EVEN KRISTEN STEWART WAS BULLIED
When she was in high school, as she recounted recently:
"It's not easy being Kristen Stewart.
The "Snow White and the Huntsman" actress, 22, opens up to Vanity Fair about how she was bullied as a teenager for not dressing like her peers. "Look at a picture of me before I was 15. I am a boy. I wore my brother's clothes, dude!" she says in the magazine's July issue. "Not like I cared that much, but I remember being made fun of because I wasn't wearing Juicy jeans. I didn't even think about it. I wore my gym clothes."
Stewart continues: "But it's not like I didn't care that they made fun of me. It really bothered me. I remember this girl in sixth grade looked at me in gym and was like, 'Oh my God! That's disgusting -- you don't shave your legs!'"

Now in considering this, several things come to my mind:
1] For one thing, once again we are reminded:  we're not alone.  It's not just persons with Moebius Syndrome or other obvious physical differences who get bullied.  It can happen to anyone. 
2] At the same time, something tells me that the bullying persons like Ms. Stewart received...well, just doesn't quite rise to the level of the bullying someone with Moebius would get.  It's just not the same thing--it's not the same level of staring, or viciousness.  It's important that we not sort of dumb down the definition of bullying, that we not include every kind of small-time pettiness or nastiness and call it all bullying.
3] Still, it's good that this issue is receiving the attention that it is.

LIFE WITH A PHYSICAL DIFFERENCE COMES TO TV
Meanwhile, have you heard about the newest reality show on TV?  It's about 4 women and their lives in wheelchairs:
"Life with a disability will be front and center on television this summer as a new reality show focuses on four women who just happen to be in wheelchairs.
The show, “Push Girls,” follows a group of Los Angeles-area friends through the trials and tribulations of dating, having kids and establishing their careers.
The show’s stars all have paralysis — either as the result of a car accident or an illness — after starting life able to walk.
In keeping with the traditions of reality TV, they each have strong personalities. Auti Angel, for example, is a dancer, rapper and actress who’s trying for a baby while Angela Rockwood is a model who’s dealing with her recent separation from her husband.
Rather than focus on their disabilities, however, the women say they want people to see how typical their lives really are.
“Plenty of people have no idea what it’s like to spend the day in the life of someone with a disability, let alone a spinal cord injury. How do we get in and out of a car? How do we go to the bathroom? How do we go grocery shopping? How do we get in the shower, how do we get dressed?,” said Tiphany Adams, one of the show’s stars. “I thought it was a brilliant idea for the world to see that.”

The show, by the way, is on the Sundance cable channel; I've recorded a couple of episodes and will be reviewing the show soon.


“Morale is a state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty. It is elan, ésprit de corps, and determination. ”--George C. Marshall (1880-1959)

"If it’s not fun, you are not doing it right." -Fran Tarkenton