I watched Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused tonight. It's a good movie, but I found myself grinding my teeth in anger for much of the film's running time because the plot features the barbaric hazing ritual: older students assault and humiliate younger students as a perverse rite of passage.
I was never subjected to a hazing, but only through sheer luck; hazing was common in Leduc in the 80s. I didn't even realize it was happening until it was all over.
I was furious, though, when I learned how some of my classmates had been abused. As a younger child I'd been a victim of violent perennial bullying, and then as now I have no tolerance for it. I found it especially irksome that in the film the teachers and parents (with one exception) seem content to allow hazing.
I haven't been a teen for a long time, so I have no idea if hazing still happens. I hope not; in my eyes it's utterly criminal and shouldn't be tolerated.
That being said, Dazed and Confused is a good movie. It certainly left an impression.
I was never subjected to a hazing, but only through sheer luck; hazing was common in Leduc in the 80s. I didn't even realize it was happening until it was all over.
I was furious, though, when I learned how some of my classmates had been abused. As a younger child I'd been a victim of violent perennial bullying, and then as now I have no tolerance for it. I found it especially irksome that in the film the teachers and parents (with one exception) seem content to allow hazing.
I haven't been a teen for a long time, so I have no idea if hazing still happens. I hope not; in my eyes it's utterly criminal and shouldn't be tolerated.
That being said, Dazed and Confused is a good movie. It certainly left an impression.
I wanted to play rugby in Junior High, but stories (whether true or not) about hazing made me change my mind.
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