We modified people are not playing the 'game'

[Mr Stabby]

Right I have come acrossed an article from a Erin Simovic in which, well she basically sits on her high horse insulting anyone with piercings and tattoos....well heres the article...

Originally Said by Erin Simovic

What is the point of extreme fashion statements? Spiky, multicolored hair, chains, studs, piercings, face paint, you name it. It's the scarifying of America, powered by celebrities like Marilyn Manson.

Okay, I know what you're thinking -- sheltered little suburban girl totally out of touch with reality -- but you couldn't be more wrong. I'm hip. I read the Sears catalogue. I'm so totally in touch with the kids of today.

Alright, so maybe its only the the elementary school kids, and maybe I still secretly wish I could wear stretch pants -- with stirrups. But that is not the point.

Although I only live a few miles from a big city, I rarely venture into downtown. It scares me. Nothing but heckling delinquents and those strange city-dwellers who feel compelled to express themselves with bizarre fashion choices.

I am being polite, mind you. I would have used "freakish," but I figured that wouldn't be politically correct.

Now before anyone jumps all over me about not judging the book by its cover (blah, blah, blah), let's think about this practically and rationally.

And then we'll think about it my way.

Why would anyone, in his right mind that is, choose to alienate themselves from society in such a way? You can't tell me that mohawks look respectable for job interviews. I conclude, then, that these individuals either want to rebel from society or are simply not in their right minds.

I tend to lean toward the latter myself, but feel free to form your own conclusions.

Yes, yes, this is a free country, but my inability to understand these fashion trends is not the problem. Everyone is different and I'm sure, to some overly sensitive person, my "I love nerds" T-shirt is offensive.

Let's assume, then, for the sake of open-mindedness, that these drastic fashions are a result of societal rebellion. If that is the case, how silly to think that these individuals waste so much time trying to make a statement using their nonconforming clothing.

Sure, world peace is one step closer after I paint on my gothic makeup. Why don't we have these folks as Miss America contestants?

Instead, they ought to focus on making real efforts to change what they don't like about society.

By real efforts I am referring to, for instance, volunteering at a nature camp to teach kids about the effects of pollution on our environment.

This is in sharp contrast to, say, wearing a studded dog collar and pants held together by safety pins.

I'm not really sure which approach is more effective in combating damage to our environment. I suppose it's a toss-up, really.

Of course, I am making the assumption that these people actually have a real statement to make and are not, as many would state, merely menaces to society.

Personally, I have a hard time believing that these individuals would want to make their appearances so, at times, shocking and not have some underlying reason for doing so.

Their choices certainly help to alienate them from other members of society unlike themselves, making me want to believe that they have some reason for doing so.

Or maybe this is just something else we can blame on the Internet.

Unfortunately, we live in a very judgmental society. Our clothes, makeup, hair and possessions communicate to others who we are and what we value. Even if we don't agree with it, this is nothing new. For some, dressing up to look like circus members from the underworld is one way to protest this. I guess you could say that the rest of us choose to play the game.

Regardless, isn't there some better way that these people can spend their time? Can't they find more productive outlets of expression?

I don't want the nonconformists to go away, I just want them, in one way or another, to make some positive contribution to society, rather than generate negative attention.

While that may go against their desires to destroy society as we know it, if they truly want to get any sort of message to the rest of us, I would recommend they consider losing the spikes.

We are, as most of us are aware, all part of the same society. Like it or not, we all have to be here and make our own individual contributions. Maybe America isn't ideal to everyone, but unless you play the game, it never will be for you.

Now I know im not american, but still this offends me, even more so because I am currently employed in a job which is directly benefitting society. I sent an email off to her a little while ago. highlighting my view on this....well read for yourself, heres my email...

Originally Said by My Own Personal Email

hello Miss Simovic,

You dont know me, but I found an article of yours "How to win at the game that is America" firstly let me say im British so this doesnt tie in with me straight away. But I am 'modified', as in a do have piercings and I have tattoos, and im am utterly offended but your article. How dare you talk that way, we don't contribute to society? I work as part of the postal system in the UK, I think thats contributing to society, dont you?

Where do you get off trying to force you crass views on people? its not you view to make. Do you haev a tattoo? are you pierced? no your not, you do not understand anything that we do understand. You look upon us as a waste of society because of the way we look, look fuck you! first impressions are bullshit in todays modern society. You people cannot just make a judgement on us because we have a tattoo or were pierced or whatever.

