Plum : Have you ever been the Newbie?
That person who needs to
figure out new rules, in a new group?
Trying to see find your place in it?
Have you ever been called names?
And tried make it stop?
Or were you the one teasing?
Not realizing you were hurting somebody?
If you relate to this,
you will recognize yourself at some point,
in Newbie Dash.
Newbie Dash was arguably
one of the most polarizing episode
of Friendship is Magic
for the analysis community.
The days following its release,
and all in good fun,
no one seemed to agree on
what the morale was.
Suggestions ranged from having to compromise
to achieve your goals
to teasing as an essential part of friendship.
But aside from that,
the real polarizing thing was name-calling.
On one side, we had those who praised the episode
for its accurate representation of military atmosphere.
On the other side were those who detest it
for its rather ambiguous position on name-calling.
From there, the debate grown.
then exploded when it was used as
a mean to antagonize a whole part of the fandom.
As you may have guessed it from the intro of these videos,
one of the main reasons I love this show is
how relatable the characters and their shenanigans are.
Shy and introverted persons
can highly identify to Fluttershy
and to the progression of her character.
Artists and business holders will easily
identify to Rarity's struggle between integrity and productivity.
And Dash beginnings as a full member of an,
at least military-like group,
will be relatable for military people.
Or so they seem to say.
This is a strength of this episode and I definitely agree with this.
However, as the debate went further and further,
it centered on the wonderbolts bullying or hazing rainbow.
We'll get back to that.
But at this point, something struck me.
Watchfull Watchings: They are a military
They're hazing Rainbow Dash so her spirit doesn't crack
When they're under performance
Or - God forbid - If they ever go to war
In the mids of war and during a performance
They can't have her cracking under pressure due to anxiety or insecurities
So that's why they haze and tease her so that her spirit
can remain strong and powerfull.
To put it simply, they break her down
so they canbuild her back up more powerfull.
I couldn't help myself but wonder
if there was any solid evidence backing that claim.
Because if you're going to near-institutionalize
something as morally questionable as hazing and bullying,
I would at least expect that there is
some strong evidence that it works as intended!
Artémis : Long story short, no, it doesn't.
From literature and videos by military bronies,
there are two justifications
for bullying and hazing in the military.
To simulate the highly stressful conditions
of a warzone and sort and prepare those
who can sustain them from those who can't,
And, specifically for hazing, to increase group cohesion
and integration of a new person in the group.
Simulating stressful situations so soldiers can be more
able to deal with them makes sense.
That's what training if for. It's not only about
learning the techniques and getting the physical condition
required on deployment.
It's also about being able to perform said techniques
and about the consequences of mistakes under stressful, life threatening circumstances.
And this is achieved through
hard exercises and strong negative reinforcement.
Plum: But that's the point. This is what <i>Training</i> is for.
And, it's not the only thing training done this way does.
It also increases group liking and cohesion.
There are two mechanisms at play here.
The obvious one can be summarized by one phrase:
"We all went through this".
Basic training, as well as any other training,
creates one more shared experience one can
use to relate to other people who went through it.
To understand them better, and to identify as part of a group.
And ultimately, this might very well be what defines a group.
What every person of this group is sharing.
Bronies all share interest for Friendship is Magic
and the community that surrounds it.
A group of friends all share linking spending time with each other
and probably some common interests.
Military all share basic training.
Artémis: For the military though, something else is at play
to strengthen that identification to the group:
And that thing, is Cognitive Dissonance.
Simply put, cognitive dissonance is that discomfort we all feel
when our actions or some facts does not fit our beliefs or values.
Or when two of your beliefs and values are conflicting.
Unconsciously trying to reduce this feeling is
the origin of many cognitive bias
and it can as well lead to valid conclusions as to absolutely fallacious ones.
Here are a few examples:
"Torture is wrong. Why did I torture that guy?"
"It's wrong, but if many lives are at stake, I can".
"Hazing is wrong, why am I hazing this person?"
"Because it will make him stronger and more integrated into the group"
"Why am I taking part into that mentally and physically harsh training?"
"Because I really like that group and I really want to serve my country".
Plum: And you know what?
As soon as the group you're liking is not doing anything morally questionable,
this is fine!
Go enjoy your spending time with you friends!
But couldn't this also work for hazing and bullying?
I mean, this could also work:
"Why am I submitting myself to this humiliation?"
"Because this is a rule to enter this group and I really want to be part of this group!".
Artémis: It might. In a few specific cases.
But, well, first, a group that hazes its members
is not exactly one I would call "not morally questionable".
After all we are talking about humiliating someone for no reason at all!
But even if this wasn't a problem,
empirically it simply doesn't work.
To date, no study found a positive effect
of bullying or hazing on group liking.
It may even be quite the opposite.
The problem here is that you don't *choose*
to be hazed or bullied where you do choose
to join the army, and thus to undergo basic training.
And therefore, the question is not
"why am I inflicting that to myself?" anymore.
It is "Why are they inflicting this to me?".
And here, the answer is pretty straightforward:
"Because they are jerks".
Even if the bullies or hazes are rationalizing it
as being for the good of the victim.
But there's more! Hazing, no matter how harsh it is,
puts everyone implied in it in an environment
of control and enters personal life way beyond
what healthy hierarchy of a unit should be.
