Teenage Girls Who Rock

January 11, 2012 By 53 Comments

After the hostile girl scout earlier today who wanted to force transgendered people out of the Girl Scouts, this 13 year old calling out slut shamers restores some of one’s hope for the future. So does Jessica Ahlquist’s victory in court.

Your Thoughts?

Filed Under: Uncategorized 53 Comments
  • Brownian

    Not only is she articulate, she’s pretty damn funny too.

  • Trebuchet

    Wow. A 13 year old who’s more mature than any of the Republican candidates. Or non-candidates. Sign her up as your next FTBlogger.

    • dfl42

      Granted, there are probably species of vegetable more mature than any of the republican candidates.

      Though I agree, she’s awesome :)

      She should be on teenskepchick or something.

  • http://anythingbuttheist.blogspot.com Bret

    How to sell this concept to the types of guys who do it:

    “Quit convincing women they shouldn’t be having sex with us, faggots!”

    And since I just offended another group, here’s how you sell homosexual tolerance to the same people:

    “Dude, the more gay guys, the more chicks for us!”

    The trick to talking to guys like that is to imagine if the only thing that matters is getting laid, and that you’re angry all the time because you aren’t getting laid at that moment (basically, only think with the reptilian part of the brain). Notice I used exclamation points. You can also use ALL CAPS in lieu of the obnoxious punctuation, and it helps if you misspell a lot of words.

    I know what you’re thinking, “But there’s plenty of old jackasses who are married and sham promiscuous women.” True, but there’s little hope for them. We’ll just have to patiently wait for those bastards to die. However, we can still get to the new generation of fratboys.

    • http://anythingbuttheist.blogspot.com Bret

      Oh right, and dealing with women is totally different. I have no clue there… I guess you should appeal to a “same team” mentality. I think convincing women to stop shaming other women for being a “slut” is outside of my area of expertise or experience. Women can be cruel to each other, and I have no idea how to deal with it beyond just nodding and saying, “Yes dear.”

  • http://infinitegames.tumblr.com infinity

    Yeah. This made my day.

  • http://quarkscrew.com BT Murtagh

    If this had been audio only and she hadn’t mentioned her age, I would have pegged her as a lot older. She’s mature, thoughtful and well-spoken. Very cool!

  • ‘Tis Himself, OM.

    I am impressed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001548104064 jimatkins

    I teach junior high, and those kids can rip each other to shreds in an instant. This girl is so far above the average eighth grade drama queen. I am in awe.

  • Concentratedwater, OM

    You guys go ahead and take advice from a teenager. I’ll continue listening to my mature self, while mocking your delusions.

    • danielrudolph

      Where does your mature self disagree with her.

    • Concentratedwater, OM

      Where did my mature self say that I disagreed with her?

    • danielrudolph

      You said we are delusional for taking her advice (which is a bad description of what we are doing). If you agree with her, then you are in the same boat as most commenters.

    • Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM

      Oh, look, another fake OM trolling with no content. Weird creepy fixation is weird and creepy.

  • danielrudolph

    When I was roughly her age, I got dragged to church camp. The youth director for our division (or possibly a youth pastor for another church) made slut-shaming jokes on stage as part of a sermon-disguised-as-a-pep-talk promoting abstinence until marriage. Granted, he was going after an easy celebrity target (Madonna) and not any of the girls present, but it pissed me off something fierce.

    I wasn’t as versed on the subject as this girl, but I knew that seemed to go against the general principles we were taught in regular church and that some of my friends were going through hell in middle school because of smug jerks like this youth pastor (and other girls). This was the moment when I realized that the idea that Christian love was just a pretense wasn’t some straw-man used by enemies of the church trying to discredit God.

    By this point, I had established a pattern of dealing with bullies by punching or kicking them, but I was a kid and not about to stand up and start arguing with the guy on stage. Foolishly, I waited for an adult to do it. They had no problems correcting speakers who said something theologically questionable or who said something insensitive to kids whose parents were divorced, but they were silent. If I had to point to a single moment where I mentally started leaving Christianity, this was it.

  • Daniel Schealler

    Wut?

    …

    …

    …

    Wut?

    …

    Holy fuck. That’s awesome.

  • shouldbeworking

    Wow. That girl is great. I teach high school and she could out think and out communicate most of my students.

  • ebotebo

    You go girl!

  • Josh, Official SpokesGay

    Oh. My. God.

    I was a pretty awesome and articulate teenager. . . but I had nothing on this chick. Rock the fuck on girrrrrrl!

  • you_monster

    fucking awesome.

  • Tim

    Choppy video, but who cares? Thirteen year old speaks truth, and well.

    • http://www.icyclist.blogspot.com Dave Wyman

      “Choppy video, but who cares?”

