“Have you ever felt like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind wanting to start again” as said by the pop artist Katy Perry trying to describe how outcasts feel invisible and unwanted. A great man once said that no human on the earth is created in perfection. So why are we destined to be perfect or great, or the most pretty or the smartest, and if we fail why are we viewed as a wimp or a failure? For one thing, this is not just a mentality created in the media, but in our society as a whole; we live in a nation that fears failure. However, some people say the most kind and successful people were once failures. Unfortunately, in our society, children are taught not to fail and if they fail, they do not get rewards. For example, in shows like Toddlers in Tiaras these children are taught that success will win you a trophy or candy at a young age when they fail it is the child’s fault and not the parents. The fear of failure is not brought up on ourselves but by what has been imbedded into our heads since we were children.
In this society, we focus too much on the people who are successful, and feel like we are unable to help a person who fails. If you fail, you are funny or amusing; it’s why Seinfeld and Charley Brown seem so humorous. If I were in a Peanuts cartoon, I would slap Lucy in the face for saying not only terrible things to Charley Brown, but for her so-called Psychology Office in which she gives the most non-positive advice. But let it be known that the creator of the comic strip Charles Schulz, suffered from “chronic depression, which was brought on during his childhood.” Therefore, the strip is a reflection of all of his childhood fears and failures. Which brings up the question, why would people force others to fail or set themselves up for failure? The answer, too much success and popularity will lead people to hurt those who need help. This is because these people fear that they will not be as popular if they help a social outcast, for example, a geek. Therefore, they do not become successful and popular, they become bullies.
Unlike the media that portrays bullies as having an abusive home life, most of the people who bully others are sometimes the most admired and successful people in the school. It happens in High School all the time; a girl’s heart is broken because of a rumor, a geeky man who got an A on a test is beaten or called names, a football player who does not kick the ball high enough is a wimp. All of these cases are the cause of people being too successful and popular; but it is not just students, it often times is the coach, or the band director, or the teacher that plays favorites or allows it proceed. Unfortunately, all of the bulling caused by both students and teachers leads to either attempted suicide or death. When these things happen, all the blame should go to the bully and his or her supporters; but when they are questioned or accused, they admit that they did nothing, or they blame the victim. One example of this is kind of behavior is in a scene from the new documentary Bully; when the mother of a bullied child tells the principle that her daughter was tormented by children on the bus the principle act like nothing happened and says, “I’ve been on that bus, those kids are as good as gold!” This is proof that not only bulling occurs in school, but in the adult world as well.
Therefore, what is the true definition of success and how do people obtain it? Most of the media says that if you are rich, powerful, get the girl, and own a business you will gain success, and if you do not you will become a failure. In many movies, the villain is often a person who failed at something, which is why the DreamWorks films are popular because many of the characters are either social outcast or failures. However, adversity and using their weakness as strengths, these characters become heroes. We’re forgetting about other children’s shows that actually have stereotypes of the so-called evil genius, or the stupid geek, which leads children to believe that smart and geeky people are either evil or dim-witted. On the other hand, shows like Fairly Oddparents, make teenagers evil and portray adults as stupid or senseless moral guardians. Could the media be the result of why there is so much hazing and bulling that goes on in schools?
What society has become today has been focused on big hair, tanning, and being model thin thanks to popular reality shows. Everyone has become so focused on being perfect and exactly like their idols they believe that the slightest imperfections are wrong and they are letting everyone down. Bullies are the most insecure and look for flaws in others to make themselves feel better. No one should be afraid to fail because everyone makes mistakes and as Katy Perry says “You don’t have to feel like a waste of space you’re original cannot be replaced.”