I know that part of this will just 'proove' your point, ergo I showed 'agression' but come on, how do you expect the public to react to something like this? 90% of the public dont care, and the few that do, keep it to themselves, they do not publicly try and force their opinion on someone, because thats all it is, an opinion. But your trying to make it more than that, your know better than a religious person trying to force feed me pure views on god.

In closing I know your article was written many many months ago, and thus you probably would not be able to write a retraction, because I really believe you should, because your article pure insult laden. But I would like an apology written, if not in an article at least to me, because I am utterly offended. And also I don't want to hear you ever use the term "your not playing the game" many people are in very good jobs and they too are modified. What would you say if your boss turned out to have nipple and genital piercings and tattoos under his/her shirt? would you still say your not "playing the game?"

Dean Shepherd
Modified and proud of it and contributing to society

So what are your views on this? do I seem like im pulling society down?

NOTE: This article was written towards the beginning of this year, I only recently discovered it through BME.

[Weasel]

At first I thought this was about Halo 2.

[Mr Stabby]

haha, eric, put the controller down, turn the xbox off, and go outside! lol

anyway on topic, I just found that there was an update to this..

Originally Said by BME

UPDATE:
After seeing the feedback her article generated, Ms. Simovic posted,


After reading all this feedback, I am very sorry for what I wrote, I will look at tattooed and pierced people with more respect from now on and not base their characteristics on what decorations they choose to put on themselves.
To be honest, I actually find tattooed guys nicer than non tattooed guys because they are able to express their feelings easier, and also they are better in bed. I would know because I am one of those 'been around the block' chicks ;)


Many readers continued to decry her article, not taking her apology as particularly serious. Katie replied,

You once again generalize by saying that you find tattooed guys to be nicer, able to express their feelings better, and "better in bed." Then you go on to boast about your "promiscuous" lifestyle... maybe you don't approve of my ten piercings, but don't expect me to applaud you for being a whore.

wow change of opinion greatly there, what do you think? lol

[kyle]

wow she must be a liberal look at the flip flopping. we had to read something like that about how people with pierciings all end up in jail

[Mr Stabby]

Originally Said by kyle

wow she must be a liberal look at the flip flopping. we had to read something like that about how people with pierciings all end up in jail

thats bullshit for a start, just coz I have a lip ring im gonna be a convict? pfft not bloody likely, I have done my time so to speak, I learnt my mistakes....and im nto doing anything like that again, but that was all before I got pierced or inked, shit that was before I even picked a guitar up!

[kyle]

if you dont listen to michael bolton and watch full house then your a criminal

[Mr Stabby]

wow shit im in trouble then

[kyle]

i bet she was one of those people who said GTA caused kids to shoot people

[Mr Stabby]

that always reminds me of the saying "guns don't kill people, death kills people!"

[kyle]

guns dont kill people the bullet does

[Mr Stabby]

yea but what I said is actually from GTA

[Jenn and tonic]

After reading her first article, I don't agree, but I respected her opinion.

But when she retracted that and basically said 'oops, sorry guys,' I lost all respect.

[Mr Stabby]

Originally Said by Jenn and tonic

After reading her first article, I don't agree, but I respected her opinion.

But when she retracted that and basically said 'oops, sorry guys,' I lost all respect.

how could you respect her opinion? its based on first impressions...thats all it is...there no facts there at all, but then again you have no tattoos or piercings in the sense that you dont fall in the' modified' crowd, so you dont understand the full arguement im putting across...

And to be honest after delving a lil more I have found references which say that her article was satire, while I cannot rule that out, she is not the only one to have said we dont contribute, (but hers is the only article I can find straight away)...

[Jenn and tonic]

Originally Said by Haunted Madness

how could you respect her opinion? its based on first impressions...thats all it is...there no facts there at all, but then again you have no tattoos or piercings in the sense that you dont fall in the' modified' crowd, so you dont understand the full arguement im putting across...

And to be honest after delving a lil more I have found references which say that her article was satire, while I cannot rule that out, she is not the only one to have said we dont contribute, (but hers is the only article I can find straight away)...

