How "Loserdom" Was Rife in Millennial TV Programming

How "Loserdom" Was Rife in Millennial TV Programming
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My mother and brother are well aware of my lamentations on how I was mercilessly teased as a child. But while we can all laugh about it now, my complaints still remain unchanged from when I was young:

"Ma! Why did you cut my curly hair short? Why did you dress me in unisex non-designer clothing? Everyone called me a boy! Everyone made fun of me for being a loser!" Back then, this was due to my being the tallest child in the class, year after year. My mother also chose my clothes for me, and kindly dressed me in drab, well-stitched duds from Eddie Bauer, Land’s End and L. L. Bean. Not at all fashionable.

I don't hold any resentments against my mother, given that she is my best friend still today. I know she was a victim of domestic abuse, later becoming a struggling single mother. Even as a child, I had many profound conversations with her. Fashion was not her priority. She was instead more interested in instilling values in me, teaching me about past history and critical thinking skills.

Recently, my brother said something to me that validated my childhood pains as a teased child:

"I watched some show from the late 80s, the time when you were a kid. It was so horrible. There was this character in the show who was a 'loser,' and the person's main function in the show was simply to act stupid and be laughed at by the other people. Now I understand what you mean, when you said that you were traumatized for being a loser."

This hit the nail on the head. As a first grader, everyone called me "Screech," since I resembled this character from Saved by the Bell. At the time, I had never seen the show, and I could not figure which channel it played on. I watched only Disney and Nickelodeon since I liked the programming, and never veered onto other stations. Back then, there was no internet for me to look up Screech. All I knew back then was his name, and I did not want to look like anyone named Screech.

I can now draw up old clips of Saved by the Bell on YouTube. However funny and clownish Screech is, it breaks my heart to see how mean the other characters are to him. It seems he is a deplorable alien completely deserving of scorn and hatred, simply for being himself. I too, as a six-year-old, carried that same burden. I believed that everything about me sucked, down to my cells. My DNA spelled LOSER.

I also recently saw a few episodes of the old Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers series, when it first debuted in 1993. Back then, my brother and I had been devoted fans, so I have fond memories of the show. Yet watching it now, I am appalled at how the "heroic" Power Rangers make scorning fun of the show's humorously antagonistic duo, Bulk and Skull.

“Why don’t you guys crawl back to the ooze where you came from?”

I personally loved Bulk and Skull as a kid, and the severity of the dialogue did not register. I guess they were jerks at times, but whenever they would fall down, people just laughed at them instead of wondering if they were ok. Cheap laughs. As I watched back then, my mother told me about Shakespeare's Hamlet, and how these guys played comic relief akin to Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern.

Many children do not get this opportunity to talk to an adult about children’s pop culture, taking time to analyze it critically. I can imagine how more mainstream, unguided children would simply see Bulk and Skull as "losers." The noble Power Rangers serve as an example for children, and they show no sense of guilt or sympathy for Bulk and Skull. Children can then bring this negative attitude to school. But I wonder…why couldn’t they all be friends? Why do the Power Rangers have to laugh with self-entitled disparagement?

A side note must be noted also. Actors Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy still have their devoted fans now over twenty years ago debuting, and they continue to make appearances at Comic Con events today. Thank goodness they are getting their due recognition.

I assume that most kid viewers of Power Rangers were more mainstream. They watched Power Rangers when it was popular, then quickly moved on to something else once the show became “uncool.” I think this demographic of "fickle/trendy mainstream” children are the ones who would have seen Bulk and Skull as utter losers. And this phenomenon is not only limited to Power Rangers and Saved by the Bell, but countless other shows from the 80s and 90s: Steve Urkel from Family Matters, Minkus from Boy Meets World, Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air…on and on, so many of these characters.

And then there is the movie Back to the Future. Before Marty McFly traveled back in time, his parents were draggy losers who only served to diminish the quality of his life. At the end of the movie, when he returned to the present, he found his loser parents now transformed into hip and cool people, and rich enough to give him a new car. No longer were they losers.

Again, these loser characters are painted as an annoyance, and it is morally permissible to laugh not only at their behavior and mannerisms, but also at their personhood. They are seen as people who should just shut up and go away.

This dismissive sentiment is one short step away from bigotry, which I sadly experienced in school. Children regarded me as the resident idiot who was better off dead. This incessant label hung heavily on my neck, and as the years passed, I became hopeless and sad. I believed the bullies and their taunts that "I sucked." By middle school, I was diagnosed with depression and eventually became suicidal. In my early twenties, I then developed schizophrenia.

When professionals assess for mental illness, they ask at times, "Do you think others are talking about you?" In my childhood, I had this fear countless times. But was this fear unwarranted? I remember looking at groups of trendy girls staring at me, exchanging whispers. I would ask, "What are you talking about?” They would then hush and say "nothing." Was this where my paranoia started? Who knows.

This "loser" culture is horrible, especially how TV shows and media in general encourages the hierarchy of popular winners and deplorable losers. It crushed my spirit back then, being surrounded by kids who ate up that mentality, that there is always a loser to rat out and demean. This is why I frown in the face of people who laugh still today. What is so funny? Is anger and sadness wrong to feel in reaction to this? My frown is an act of rebellion.

I'm a happier person today, and I do not regret my childhood. Even though I was not popular at school back then, I found comfort and solace in studying the violin and viola at a serious level. Playing and listening to the works of masterful composers created happiness in my life. It also created a counterculture for me to retreat into, one that had no regard for popular kids at school.

I tell my story, because I do not want people to suffer. In the face of any bullying, please know that you are worth something. If the people around you do not recognize this, ignore them and find friends on the Internet. That is what I have done, and so I now can create my own social circle. I can pursue my own interests by reading what I want online to educate myself.

There are no winners and losers. Time passes as mundanely as a leisurely treadmill, and there is surely ample opportunity for courtesy. Nor is life a game.

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