Hazing does not prepare anyone to perform better on the battlefield.
It isn't even neutral.
It literally makes a unit less likely to work as a group,
in addition to adding one more potential traumatism in a career that already got way enough of these.
Now, you may be thinking something among the lines of
"and from what authority do you pretend being able to talk about those things ?".
Truth is, I have no experience in the military.
And who are you again ?
Silly you, I'm you of course !
Yeah, because this makes perfe.... THIS UNIVERSE DOES NOT EXIST
YOU'RE IN A YOUTUBE VIDEO BYYYYE
Anyway, what I'm saying in this video is not my opinion.
I'm merely putting the results of a lot of independent studies,
most of which being conducted in collaboration with the military of some country,
into a more convenient shape and in a pony context.
Plum: But as if the debate that originated from Newbie Dash
didn't already rose enough polarizing points, it also gave us this:
If you're a child, watching this right now
and you are being bullied in school,
here's what you do:
You<i> demand</i> that you bully cease their behaviour
And if they refuse,
Grab the heaviest object you can reliablly swing
and beat their f***ing teeth in.
Yeah, you'll get suspended
But that suspension will end and
that bully will never bother you again
because of how much this beating actually hurts.
Artémis:There are few studies on how to cope with bullying
from the point of view of the victim.
Hoverer, they all agree on one thing:
fighting back the bully physically is from far the less effective way to deal with it.
Followed closely by trying to avoid it.
Not only it is unlikely to be effective, it's simply risky.
Getting into a fight with the bully,
who's most probably physically the strongest of the two,
will obviously give you non-negligible chances to lose the fight.
Especially if it's not only one person who's bullying you.
And also exposes you to a potential revenge.
Plum: The same studies find that the most efficient ways
to deal with bullies are to ignore the bully and to seek support from friends.
And to find things in which you can dedicate your attention
Like working, or sports.
Basically, this is giving you allies
And minimises the impact of bullying compared to other things in your life.
As someone who's been in this situation a lot when I was young,
I can attest that ignoring and seeking help when being bullied, is very hard.
You may feel like you don't have anyone you trust enough
to seek support from them, that it is the coward way
or that you're bothering them.
You'll need to convince yourself,
deep down,
that this isn't this isn't true.
If it is name-calling, that those words the bully are saying have no meaning.
Maybe even appropriate yourself the name and make it a strength.
It's getting yourself past those mental barriers that will give you
the means to stop being bullied.
Because sadly, there's no easy way out of it.
You'll have to work on yourself.
And the bully most likely won't have a sudden realization
that what he's doing is wrong.
So don't try to manage it alone.
Don't be ashamed of seeking help from family or friends.
Helping is what they do.
And you might be surprised by the how validated they'll feel from it.
So, I'm not gonna lie to you. Getting out of bullying is hard.
But it's not out of reach.
Artémis: But how does all of this apply to Dash and the wonderbolts?
Plum: Well, it doesn't really. To understand that,
we need to be sure of what exactly is happening here.
It could be hazing, but by definition, hazing is a rite of passage.
It's something that only lasts for a short period of time.
And this jacket with a "rainbow crash" symbol on it seems to be made to last.
Actually, this is precisely the moment Rainbow realizes her nickname is here to stay.
Artémis: Since there is no intention to harm, it can't be bullying.
However, this is most definitely harassment.
But ultimately, what's happening here is a huge lack of communication.
Plum: The wonderbolts, on one side, aren't trying to cause any wrong to Rainbow Dash.
Being called "Rainbow Crash" is only affecting Rainbow because
of her past, and because she understands it as aactual criticism
on her ability to be part of the team.
Things that the rest of the wonderbolts could hardly guess
given the strange ways Rainbow decided to deal with them.
Spitfire made it pretty clear during the changing room scene.
For them, this is one of the playfull, maybe affective names
each wonderbolt use to call each other.
Extrapolating things, they might even have a deeper meaning.
Let's remember what the wonderbolts are.
Team stuntflyers,
performing daring tricks where an error could go as far as being fatal to one of them.
Having names based on mistakes they did on their first day,
and that are used exclusively within the circle of the wonderbolts and their closest friends,
means that they share some knowledge abiut each other that only
someone in this group knows.
And this way, makes them all feel more like a team.
Artémis: On the other side, this does not remove any of the weight
this name puts on Rainbow.
And the wonderbolts didn't explain the name tradition to rainbow dash until after the show.
All things considered, it's hard to pick one side.
Both are partly in the wrong.
And both didn't get the information that they actually *were* doing something wrong.
Plum: The moral of the episode is equally ambiguous.
There are many things that we can learn from it that many
analysts before me picked up.
How one can deal with name calling by simply appropriating themselves the name.
How bullying can make someone lose self-confidence or try too hard to prove themselves.
The apparently accurate representation of joining a new group in the military.
That sometimes you need to stand out to be satisfied in a group.
But if there was one big one to keep,
I think that it would be "communicate with the group you're in".
This is the lesson that both Rainbow Dash and the other wonderbolts learned at the end of this episode.
This is what made Rainbow understand that there were no bad intentions behind the name.
This Is what made the other wonderbolts understand what rainbow's problem was.
And this is probably the most important one to keep.
Artémis: I am Artémis
Plum: And I'm Plum
Artémis: And we're absolutely not the same person.
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