I don't necessarily have to agree or like someone to respect that they have an opinion. At least they stand for something. Plenty of people out there just don't give two shits. But obviously this girl doesn't stand by her convictions or else she wouldn't have retracted what she said.

And I haven't gotten piercings for the simple fact that I wouldn't look attractive with them (at least, not on my face.), and also I'm not allowed to have them because of my job and how I deal with people. Otherwise, I'd have 3 holes in each ear instead of two in each, cartilage piercings, a labret, and a navel piercing.

I could still probably do the navel, but I haven't gotten around to it.

[Mr Stabby]

Originally Said by Jenn and tonic

and also I'm not allowed to have them because of my job and how I deal with people.

now this is what I hate, jobs saying this, its bullshit! I could be the most talented salesman ever, who can sell a picture to a blind guy or a full meat burger to a vegetarian, but I have tattoos so immediatly BAM! I dont have a chance....fuck them!

[tynie]

Originally Said by Haunted Madness

now this is what I hate, jobs saying this, its bullshit! I could be the most talented salesman ever, who can sell a picture to a blind guy or a full meat burger to a vegetarian, but I have tattoos so immediatly BAM! I dont have a chance....fuck them!

i'll pass on the offer burger boy.

The thing is...your not playing the game, you've won. The lady is beserk, and if she knew every bodmodder on a personal level, she'd change her mind. Telling that every freak is dastardly threat to society needs to take a look at themselves and see who the real freak is.

[Jenn and tonic]

Originally Said by Haunted Madness

now this is what I hate, jobs saying this, its bullshit! I could be the most talented salesman ever, who can sell a picture to a blind guy or a full meat burger to a vegetarian, but I have tattoos so immediatly BAM! I dont have a chance....fuck them!

Well, it's just for the fact that most people, especially when you deal with a lot of older people, do not think people with tattoos and piercings all over the place are approachable. And in my job as a carhop, the people have to think the workers are approachable in order to come back. They are turned away by piercings and tattoos. It's sad, but true.

[Mr Stabby]

Originally Said by Spooky Girl Tyne

i'll pass on the offer burger boy.

The thing is...your not playing the game, you've won. The lady is beserk, and if she knew every bodmodder on a personal level, she'd change her mind. Telling that every freak is dastardly threat to society needs to take a look at themselves and see who the real freak is.

yeah, but still this is highly insulting though, yeah I have had the comments from people like "Oh dear what have you done?" or "your young you've now ruined your life" or the best one of all!! "what ever is your mother going to say?" haha ask her yourself, shes been there for all barr one tattoo session!

And to quote what I already said tyne "some people need to pull their head out their ass, then cram it back up there"....still no idea where I was going with that, it seemed to fit lol

[Mr Stabby]

dammit! I just found another one, now this one is not someone saying we are destroying society, well......she is but not the same as the first article...Im also gonna include the BME article which focused on this, note the ironic twist at the end of shannons article...

Originally Said by Debra Darvick

My Turn: Service With a Smile, And Plenty of Metal

I can't help shuddering and averting my eyes when I find myself staring at a face full of hoops and studs

Piercing visions: There's one Gen-XYZ trend that Debra Darvick just can't accept

By Debra Darvick
Newsweek


July 12 issue - When I can read the latte menu through the hole in my server's earlobe, something is seriously out of whack. The first time I saw this I nearly blew my lunch into the tip jar. Is this how the Gen-whatevers define beauty? What happened to an earring, maybe two, in each lobe? Gone to air guns, every one. Now any surface is game. Brow, lip, tongue, cheek, nose. As this is a family magazine, I won't even go south of the neck. I've adjusted to untied shoelaces and pants that make mooning irrelevant. But when it comes to piercings, I just can't budge.


Go ahead and say it. I'm over the hill. My "Let's Go: Europe" days have given way to "Letting Go: A Parent's Guide to Understanding the College Years." The esthetic gap between my generation and the one coming up yawns wider than the space between David Letterman's two front teeth.

There is an employee at my local bookstore. The first time he waited on me I went weak in the knees, and not because he looks like Johnny Depp. He had a ring. In his nose. Toro style. It was big enough to hold one of my dinner napkins. His upper lip was pierced by its twin. OK, OK, I exaggerate. The lip ring could have encircled only a tea napkin.

