So this morning I read an article about Miss Gabby Douglas ( for those of you who didn’t watch the Olympics, she is the gold medalist in gymnastics from USA) and the controversy surrounding her hair! I am just appalled about the whole situation! Her hair-which I happen to think is just fine-first sparked controversy during the Olympics because some idiots people thought that her ponytail was unkempt. Hello??? 0_o ….. you people do realize that she is a star athlete who is busy focusing on doing flips, jumps, cartwheels, etc. trying to win a gold medal in the Olympics? Like that was the purpose of her flying all the way to London. Not for a beauty pageant but for an Olympic event!
Who has time to worry about if their ponytail is neat and tidy? Her focus was on her performance and reaching the goal she had set for herself. I also didn’t understand why her hair got so much attention. None of the female athletes had their hair “fried, dyed and laid to the side” during their events. All the gymnasts wore ponytails, the swimmers wore swim caps, the tennis players wore ponytails, etc. I didn’t see anyone with freshly flat ironed, curled, or even wearing clip in extensions. This was not the platform for that! It’s the freaking Olympics…it was all about sports! Sigh…I digress.
SO anyway today there was another article because now Gabby has gotten a weave (extensions) in her hair for all of her public and television appearances. Somebody help me because I don’t see what is wrong with that! For one thing it will save her a lot of time when getting ready. Secondly it will protect her hair from being damaged from having to be curled so many times for all of these appearances here in the States and abroad. But of course the same idiots I mean people are ragging her about her hair yet again.
This whole situation reminds me of crabs in a bucket. My grandmother and I would go crabbing when I was younger. We would catch lots of them during low tide and throw them in a bucket. I would watch as they would fight each other to get to the top of the bucket to get out. When one of them would make it close to the top, or to the top, then the other crabs would try to attack that one crab to try to make them come back down to where they were. I think that is the mentality of so many people in our society today and its so sad.
Instead of being happy when someone succeeds in life, people try to find something, the most minute or trivial thing to try to bring that person down instead of praising them for accomplishing something big! I am always encouraging people to be the best they can be. I love to see people “make it”. Instead of being a crab in a bucket, try to learn from that person’s success or work harder to meet your own goals.
What I learned from this entire ordeal is that people just can’t help “hating” on someone who does well. This trait transcends denominations, races, genders, etc. I have put up with it in my own life but I don’t even let the negativity affect me like it used to. My grandma told me something when I was younger that I will always remember and put into practice everyday. She said “if people hate on you then that means you must be doing something right. So keep on doing what you are doing and living your life in excellence. Eventually you might be able to inspire the haters to do something with their own lives that they can be proud of”. My granny is very wise.
Have you ever had the “crabs in a bucket” experience? How do you cope? I would love to hear about it!
I love this post! Brittany, this whole crab thing is so spot on when it comes to this type of people! Sad to say, but there are people out there who can’t stand seeing others making it to the top. And this mentality of, if I’m not up there, then why should you… seems to be all over the place. They can’t help it but bring you down or surround you with negativity. It’s appalling. And unfortunately, today I have that crab already! LOL. In fact, back in July when one of my posts was Freshly Pressed, I had a few of these crabs, too! Wow, I couldn’t believe it at first, but it is what it is. And the only thing I could really do is keep doing what I was doing. I tried my best to not let this whole letting me down thing get to me. But you’re Grandma’s right – that if someone’s hating you, it must be because you’re doing something right. Thanks for this post Brittany.
No problem. Thanks for reading my little rant! I hope I don’t have to deal with little crabs coming to my blog.But I’m sure if it gets a little popular I may. I will just block them though. I am all about positivity on my blog. The world is already too negative. Hope you have a great rest of your day 🙂
I get the thing about the ponytail, to be honest. She looked a hot mess. But here is the real reason it became an Olympic judging issue (I’m only speaking on the actual judging, not the worlds reactions here): because her appearance, just like her gymnastics, has to be perfect in order to get full points. Its just like in ballet. You have to be sleek and perfect in those types of sports, or your scores reflect it.
People are just assholes. Plain and simple. They will judge, as they often do, simply out of insecurity.
Your analogy is a good one and I feel bad for this girl. She worked hard for a goal and won it and rude, awful people with no lives of their own have to pick on her hair!? It baffles me. Gabby Douglas is cute as a button and no one should say anything else to the contrary. I think most rude comments and negativity comes from jealousy these days.