how do you deal with the inevitable hecklings?

[Flynn MacCallister]

(And having someone else paying your fees doesn't make you ungrateful, and nor does paying your own way make you appreciate it... I've been fighting against this attitude the whole way through my degree.)

[mr_Apricot]

I live far closer to Philadelphia, but even as an white kid from a family of WASPs (who altogether disapprove of my hobbies and style) i find that a large number of my compliments come from back students at my school, or even on the sidewalk.     

[Sir L. Cuilein]

Here's the opposite, a steampunker that did to me what regular people do.

I'll give a little back story, I am a gunsmith so as my income I repair and build firearms, as a hobby I have my steamy projects I tinker on and I try to post here as often as I can. I been into this for a few years now.
I fancy a kilt often as its part of what I consider regular attire. I have even been known to don a camo kilt for Airsoft and paintball.
Most of my friends and customers think of me as a gun nut so it seems no surprise to them that I wear a kilt along with an apron full of my tools. Which I feel makes me look rather steampunk...

Now my facebook has photo's of me with a 308 bolt rifle that I built for a local police department, a rifle I am rather proud of.
However currently my facebook pics are more about the different guns and groups I hang with like SASS and WW2. I've not had a chance to go to a steampunk function yet so I don't have any photos to post.

So here's what happened to me.

Tonight I sent all my Steampunk friends (and this so called friend) on their facebook "Happy Thanksgiving." Nothing more then just those two words and in return I was called a red neck animal killer! I was very disheartened as this was a fellow steampunker and someone that sent ME a friend request originally.
Apparently because my main photo was of the SWAT rifle I built I was attacked by a closed minded person. I was surprised as steampunk in general is so open to many different people and personalities.

It hurt, they don't know me and instead of being an understanding friend they attacked. I guess even steampunker's can be shallow a-holes...

[mr_Apricot]

What an awful thing to say, especially without actually knowing you! I rather hope that you do not take those words to heart. A happy Thanksgiving to you!

[Flynn MacCallister]

Here's the opposite, a steampunker that did to me what regular people do.

I'll give a little back story, I am a gunsmith so as my income I repair and build firearms, as a hobby I have my steamy projects I tinker on and I try to post here as often as I can. I been into this for a few years now.
I fancy a kilt often as its part of what I consider regular attire. I have even been known to don a camo kilt for Airsoft and paintball.
Most of my friends and customers think of me as a gun nut so it seems no surprise to them that I wear a kilt along with an apron full of my tools. Which I feel makes me look rather steampunk...

Now my facebook has photo's of me with a 308 bolt rifle that I built for a local police department, a rifle I am rather proud of.
However currently my facebook pics are more about the different guns and groups I hang with like SASS and WW2. I've not had a chance to go to a steampunk function yet so I don't have any photos to post.

So here's what happened to me.

Tonight I sent all my Steampunk friends (and this so called friend) on their facebook "Happy Thanksgiving." Nothing more then just those two words and in return I was called a red neck animal killer! I was very disheartened as this was a fellow steampunker and someone that sent ME a friend request originally.
Apparently because my main photo was of the SWAT rifle I built I was attacked by a closed minded person. I was surprised as steampunk in general is so open to many different people and personalities.

It hurt, they don't know me and instead of being an understanding friend they attacked. I guess even steampunkers can be shallow a-holes...

People are just people. It doesn't matter what club, society, culture, religion, or whatever they are. They are still just people. You'll find the same proportion of "shallow a-holes" in the Steampunk culture, the Goth culture, on University staff, working at takeaway shops, doing Salsa dance classes, whatever, as you would in the general population. Is just is.

Pfft, humans. ;p

[Arvis]

 Funny how humans can be the most "inhuman". Sorry to hear about that happening. Try not to let it ruin your Holiday. Happy Thanks Giving Mr. MacCallister.

 Arvis

 

[Doctor Trakov]

There are always a few idiots in every culture.

[mattig89ch]

don't you mean every culture?

[Doctor Trakov]

don't you mean every culture?

whoops.
Changed it now.

[Mad Maudlin]

I enjoy such things as screaming Shakespearean insults, my affected British accent becoming thicker and thicker, until they go away. I've been physically attacked before- purposefully crushed against the wall of a school bus, as well as sexually harassed. It was then that I reached over and dug my pointy little claws into the pressure point behind the chav's ear... If the heckling takes the form of "Ohmigawwwwwd! I loooooove your outfiiiit!!! Did you get it at hot topic I wanna get an outfit like that!1!!1!!" and such 'nice' things, I've found that stepping towards them works very well. We intimidate them. We scare them. We are different, and so even those of us who are six inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter than them frighten them.
It's so much fun...

[Rev.Hammer]

....especially with a wet-eyed maddened stare meshed with a rictus grin!

[Sgt.Major Thistlewaite]

I taught martial arts for a very long time. I have been informed that the thing my sparring opponents found most intimidating was that I always fought with a grim, tight smile on my face.

~T

[Utini420]

I've got a buddy who fights like that.  You know you're in trouble when you hit him hard enough to turn the grin into a genuine smile.

I tend to give my opponents the "bored face," like I'm really not that interested in what we're doing. 

[Maj. Clive Hathaway]

It was then that I reached over and dug my pointy little claws into the pressure point behind the chav's ear... If the heckling takes the form of "Ohmigawwwwwd! I loooooove your outfiiiit!!! Did you get it at hot topic I wanna get an outfit like that!1!!1!!" and such 'nice' things, I've found that stepping towards them works very well. We intimidate them. We scare them. We are different, and so even those of us who are six inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter than them frighten them.
It's so much fun...