Does anybody else suffer frissons of revulsion, or is it just me? I cannot let him wait on me. I like chatting with wait staff and servers as much as the next patron. But if I can't look someone in the face because of his piercings, please take my place in line. I'll await the next cashier.

My kids think my attitude is horrible and prejudiced. It's not. These young people are helpful, enthusiastic, efficient. They offer service with a smile. The smile, however, is often studded, pierced and hooped. The last time I bought a CD, the cashier chatted me up. A bar thing was threaded through her tongue. Another pierced her eyebrow. Her ear tinkled metal each time she moved. Where was I supposed to focus when I was speaking with her?

Every generation has its style, its outrageous fads. We certainly had ours in the '70s—no bra, hair down to there and bell-bottoms so wide they could have tolled from here to Haight-Ashbury. My daughter is appalled that I would ever leave the house sans Maidenform. Perhaps the piercers are merely going through a stage that will not only pass but close up, preferably without too much scarring.

As I was surfing the Internet I came across an interview with Ariel Glucklich, a theologian at Georgetown University who, as author of the book "Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul," shares an interesting take on the issue. Glucklich believes our understanding of pain has all but lost its link to holiness. "The modern person is a patient or a citizen," he says, "someone with individual rights, including the right to avoid pain. No one wants to go back to surgeries or even dentists without anesthetics. But the result is that we forgot that life's many pains used to have distinct and vivid meanings. Those meanings—that pain can be healing, or initiating, or instructive—have been lost despite the fact that many of our pains are still right there... The trick is to learn how to change that profane pain into something meaningful, a form of self-sacrifice."

He's got a point there. Childbirth hurt like nothing I'd ever known. Yet there was something holy about that agony. Labor's pain reduced me to my animal essence. Gone were ego and intellect; ditto pretense and vanity. It was just me and those bone-shattering contractions. Talk about self-sacrifice. Bringing my children into the world demanded that I give up any sense of propriety. Once it was over, I was in awe at what I had endured. And holding my babies definitely conferred healing and initiation.

Maybe on some level it's the same with piercings. At a time when bulwark institutions—schools, churches and synagogues, parents—have lost much of the authority adolescents need to simultaneously rail against and draw comfort from, perhaps piercings provide a path to create meaning out of the profane. Much the same way colors are used by gang members to stake out turf and identity, piercings have become a mode of group identification and the self-validation that comes with it.

Some of these piercings have to hurt like hell, and the anesthetic eventually wears off. Perhaps there is pride in that pain. Then again, maybe it's about nothing more than a Gen-XYZ trend. I certainly didn't eschew the Maidenform to bond with feminist ideologues.

I don't know that I'll ever let Mr. Toro ring up my books, but the next time I see a stud glinting in my server's tongue as she recites the specials of the day, I'll likely stifle a shudder or two. And I'll wonder: what is the reason behind this intersection of flesh and metal? Am I attempting to find meaning in a fad that is only skin deep?

[Mr Stabby]

and heres BME's top man Shannon's article to this...

Originally Said by BME's Shannon Larratt

Debra Darvick advocates mutilating babies
PS. She’s also a bigot.

bigot n. One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

prejudice n. An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts; a preconceived preference or idea. Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion.

In the July 12th issue of Newsweek magazine (which you can read online here), Debra Darvick — a woman who believes she must have shamans ritually mutilate the penises of babies to appease her god — writes that those with piercings are disgusting and that she won’t interact with them because they make her “nearly blow her lunch”. She launches a tirade of ignorant insults against those with piercings based on both false assumptions and simple bigotry, eventually coming to the conclusion that people should be judged first on appearance, and second on behavior.

She begins by writing,

“When I can read the latte menu through the hole in my server’s earlobe, something is seriously out of whack. The first time I saw this I nearly blew my lunch into the tip jar. Is this how the Gen-whatevers define beauty?”

The fact is that piercings — most commonly stretched earlobes — have been a defining standard of beauty over nearly all of human history, even if Debra Darvick’s short-sightedness decides to class it as ugly. It’s actually quite strange that some people in the West have forgotten that. However, ignoring her stupidity for a moment, here are a few more comments from her introduction.

