrombie.”These I usually shook off. I clearly cited my reasons. I found Abercrombie to be culturally insensitive (“Two Wongs Make it White”, “Get Your Buddha on the Floor”), degrading, sexist, and discriminatory towards overweight, heavy built, and in some cases, busty women.
(At the time of the original Abercrombie Hater, I happened to be the first one. Now I am proud to say I am the latter. ^_^ Yet why on earth did this, and my parent’s middle class income, make a difference in what I’m permitted to believe?)
Abercrombie Hater didn’t become a breeding ground for “cyber bullies” until I shared it with my own classmates. I was involved with an incident that bred rumors. These terrible pre-adolescent tales depicted me as violent, brutish, ill-behaved, ignorant, and cruel. I took a chance. I typed my side of the story, uploaded to a new page on Abercrombie Hater, and then sent it to my entire AIM buddy list. (This was before the popularity of MySpace, Facebook, and text messaging.) The first response I received was positive and supportive, and from one of the last girls I would’ve expected to be so kind. The rest?
“You need a shrink. *Jenna didn’t do anything. Call 1-800-U-CRAZY.”
“You liar, you grabbed her chest. YOU MAULED HER.”
The vast majority diverted from the issue at hand:
“I speak for everyone at P***** P**** Middle School! DON’T EAT US!”
“How come your siblings are so skinny and you’re so FAT. Did you eat their food or something?”
“Sue me, bitch!”
“I hope you don’t plan to go to the 8th grade lock-in. Nobody wants to see YOU in a swimming suit.”
“How much did you have to pay those people to pose in pictures and pretend to be your friends?”
I should point out that I am giving them too much credit. MoSt of De Respooooonsez were in FaCt tYpEd lyke DIS! My webhost allowed me to track the IP addresses of these messages. As much as I liked to believe this was ONE attacker… that simply wasn’t the case. There were 10+ IP addresses. A fraction of my grade had participated. I am willing to admit, I put myself under fire. This situation would have never happened if I kept my fat trap shut. Yet I'm simply not that type of girl.
(Note: *Jenna is a psuedonym.)
Did I mention those bastards voted me on Homecoming Court as a joke, too? Once we made it to our freshman year of high school. Can you ever win?
Me now:
But I'm pretty much still a dork. Somethings never change. ^-^