      You’re not watching enough vlogs – it’s a style.

  • http://mmrant.wordpress.com/ Rasputin

    That video made me feel better about the world.

  • http://www.jafafahots.com Jafafa Hots

    I get pretty down about the future, I see a lot of bad shit coming, but the one thing that makes me feel good is how absolutely awesome so many young people are these days.

    I was her age circa 1979 and I feel like none of us had a damned clue about anything compared to so many younger people now.

  • craigore

    that was kickass. I imagine she’ll go far.

  • Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM

    Wow. She’s impressive. And funny. I’m kinda blown away.

  • http://beethovenfangirl.wordpress.com/ beethovenfangirl

    Wow. Just … wow. 13? She’s incredible. I’m speechless.

  • maxamillion

    More girls like this, please.
    The world will be a much better place.

  • Roel

    It does restore hope. It really does.

  • HerbieTheBeagle

    She’s fantastic. If only there were more of them.

  • http://iamthewordisi.wordpress.com/ iamthewordisi

    I am honestly delighted and happy that, despite all the depressing events and facts in the world, there is some intelligence speaking out against and owning all the mindless talk – even in such a young girl!

    As an outspoken feminist, I especially appreciate this vlog.

  • lordshipmayhem

    To this girl’s parents: You’ve raised one awesome kid. Be proud of her, she’ll go far.

    • bcoppola

      Yep, they’re doing it right!

  • Gus Snarp

    Awesome. Smart kid.

  • Rasmus

    Funny, now I recall when a radio journalist asked me a question about slut blaming (blaming the rape victim), when I was 13. I think I answered something along the lines of:

    “Uh, uhhgr… That like stupid, or uh, something.”

    Sure enough, they had several thoughtful and articulate responses by other young teens in their radio program later that day.

  • jnorris

    She is not 13, she is too awesome to be just 13 YO.

    I hope her family gets her new video editing software to replace the Kung Fu audio module she’s using now.

  • LG

    Anyone at that age with a discourse at that level, is in serious trouble. Please, leave children alone, give them space to grow, to make mistakes, to contradict themselves. Your applausse is constraining her.

    (I´m not an anglo-speaker. Be nice.)

    • Classical Cipher, Murmur Muris, OM

      Sorry, but that’s not the way the world works anymore. People this age are going to be on the internet; they’re going to be educated; they’re going to put their opinions out there. The patriarchy isn’t going to “leave her alone and give her space to grow,” so I see no reason why feminism shouldn’t be there too, contradicting the damaging nonsense girls are exposed to from birth and applauding girls who get it right.

    • LG

      Let me see:

      “but that’s not the way the world works anymore. People this age are going to be on the internet; they’re going to be educated; they’re going to put their opinions out there.”

      So, because something is going on, you cant critizice it? ¿Reality is reality, that’s it? Thats not an argment.

      “The patriarchy isn’t going to “leave her alone and give her space to grow,” so I see no reason why feminism shouldn’t be there too”

      Because the bad guys do it, feminist should do it to. Wrong.

      If you are right, there should be a way so express your opinion without falacies, so the rest of the people can understand you.

    • Daniel Schealler

      Anyone at that age with a discourse at that level, is in serious trouble.

      Why?

    • LG

      It´s an activist’s discourse. Reminds me the “completeness” (I’m translating that word from castillian, sorry) of a politian or a member of a cult, or even Dawkins attacks on religión. (I´m an atheist, by the way). Children and teens should be learning how to think, not what to think.

  • http://www.dinosword.ca Clayton

    DEAL WITH IT.

  • LG

    ¡GROW UP!

    (¿Do you see how easy a catch phrase can be answered with another? Now, arguments… )

  • Ben Finney

    And again, what is wrong per se with her using “an activist’s discourse”?

    Why do you not want her to have well-founded, well-articulated opinions in public?

  • stubby

    Great, now I feel even dumber. Not cool, man. Not cool.

  • Daniel Schealler

    You seem very confident that the video is the result of her being taught what to think rather than how to think.

    What makes you so confident of this?

  • Daniel Schealler

    You seem very confident that the video is the result of her being taught what to think rather than how to think.

    What makes you so confident of this?

    (@CWH: My previous message popped up in the wrong place – feel free to delete the older one to remove any confusion.)

  • Daniel Schealler

    Damn. Reply-to-message fail.

    Replying only goes three messages deep, then?

