Comments on: Candy Goodwin on Teasing http://savageminds.org/2008/12/13/candy-goodwin-on-teasing/ Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:43:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: jp http://savageminds.org/2008/12/13/candy-goodwin-on-teasing/comment-page-1/#comment-546388 jp Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:15:41 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=1423#comment-546388 I didn't find either the article nor analysis enlightening - sorry. Both seemed to state the obvious. The subject, however, is an interesting one. One thing that's always interested me is humor, what some say is a key to understanding Others. To reduce everything to a subjectivist pov is understandable, but once again places the onus (understanding, pain, choosing to ignore it and "brush it off one's shoulder"...) not to mention the spotlight upon the recipient. By example, this is the value of people like Cesaire and Fanon, who shine a light on the psychology of the colonizer. In the end, it's much easier for school shrinks to deal with "hurt kids" via namby pamby shrink sessions than to get at the root of why dominant kids bully and tease. The latter are equally doomed in "the system," via Ritalin, punishment or just plain ignorance such as incarceration. Both groups are expressions of a system - parents, schools, governments, medicine, academicians, and certainly not pundits such as anthropologists...- that have yet to discover what it is that kids need to be well-adjusted. I didn’t find either the article nor analysis enlightening – sorry. Both seemed to state the obvious.

The subject, however, is an interesting one. One thing that’s always interested me is humor, what some say is a key to understanding Others. To reduce everything to a subjectivist pov is understandable, but once again places the onus (understanding, pain, choosing to ignore it and “brush it off one’s shoulder”…) not to mention the spotlight upon the recipient.

By example, this is the value of people like Cesaire and Fanon, who shine a light on the psychology of the colonizer.

In the end, it’s much easier for school shrinks to deal with “hurt kids” via namby pamby shrink sessions than to get at the root of why dominant kids bully and tease. The latter are equally doomed in “the system,” via Ritalin, punishment or just plain ignorance such as incarceration.

Both groups are expressions of a system – parents, schools, governments, medicine, academicians, and certainly not pundits such as anthropologists…- that have yet to discover what it is that kids need to be well-adjusted.

]]> By: Sam Grace http://savageminds.org/2008/12/13/candy-goodwin-on-teasing/comment-page-1/#comment-546347 Sam Grace Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:06:25 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=1423#comment-546347 I have similar questions as MTBradley above. Why is it helpful to draw a line between teasing and bullying? And, what bothers me more, why is there an assumption that rituals can not be hurtful? I have similar questions as MTBradley above. Why is it helpful to draw a line between teasing and bullying? And, what bothers me more, why is there an assumption that rituals can not be hurtful?

]]> By: MTBradley http://savageminds.org/2008/12/13/candy-goodwin-on-teasing/comment-page-1/#comment-545354 MTBradley Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:24:45 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=1423#comment-545354 Prof. Goodwin, I can't avoid thinking about this legalistically. Your formulation removes intent as a necessary element of teasing and includes a hurtful ([[state?]of mind?]). What elements do constitute an act of teasing in your formulation? For example, had the girls you studied have told the African-American student in a dispassionate manner that they did not want to spend time in her company it might well have been quite hurtful to her, but would it have been an act of teasing? Prof. Goodwin, I can’t avoid thinking about this legalistically. Your formulation removes intent as a necessary element of teasing and includes a hurtful ([[state?]of mind?]). What elements do constitute an act of teasing in your formulation? For example, had the girls you studied have told the African-American student in a dispassionate manner that they did not want to spend time in her company it might well have been quite hurtful to her, but would it have been an act of teasing?

]]> By: L.L. Wynn http://savageminds.org/2008/12/13/candy-goodwin-on-teasing/comment-page-1/#comment-545250 L.L. Wynn Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:13:17 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=1423#comment-545250 Thanks for that contribution, Candy. I'd read that editorial when it first came out and there were a lot of things that irritated me about it but I couldn't pinpoint exactly what. I think that mainly it was the simplistic portrayal of some golden era of happy, good-natured teasing that is the way that boys and girls show they like each other, now supplanted by an era of ominous adult surveillance. What about Lord of the Flies? ;) Candy, you should offer the NYT a response editorial. I bet they'd jump at it, since that editorial was one of the most widely e-mailed for a few days, and you've got academic credibility with a book on the topic. --Lisa Thanks for that contribution, Candy. I’d read that editorial when it first came out and there were a lot of things that irritated me about it but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what. I think that mainly it was the simplistic portrayal of some golden era of happy, good-natured teasing that is the way that boys and girls show they like each other, now supplanted by an era of ominous adult surveillance. What about Lord of the Flies? ;)

Candy, you should offer the NYT a response editorial. I bet they’d jump at it, since that editorial was one of the most widely e-mailed for a few days, and you’ve got academic credibility with a book on the topic.
–Lisa

]]>