Insanity News Flash

[DropsOfJupiter]

Sports practice. We do this thing at the field where you run up and down the stairs in the stadium until you do an entire lap of the whole thing. Doing this was known to us all as running suicides. Or it used to be. School sports handbook update came out and it has new sets of rules. If you're in a sport that runs suicides.........and you have a girl on the team......wait for it.........you're no longer allowed to refer to it as running suicides. Because of the emerging crisis facing our teen girls and the unique social pressures and challenges facing them, the use of that word is prohibited during their sports sessions to prevent them from feeling undue stress at the mention of the word.

Oh god thank you so much for saving us from this. I was totally ready to end it because of what they called an exercise at practice.

[Max1]

Sports practice. We do this thing at the field where you run up and down the stairs in the stadium until you do an entire lap of the whole thing. Doing this was known to us all as running suicides. Or it used to be. School sports handbook update came out and it has new sets of rules. If you're in a sport that runs suicides.........and you have a girl on the team......wait for it.........you're no longer allowed to refer to it as running suicides. Because of the emerging crisis facing our teen girls and the unique social pressures and challenges facing them, the use of that word is prohibited during their sports sessions to prevent them from feeling undue stress at the mention of the word.

Oh god thank you so much for saving us from this. I was totally ready to end it because of what they called an exercise at practice.

[ijp]

If you're in a sport that runs suicides.........and you have a girl on the team......wait for it.........you're no longer allowed to refer to it as running suicides. Because of the emerging crisis facing our teen girls and the unique social pressures and challenges facing them, the use of that word is prohibited during their sports sessions to prevent them from feeling undue stress at the mention of the word.

Okay, what the .

If you're going to eliminate the term suicides, just remove it. I don't think it'll do anything but that's at least consistent. Things like this always just seem like virtue signaling, gestures that have zero known impact, but makes the people who implemented it feel like they achieved moral victory.

However, gating it by gender is the worst thing they could have done. Even more so because the suicide statistics are worse for teen boys. In general, the trend over the past 20 years has been an increase in both self-harm and suicide among teens, but notably, it's statistically more likely for the boys to commit suicide while girls were more likely to engage in self-harm. Of course both are problems for both, that's why if you're going to be a major buzzkill about it, do it to everyone so you aren't singling out the gender you're already implying is having a hard time and inadvertently granting them the ire of the boys on the team

[DropsOfJupiter]

If you're going to eliminate the term suicides, just remove it. I don't think it'll do anything but that's at least consistent. Things like this always just seem like virtue signaling, gestures that have zero known impact, but makes the people who implemented it feel like they achieved moral victory.

I rather feel it started with someone having nothing to do with the sports departments at all. Like some mom probably overheard the term and decided to be offended on everyone else's behalf. They probably made sure to complain on Facebook so everyone knows how they saved all of us poor teens lives.

[ijp]

I rather feel it started with someone having nothing to do with the sports departments at all. Like some mom probably overheard the term and decided to be offended on everyone else's behalf. They probably made sure to complain on Facebook so everyone knows how they saved all of us poor teens lives.

Yeah that sounds about right. I was close to a chairperson for my highschool and heard about all the stuff parents would complain about . It's very easy to panic parents, especially if you find the right group of ultra-conservative (not necessarily political, but conservative about what their kids are exposed to) or helicopter parents.

I don't quite know how to articulate this, but I find an irony in that some people see public schools as some version of brainwashing their kids, or feeding them state propaganda, and in response, vote for laws that shape the public school curriculum and policies... to brainwash kids by feeding them different propaganda and restricting information. Sorry that's kinda tangent, but it's the same brew of parents IMO that want to ban the word "suicides" in womens sports and want to ban "To Kill a Mockingbird".

[SecondChance]

I rather feel it started with someone having nothing to do with the sports departments at all. Like some mom probably overheard the term and decided to be offended on everyone else's behalf. They probably made sure to complain on Facebook so everyone knows how they saved all of us poor teens lives.

Yeah that sounds about right. I was close to a chairperson for my highschool and heard about all the stuff parents would complain about . It's very easy to panic parents, especially if you find the right group of ultra-conservative (not necessarily political, but conservative about what their kids are exposed to) or helicopter parents.

I don't quite know how to articulate this, but I find an irony in that some people see public schools as some version of brainwashing their kids, or feeding them state propaganda, and in response, vote for laws that shape the public school curriculum and policies... to brainwash kids by feeding them different propaganda and restricting information. Sorry that's kinda tangent, but it's the same brew of parents IMO that want to ban the word "suicides" in womens sports and want to ban "To Kill a Mockingbird".