“The first time he waited on me I went weak in the knees ... He had a ring. In his nose. Toro style. It was big enough to hold one of my dinner napkins ... Does anybody else suffer frissons of revulsion, or is it just me? I cannot let him wait on me. I like chatting with wait staff and servers as much as the next patron. But if I can’t look someone in the face because of his piercings, please take my place in line. I’ll await the next cashier.”

Debra Darvick prides herself on being a good Jewish mother (she even opens her book, The Jewish Life, with anecdotes about her son’s bris), yet her approach to people she doesn’t understand is ridicule and abuse. This type of child abuse that Debra Darvick seems to espouse is often linked to eating disorders and other disorders related to shame and self-esteem issues — including suicide, which the University of Minnesota says is increased as much as 300% by teasing. In America, over 160,000 students miss school every day because of teasing and bullying. According to the NEA, this teasing damages the education process not just for those being teased, but for all students because of the climate of fear it generates. More than half of all students know someone who left school because of teasing, and less than a quarter of students believe that teachers ever intervene in this teasing (and according to the National Mental Health and Education Center, many teachers have no problem at all with teasing and intervene only 4% of the time)... Now Debra Darvick wants to bring this crime to the pages of Newsweek as well, thus legitimizing it even more.

Before you say that Ms. Darvick just has a problem with piercings because she’s fundamentally clueless and out of touch, she teases at any opportunity be it her snide “Gen-whatever” and “Gen-XYZ” tags, or when she describes the gap between her and her children as yawning “wider than the space between David Letterman’s two front teeth.” She’s also very clear that this has nothing to do with service or behavior — it’s exclusively about looks. Here is how she describes just the job performance of the people she’s chosen to publicly degrade and ridicule:

“These young people are helpful, enthusiastic, efficient. They offer service with a smile.”

However, doing a good job isn’t what she’s looking for. As she points out over and over, people with piercings make her want to vomit. She has to “stifle a shudder or two” when she notices someone’s piercings. I myself shudder when I imagine how she might react to those who are obese, unattractive, or simply of a race different than her own. Later in the article she tries to intellectualize an explanation, but only her ignorance is evident in it.

“...piercings have become a mode of group identification and the self-validation that comes with it. Some of these piercings have to hurt like hell, and the anesthetic eventually wears off. Perhaps there is pride in that pain.”

Even the most basic of research would show her that piercing is absolutely not about “being part of a group” — if anything, quite the opposite. People with piercings are far more likely to be outside the group, and given Ms. Darvick’s series of attacks, that should be obvious. Her notion that piercings hurt once “the anesthetic wears off” is laughable and illustrates that she has done zero research into what she’s writing about and cares little about the truth, and even less about the welfare of young people and their families. And this is the calibre of writing that wins two Rockower awards for excellence in Jewish journalism?

She pejoratively hopes that piercing is just a “phase” like the “no bra, hair down to there and bell-bottoms” look of the children of the 70s, which she admits she did share, but cared little for the associated feminism and social justice. You know what? If vapid hatemongers like Debra Darvick are what is produced when “the trend” is over, all the more reason for young people to get pierced and stay pierced. It all underscores the overwhelmingly obvious — Debra Darvick is simply too closed-minded to comprehend these issues, and when she doesn’t understand something, she attacks it. The kind of attitude she’s arguing for can be used to justify atrocities of all sorts, most obviously the Holocaust, a stain on history that occurred because otherwise good people decided it was acceptable to hate a group of people because of their differences.

She concludes by writing that she probably won’t let “Mr. Toro” (her nom de plume douleur for the worker with a septum piercing) serve her again, and when a publication as large as Newsweek prints hatred like this, it ensures that many young people will be fired from their jobs for looking the way they have chosen to look, to say nothing of the teasing it validates and the lives it can destroy. As a direct result of Debra Darvick’s actions, young people will be hurt. But like I said, she did have part of her son Elliot’s penis cut off to ensure god would like him... Whether you agree with her actions in doing so or not is irrelevant. The point is that it puts her, someone who mutilated a child without any consent, in a position where she has no right to comment on someone else’s decision to pierce themselves of their own free will unless she’s willing to be judged in turn.

I doubt that anything I or anyone else writes will change Ms. Darvick’s stance on child abuse and her apparent love for bringing pain to those she does not understand, so I haven’t tried to explain to her “why” we transform ourselves in this way. In any case, it is inexcusable for Newsweek or any other pseudo-reputable publication at least doing a charade of journalism to give credence and support to teasing in such a public forum — have they forgotten that it was only a few years ago that they themselves pointed out (in “The Roots of Violence: Why The Young Kill”) exactly what the outcome of such teasing is, and that they have regularly printed articles on the damage that attitudes like Ms. Darvick’s do to young people?