    In case of any confusion, my comments 34/35 were intended to be in response to LG in the thread under comment 29.1.2.1

  • LG

    ¿What makes anyone so confident about why that little boy in Jesus Camp documentary said that he wanted to be saved an 5yo? Even if I didnt saw that documentary, I would recognize that an adult have push a lot of ideas to his trhoat. I´ve been 13yo atheist in a catholic school, I know how is to be certain of something and not being able to tie all the loose knots just because I haven’t the tools, nor have how to use the ones I know. I’ve been also around with young, inteligent 13yo (my nephews and nieces): things they believe are nor that completed, rounded; have fails. They can win a debate, but they have a lot of flaws. Maybe the girl of this video has an IQ of 200; well, even if thats the case (which is unlikely), teens shoudnt be at the public eye because intelligence doesnt equals emocional madurity.

    ¿Really, LG? ¿Does people like Haggard or Comfort are mature? ¿Didnt you know that in your own country peolple marry at 13?

    If laws were perfect, some adults wouldt count as adults; that doesnt make 13th likely to be mature enough to recieve strangers applausse, criticism or hate. And yes, some girls in my country marry at 13; they also live very painful lives.

  • Daniel Schealler

    @LG #37

    That doesn’t actually answer my question.

    The reason I believe that the children that declare love of religion in shows such as Jesus Camp have been indoctrinated is because they don’t supply sound reasoning for their positions. They really do just parrot back the views in which they were instructed to believe.

    I can’t be certain of astrorice’s background. However, she has a powerful contrast to the kids at Jesus Camp that should be obvious. Her video was almost an essay. It was structured. It had a lead in, an introductory summary, a definition of terms, she fleshed out the topic and her position, then followed it up by restating her thesis (slut-shaming is wrong at any age), tied it into direct experience (girls my age…) and added on a modest call to action (pass along this video).

    The overall construction of the whole video, combined with her delivery, seems consistent to me with someone who really has reflected on their subject matter thoughtfully before arriving at their conclusion.

    That’s a /big/ difference between astrorice’s video and what goes on at Jesus Camp… And if it were me in astrorice’s shoes, I’d probably be a bit offended that you thought the two were in any way comparable.

    You attempted to answer my question with a question – but I think you’ve failed to address my concerns.

    The reasons why I object to what goes on at Jesus Camp do not apply to the case of this video by astrorice.

    So I re-state my earlier question.

    You seem very confident that the video is the result of astrorice having been taught what to think rather than how to think.

    What makes you so confident of this?

    In particular, pay attention to the fact that the quality with which the essay has been composed is indicative of someone who has been taught how to structure and arrange their thoughts into a coherent, sequitur and persuasive argument. That’s a pretty good crash course in ‘how to think’ as far as I’m concerned.

    Note: I don’t need to suppose that astrorice has some kind of genius-level IQ to have produced this video. Don’t get me wrong – the lights are clearly on and the cogs are clearly turning. But that’s no reason to get carried away.

    I only have to suppose that astrorice has been taught how to construct an argument persuasively, has had experience timing and editing videos (2 years as a YouTuber will probably give you that), that she’s familiar with her subject matter, that she cares about the subject matter, and that at that point in time she was motivated enough to put in the effort to construct something good.

    That’s all it takes. I don’t need to suppose that astrorice is some kind of superhuman savant with a genius-level IQ. I fully expect that most teenagers could put together something that good if they had the basic skills required and the drive to apply them.

    Also:

    teens shoudnt be at the public eye because intelligence doesnt equals emocional madurity.

    What?

    Look, yes, you’re partly right. Intelligence doesn’t equal emotional maturity. Gotcha.

    But why should emotional maturity be a prerequisite for exposing one’s views and argument in the public sphere?

    Obviously you need to be a bit careful with the internet – predators and cyber-bulling and whatnot. The internet does have its dark side… But firstly, I don’t think that was what you meant… And secondly, we shouldn’t underestimate the savvy with which young people today can manipulate technology. I was only just learning how to use the internet when I was 13 (I’m 27). Astrorice has had it available her entire life. That’s going to make a difference in our relative abilities. It should be expected that the internet and modern technology will come far more naturally to her than it would to me.

    I’m glad that astrorice is putting her ideas out there. It makes me happy. Not just because I think she’s doing a damn fine job representing herself and her ideas – but also because generally speaking putting ones’ ideas out in the public sphere is also one of the best ways of putting them to the test. The public sphere is where ideas and arguments belong. It’s damn good practice.

    I do agree with you that we shouldn’t indoctrinate children. I’m 100% behind Dawkins on that one. I just don’t think that there’s sufficient grounds for concern that that is what is going on in astrorice’s case.

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  • http://www.astro.multivax.de:8000/helbig/helbig.html Phillip Helbig

    The people she criticizes reminds me of Bertrand Russel’s quip: Some people would rather die before they think—in fact, they do.

    Yes, I agree with what she says but as another commenter pointed out, this is not a sign of genius. The fact that she stands out shows how bad the bulk of children her age is.

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