I would advise caution with this stance. If your going to adopt this course, you should be fully prepared to take/ give a beating. Maybe i'm just speaking from a more "seasoned" point of view, but in the end, words don't REALLY hurt anybody. Fists do. I was no stranger to physical violence in my youth (though i always preferred psychological) but began to stray away from that mindset when i started having to pay my own hospital bills. Oh, and when i became an adult in the eyes of the law. In my own personal experience, when a confrontation with bullies escalated to fists i would win some and lose some, however when the confrontation was a battle of wits, i always carried the day!

[tophatdan]

It was then that I reached over and dug my pointy little claws into the pressure point behind the chav's ear... If the heckling takes the form of "Ohmigawwwwwd! I loooooove your outfiiiit!!! Did you get it at hot topic I wanna get an outfit like that!1!!1!!" and such 'nice' things, I've found that stepping towards them works very well. We intimidate them. We scare them. We are different, and so even those of us who are six inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter than them frighten them.
It's so much fun...

shock value junkie much?

i dint know that a girl complimenting you and asking where you got your clothes is really 'heckling' persay... more of inquiry... and I'm thinking that attacking them verbally or otherways probably isn't going to indear our culture to too many people...

i coult be wrong... maybe verbal abuse and pain is concidered a polite way to greet someone where you come from my dear...

[Count Alexander]

Good for Culinen for being a reenactor, people need to be remembered of all the events for history's sake...

[Mad Maudlin]

It was then that I reached over and dug my pointy little claws into the pressure point behind the chav's ear...

I would advise caution with this stance. If your going to adopt this course, you should be fully prepared to take/ give a beating. Maybe i'm just speaking from a more "seasoned" point of view, but in the end, words don't REALLY hurt anybody. Fists do. I was no stranger to physical violence in my youth (though i always preferred psychological) but began to stray away from that mindset when i started having to pay my own hospital bills. Oh, and when i became an adult in the eyes of the law. In my own personal experience, when a confrontation with bullies escalated to fists i would win some and lose some, however when the confrontation was a battle of wits, i always carried the day!

The difference is that I was attacked first and did no actual damage. That is the value of pressure points.

If the heckling takes the form of "Ohmigawwwwwd! I loooooove your outfiiiit!!! Did you get it at hot topic I wanna get an outfit like that!1!!1!!" and such 'nice' things, I've found that stepping towards them works very well. We intimidate them. We scare them. We are different, and so even those of us who are six inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter than them frighten them.
It's so much fun...

shock value junkie much?

i dint know that a girl complimenting you and asking where you got your clothes is really 'heckling' persay... more of inquiry... and I'm thinking that attacking them verbally or otherways probably isn't going to indear our culture to too many people...

i coult be wrong... maybe verbal abuse and pain is concidered a polite way to greet someone where you come from my dear...

You misunderstand. They are not complimenting me; they are purposefully making fun of me. If someone feels that they must yell "nice outfit" at you in a voice that implies "nice outfit, you f*ing freak" and then run away, shrieking and giggling, when you turn around to confront them, it is very unlikely that they are being genuinely kind.

[TribalWren]

I do believe that the phrase 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me' *is* a Victorian one and so quite fitting for this thread. 

Personally I don't deal with hecklings. Infact I kinda appreciate them because it shows that others consider me to have gone against the mainstream, something which I support wholeheartedly. I can then walk off thinking "Yay me!"  But then again I've always been a bit of a 'You don't like me? That's your loss' kind of a girl and I suppose others who actually have souls are probably more sensitive.......

Actually I do reckon that's a pretty good mantra. What do they even matter? Do they mean anything to you?! Just know that you're awesome and they will never have the pleasure of your dear company. Then smirk. In a knowing way. 

[Mad Maudlin]

There's a pair at school- one chav, one chavette- who have been harassing me daily for a week. Tomorrow, I'm going to call them out on it. Wish me luck?

[Rev.Hammer]

Go forth and smite lustily~!

[Jonny B. Goode]

I'm not in the UK, but I've heard about these chavs. And if it were me, I'd probably say, "You're heckling me?? Look who's talking. I've seen train wrecks with more fashion sense!"

[Sir A Poiselamppe]

Not so much a heckle but at in Birmingham on Saturday...

"The last train for Whitby leaves in Five minutes..." 

Trouble is as it was dark we couldn't see who said it..... 8/10  for wit though

[Maj. Clive Hathaway]

The difference is that I was attacked first and did no actual damage. That is the value of pressure points.

Regardless of who instigated or the level of violence that was used, that is still assault. Peing puched into a bus can be explained away as an accident, whereas going for someones neck is clearly an attack. Do watch out, especially in an American scholastic setting, where administrators think that any kid who looks and acts different is secretly building bombs or planning the next school massacre. Basically, don't be a pushover, but avoid playing to stereotypes.
Good luck keeping a cool and level head when confronting these norms. Rise above the hecklers and dont play into the stereotype.

[OswaldBastable]

Not so much a heckle but at in Birmingham on Saturday...

"The last train for Whitby leaves in Five minutes..." 

Trouble is as it was dark we couldn't see who said it..... 8/10  for wit though

Yes thats witty and not offensive, nothing wrong with that if in the right context

[Utini420]

I must admit that I don't get the train reference.

On the other matter, if I can say this without undo bravado, if it comes down to it I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6 (or stitched up by 1.)