As a millennial, at no point did we actually want participation trophies. The feeling of coming in last was not changed in the slightest by receiving a junk trophy.
It was never about the kids, it was about the boomer parents that got jealous seeing other kids with trophies around other petty boomer parents
And the boomer shrinks who were a bit too laser focused on self esteem during the 80s and 90s
I am a worse person having been the focus of my schools mental health people. They cared so deeply for my self esteem, but couldn’t see that hollow victories in the remedial track was making me miserable. They kept telling me that it didn’t matter because I would be able to find employment this way. My only value was as a replaceable cog and they were confused why I was depressed.
Yo you could post that in showerthoughts. That’s such an insightful take.
Are there also shitterthoughts?
Trophies were forced upon us. I didn’t even like the idea of getting a trophy if I won. I won, neat, I don’t need a gold-colored plastic guy hitting a baseball to help me remember that 2-1 game against another collection of school children.
I certainly didn’t need a wood cutout of me posing on home plate. It was tee-ball, I stopped playing after six months.
I never got a trophy for anything, but I did like the medal I got for my first wrestling win… it wasn’t, like, any big thing, but we were against a specific school that has a good program, it was my first year, I was the only girl on the team… and I won by techfall.
It was definitely a participation trophy of sorts, but it actually felt ok to get. It was engraved to read “for beating your [school] opponent, and first win”
We, as a team, lost to them. Badly.
It was tee-ball, I stopped playing after six months.
I played t-ball. I struck out in every at-bat … in t-ball. Fortunately I excelled at defense: coach put me in right field and the other teams were so scared of me they never hit the ball there.
I was the opposite. I could absolutely destroy the ball at bat, but I would literally sit in left field and pick grass.
They expected me to treasure that bullshit too. Kept my seventh-place ribbons in a box for ten years until I threw them the fuck out
…i got honorable mention in the history fair in fourth grade; i think i still have the ribbon in a box…
It was the Boomers who “needed” and forced these trophies on their kids (in the same way they forced sports on some of us) because their fragile egos needed their kids to be “successful” in a useless and arbitrary way.
That’s what fucking pisses me off when people say this. I was born in 1991. As a child WE ALL KNEW PARTICIPATION TROPHIES WERE SILLY. Nobody was like “Oh fuck yeah, that’s right, I won!” We’d all joke about them being participation trophies. When showing my room I’d say “but these are just participation trophies.”
I had them in little league soccer and I knew they were BS lol. Made no damn sense because my parents were just like what are we gonna do with this junk?
It felt worse. Getting a recognition certificate or a white ribbon for coming fourth was a total bummer to my care-factor for participating. Kick a kid while they’re down and they’re not likely to be motivated.
I personally never cared about them, usually lost them on my way home
Right I didn’t want to be there anyway.
20 years later my moms like, “don’t you want your old trophies?” I said no. Those are your trophies.
Vietnam hats aren’t trophies. They’re badges of survivors. They know they lost. They were fucked by our govt while they were there, they got their asses kicked and then came home to a population that didn’t see them as heroes like previous soldiers has experienced. Everything about that war was a shit show and it’s no surprise so many of those vets couldn’t transition back into civilian life.
I know at least one who was very proud of his war crimes, and I do mean very specific things he did and told to me as a child. I hope they never take away his antipsychotics.
And many came back with serious health and mental problems too! I know I was married 2 Vietnam vets. The fought and suffered for their government.
And yet they vote for a party and administration who would and will gleefully send people into the same situation again without hesitation.
That applies to most conflicts since WWII. Name one since then we really won. Not that its the soldiers fault in any way.
Also Boomers: Not actually doing anything for veterans suffering from PTSD, mental illness more broadly, poverty and homelessness.
“Well it’s not MY fault they shot some Vietnamese kid in the face and now have nightmares and a paralyzing fear of fireworks. Guess they should have thought about that before getting drafted.”
/S
You forgot the part about Dying in Vietnam, that’s the reason that they aren’t getting the support that they need.
Also Boomers in the 80s: “Let’s give kids participation trophies!”
O O F
I feel like there’s a meme to be made about trump wanting a peace prize, while bombing other countries, while hating participation trophies, but also thinking he deserves one just for being president …
I mean Obama and Henry Kissenger got Nobel Peace Prizes.
You’re not wrong, but like, ouch.
They are wrong, for the premise is wrong. Being open about the trauma they suffered is no participation trophy. Being a veteran of a war is a burden and not an achievement.
“I raped and murdered innocent people I’m the victim”
If you see a vietnam vet and immediately think rapist you might have other issues.
I’m almost got mad until i saw what community i was in
They’re still convinced they got cheated out of victory by liberals.
I mean if you look at the restriction on targets you might come to that conclusion. The US restricted any airstrikes on railyards, airfields, SAM sites could only be targeted if they shot first, and anything in a 30mile radius around Hanoi. These restrictions were only removed 7 years into the war, and there were still restriction on the ground war and targets there. McNamara is directly responsible for these restrictions and the 57000 American lives that could have lived if we didn’t hanper our own warfighting at every turn.
I couldn’t name anyone I knew who actually went through the shit of Vietnam and wore one of those hats proudly.
They were exclusively for the ranks of the Texas Air National Guard, the straight up draft dodgers who wanted to look cool with their chud friends, and the handful of sociopaths who thought burning down people’s homes was cool.
I have a relative that was in Nam and wears that hat, but he claims he was POG. I have another relative who lied about his age to get into Nam, who definitely was in the shit, and he doesn’t wear the hat.
Side note, I highly recommend the podcast episode of Between The Covers where Dao Strom is interviewed about her collection of poetic fragments You Will Always Be Someone From Somewhere Else. It gives some really interesting perspective on Vietnam and the wake of the Vietnam war especially as a counterpoint to the incomplete US perspective that is still only interested in certain stories about Vietnam and about Vietnamese.
https://tinhouse.com/podcast/dao-strom-you-will-always-be-someone-from-somewhere-else/