Debra Darvick can be reached at (248) 646-5044 in Birmingham, MI (I won’t print the rest of her address, also available online, because I have no wish to see harm come to her or anyone else), although her son told me that she’s currently on vacation and said people should call her cell phone instead at (248) 561-4989. If you’re wondering why her son would give out her cell phone number to me, she herself says that her children characterize her beliefs as “horrible and prejudiced”. You know what Debra? If your own children think you’re a bigot, maybe you should listen. And to Newsweek, next time you decide to print a story on body piercing, I hope you will consider hiring a journalist that cares more about researched facts than simply finding a platform for their uninformed prejudice.

notice the just above part where her son gives a cell phone number....thats just great, her own children being ignored

and these are the comments that Shannons article got,

Originally Said by BME

Some of the comments I've gotten so far:

ONEGA (21, Norfolk)
"I certainly didn't eschew the Maidenform to bond with feminist ideologues." — Perhaps that is what her problem is; she did say in her Newsweek article that she wore bellbottoms and went sans bra, but didn't partake in anything other than the look. She only partly lets herself experience life. She can't understand full experiences, or things that will allow others to live fully because she herself has not.

RUB (29, Emeryville)
I read her "article" and was incredibly disturbed. She reminds me of kids I went to school with who just tortured me (as well as others) for looking different or having different beliefs/ideals. Is she an example of what happens when the "alpha" students grow up? Frightening.

INCUR (23, Victoria)
I like the fact that the "sponsored links" at the bottom of the article all relate to body piercing / body jewelery.

SNITTY (29, Columbia)
So, I wonder how long ago it was that women "her age" with TWO WHOLE EAR LOBE piercings were considered gross and unworthy of eye to eye conversation? Why'd she had to disfigure herself that way?

ALI719 (19, Philadelphia)
What an ignorant bitch. Refusing service of a modded person is the same as refusing to be assisted by someone black, homosexual, etc. etc. I'd spit in her face if she ever came my way.

LIVE FOR PAIN (19, Indianapolis)
What bugs me about what she said is this "Her ear tinkled metal each time she moved. Where was I supposed to focus when I was speaking with her?" From the photo taken of her, she has fairly large earrings in. The actual piercing might be 16 or 18 gauge whatever. But the size of her jewelry is just as bad or if not worse than an eyebrow or tongue piercing. Her jewelry reflects just as much light if not more than an eyebrow piercing. Where does another human have the right to judge another? She said she isn't prejudiced but she is. She has attacked everyone in the body modification culture. Supposedly we are all "Created Equal" but in her view we aren't.

THOUSAND WATT BITCH (20, Bossier City)
I work in retail management and in the time that I have done this type of work, I have had more positive comments and people that are truly intrigued by my modifications than I have had people tell me that they are disgusting and that "god doesn't approve." Don't get me wrong, I have had my share of assholes, but when you wait on 250-500 people a day, by yourself, 3 people a week telling you that you are going to burn in hell isn't bad. I was hired because of my personality and determination to get the job done. My boss hired me when I walked in. At the time, I had 3 facial piercings, my tongue, and a good bit of ear work done. Just because she hired me doesn't mean she approved, but in getting to know me she has learned that there is more to me that the shiny objects protruding from my face that make my smile even brighter. One occasion, a lady in line whispered to another lady, when I was picking up my check on my day off, that "people with that shit in their face are usually on drugs and have poor personal hygiene." Mind you, I was on my way to a graduation and was dressed very nicely. My boss asked the lady to refrain from making such comments and told her what a great person I was, how hard that I work, and so on. The lady thought my boss did not hear her and she became so upset that the regular customers in line took up for me, as well as my boss, the lady dropped her merchandise and left. Who are these people and where do they come from? I don't barge into their place of employment, where they shop, and their homes, hunt them down and tell them what kind of worthless and idiotic people they are. I do now know which is worse... The fact that this lady is actually this ignorant or that the company that she works for will allow her to have this type of slenderizing, garbage printed that actually singles out people.