Let me say from the outset that this is in no way to make light of the greater issue of gang rape, which is horrible (one has to add the following nowadays) regardless of one’s race, class, gender, etc. ad nauseam. Having made that prologue, I have to ask:
Two years ago I wrote in the LR about “A generation unable to cope with the mere idea of offense.” I said that the hypersensitivity being taught in our culture was producing kids who
act worse than the fainting Victorian ladies of propriety. They’re like the fainting goats that pass out cold at any disruption.
It staggers the imagination that someone subjected to a random insult by a drunk would be so flabbergasted that she’d have to call 911. Why not laugh it off? Yell back? Tell your friends and family about it? Write about it? Ignore it? Or any of a few dozen other healthy, adult ways of dealing with offensive behavior from some jerk?
I don’t doubt for one second that the slur was upsetting and offensive. But I worry for the health and stability of someone, anyone, whose reaction to a random insulting is to call 911. Does no one teach kids the old maxim “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me”? Calling 911 ? that’s for people who are physically stricken, perhaps even at death’s door if help is not dispatched immediately (i.e., those hurt by sticks, stones, and worse). Not for someone hurt by “names.”
Return to the Locker Room.
