I'm the Hype for the Critical Beatdown!
A bunch of girls beat up another girl in an argument about a boy. I know it doesn't seem like the stuff of a sensational news story, but it is. Because a 16-year old boy (who was in on the beatdown) taped the girls and put the video online, Florida media have turned the fight into an epic worthy of Tom Wolfe. And the cable networks, lacking anything big like a war to cover, have gotten in on the story.Here's a segment on it from the last episode of the O'Reilly Factor, with child psychologist Dr. Susan Bartel slinging bullshit until her elbows cramp up.
O'REILLY: Now I was brought up in Levittown, Long Island, a tough neighborhood back then in the 50s. There were fights every single day among boys.
BARTELL: Right.
O'REILLY: Very rarely among girls.
BARTELL: Right.
Well, none that O'Reilly was invited to.
O'REILLY: Has culture changed?
BARTELL: I think that there are more girls fighting than there used to be. I think certainly over the last several years, a couple of years since you grew up.
O'REILLY: More than a couple, yes.
BARTELL: That there are more girls fighting than there used to be.
Notice the absolute lack of evidence. What's happened in Florida is obvious: Kids are fighting each other, but unlike the fights of 10 or 20 years ago, these are easily recorded and shared online. It takes a bizarre mindset to not factor this in when discussing whether or not vicious beatdowns are occuring more often than ever. Are there more or less people lip-syncing to songs than there used to be? No, but more people are taping themselves doing it and uploading the videos. But don't tell that to the culture marms.
O'REILLY: Why?
BARTELL: Many reasons. I think first of all, girls have more power than they used to in relationships, in life. I think that girls are fighting more now over boys. I think that girls aren't as prim and proper as they used to be. I think boys egg on girl fights, which never used to be the case. I think there's a lot of sexuality involved with boys. If you look on YouTube you see the boys watching the fight, cheering the girls on. I think that the girls enjoy that. And I think that girls really have crossed those boundaries. I think that you see now on TV girl fights in the media. You know what used to be World Wide Wrestling was only amongst boys, you know, and men.
O'REILLY: They have girls now, right.
BARTELL: I think that's a role model for the girls.
O'REILLY: That's a good point.
The confluence of feminism and Vince MacMahon, turning America's youth into hot-blooded savages! Criminy.
