The Only PSA You Need

Is this.

There’s really nothing I can add to the content of the video, because everything you need is there.  About why bullying is hurtful and just plain stupid.  All too often, I think, we worry so much about being offensive ourselves that we water down our opinions to the point where they aren’t opinions anymore.  Because gods forbid we offend someone by telling them they’re being hurtful.  Or mean.  Or spiteful.  We live in a world where judging wrong is considered, by many, to be a far greater evil than actually committing it.  So it’s really refreshing to see someone who has the courage to be themselves and, while being themselves, take a stand on an important issue.  Without butterflies, or flowers, or any of the “I’m okay, you’re okay” bullshit that so many of us use as protective coloration.  Some things are wrong, and it’s okay to say so.  You don’t need sparkly memes and you don’t need to hide behind scripture.  You can, in fact, go right ahead and assert boundaries because, you know, that’s your right.

Also, I really, really need that mug.

In The Price of Desire, which of course is free for Kindle this week, Aria tells people to go screw and those of you who read this blog regularly know that not everyone likes that.  This is one of those situations where life mirrors art because in the real world, real women are also labeled as “pushy,” “judgmental,” and “unlikeable” because they stand up for something.  Especially themselves.  And just about the worst insult some people feel like they can level is to label you as unlikable.  To point out that you “seem angry.”  That you’re–gasp–not being ladylike.  Well who cares?  Why are you a better woman for hiding in the corner, prioritizing your own popularity over having a moral compass, than for actually taking a position?

Anger in the face of injustice is nothing to be ashamed of.  Apathy in the face of injustice is.  Remember that the next time you find yourself involved in a debate.

PS: Some people like to make a big issue of vulgarity.  They tell me they can’t read my books, as a for instance, because I use “bad words.”  They aren’t offended by the war, famine, and social inequality, or the slavers, rapists, and pedophiles, just by the fact that one of my characters said “fuck.”  Well as my hero points out, above, anyone who fixates on one word, or set of words, to the exclusion of what those words actually signify has bigger problems.  I grew up in a conservative Christian, ahem, cult and I was shunned when I left.  Trust me, they really shun me now.  Except to occasionally reach out for the sole purpose of “lovingly” telling me that I must surely be miserable as I don’t have the spirit and am going to Hell.  But I digress.  You could–just like in my books–describe the worst acts of human depravity in loving detail and they’d be fine with it.  They’d drink it in.  Proof that they were superior!  Unless of course they were the ones committing the acts but again, I digress.  You could lie and cheat and steal.  You could tell people they were fat and ugly and stupid.  You could bully them to the point of tears on a regular basis and that was just dandy.  But if you said fuck, OH MY GOD.  And I remember thinking–and still do think–really?  That’s values?

Values aren’t in what you look like, or how you talk.  They’re not in your religion.  They’re in your actions and in whether, when it matters–not when it’s convenient for you but when it matters–you stand up and do the right thing.

Watch the video.