It is pure insanity. Whatever happened to giving your own kids the knowledge and confidence to make their own decisions. These days everything has an agenda, it's more important than ever to teach your kids to turn to family for guidance. If you don't want your child reading To Kill a Mockingbird that's one thing, but don't ban it in school for my kids. I had some great conversations with my kids about books they had to read in school. No, we didn't like all of them, and some had situations that made us uncomfortable, but we talked about it.

[Matthew1914]

As it should be. That is how you change the world, by changing the language:

Flying Saucer -> UFO -> UAP
Fag -> Gay -> Queer -> LG -> LGB -> LGBT -> LGBTQ -> LGBTQ+ -> LGBTQCNUOAEUILGP...
Global Warming -> Global Climate Change
Stewardess -> Flight Attendant
Lying -> Misrepresenting Facts -> Terminological Inexactitude
Retarded -> Intellectually disabled -> Mentally Challenged -> On the spectrum
Colored -> N***o -> Black -> African -> ?
Suicide -> Autocide

etc, etc...

Incidentally, while researching this post () I came across a research study at Cambridge that concludes that changing terminology can indeed change one's attitude towards the object of the label. For example, instead of saying, "...is psychotic.", the therapist would instead diagnose, "...has stress-sensitivity psychosis.". It is similar to saying, "...have an addiction." instead of "...is an addict." The difference is subtle, but it makes a statistical difference in how a person responds and feels about the diagnosis.

So, the theory is sound in some cases. But, as usual, some people get fixated on a concept and go overboard. I have been guilty of it by insisting on referring to myself as a MAP (Minor Attracted Person) in an attempt to minimize the stigma associated with the term "(dirty) Pedo!".

So, the intentions are likely good. No one wants a young person to kill themselves. And most of us would try to prevent it by any means possible. But, I too am often irritated by the apparent posturing and virtue-signaling that seems to accompany these language changes. It mostly frustrates me when certain terms are forbidden. Sometimes, one has to call a spade a spade... because that is what it is.

[on the rocks]

"Autocide" sounds like it describes stepping into traffic to kill oneself.

I'm struck by how something like renaming a conditioning exercise does nothing to actually address the problem of young people killing themselves.  It's like how they paint the ghettos vibrant colors in Latin America.  The same problems still exist, but now it "looks" better.
The fact that your school is only taking this step for girls' sports is a special kind of messed up.  Either they are saying girls are so weak-willed that they can't even hear the word "suicide" without getting upset.  Or worse, the school is saying it cares more about the lives of girls than the lives of boys.

If the idea is to avoid triggering a student who has a friend or other loved one attempt suicide, then fine.  But just as many boys are going to be in that situation as girls.  Probably slightly more.

[DropsOfJupiter]

There is a weird set of rules that handle girls sports around here. The league I play in is coed. Your age bracket for the year is determined by your age as of January 1st of that year. But then there are some additional rules. Girls get a specific number subtracted from their age to allow them to stay in a lower age bracket longer. You know, since we are too weak to compete with boys our own age apparently. My current teams I play in my coed bracket for my exact age and not the lower bracket.

If I played down at the lowest bracket I am technically allowed to join the largest boy player I know is like a foot and 50 pounds smaller than me. I would totally wreck all of those kids. But they have to protect us, just like from the scary words.

<edited personal info – Mid.>

[Malaikah]

English is strange.
People who speak English - stranger.

I'm struck by how something like renaming a conditioning exercise does nothing to actually address the problem of young people killing themselves.  It's like how they paint the ghettos vibrant colors in Latin America.  The same problems still exist, but now it "looks" better.

It's not just ghettos in Latin America. Now it's been copied in Asian and African cities too.
They fail even at addressing the suicide issue in society here. The reasons why majority of people commit suicide in America are different than why they do in Asian countries.

[Robotboy]

Suicide is certainly an issue. I know far too many people who have killed themselves. But renaming an exercise is not going to stop it. And then renaming it for if girls are there but not boys seem even weirder. Suicide is an issue for boys too.

[Matthew1914]

Or worse, the school is saying it cares more about the lives of girls than the lives of boys.

Astute observation. Yes, men, and boys, lives are less valuable than lives of women/girls. The phrase "Women and children first." is still in use to this day.