You Know Exactly What This Is About

You know what’s coming. This is all about that one girl who hunts stuff: Kendall Jones.

I’m not one who likes to jump into the middle of a social media debate like this one, but I haven’t paid a visit to the ole blogosphere in a while and needed to do a little somethin somethin.

Let’s start off with some honesty

I have done little to no research on this topic. I wasn’t even sure what Kendall’s name was until I actually had to type it out moments ago. Actually, the initial plan for this post was to make up a new name for her every time I would have referred to her. But that seemed a little insensitive because she’s an actual person with actual feelings and stuff, imagine that.

Most of my commentary will stem from the quick little snipits of information that I have received from the titles of articles and one short video that I watched. Now that I’ve cleared the air, here is my definitive stance on Kendall and her African adventures.

This is Kendall Jones

Texas Tech cheerleader by day, target of the internet by day as well.

Yup that’s her alright. She goes on African safaris and hunts animals. Some of these animals are endangered others are not. Some of them are very old and near the end of their life, while others are not so much. I could go on and on about this, but you can do a quick google search and find out everything you want about her pretty quickly. Actually if you give it five minutes one of your Facebook friends will probably do all the work for you.

Tons of people have weighed in on the Kendall Jones discussion. Some people want her banned from Facebook because they don’t like the content that she’s posting. Which is really strange because if you aren’t friends with Kendall then you won’t see any pictures of dead animals because of her privacy settings. Some people want to hold a parade in her honor which is also kind of strange because she’s only 19. She’s received death threats and supporting fan pages, hate and love. And after seeing her name over and over and over again, I decided to sit down and really contemplate how I truly felt about the situation. After careful consideration I went to twitter and fully fleshed out my thoughts.

The controversy around the cheerleader who goes on African hunts could be the main character in "Things I don't care about"

— Josh Jackson (@JoshJackson10) July 2, 2014

I understand why people are upset on all sides. The animal activists don’t like when animals are attacked. The hunters don’t like when hunting is attacked. Texans don’t like when one of their own is attacked. The fashionistas don’t like camo. And Josh doesn’t like it when America loses to Belgium.

From what I understand (mind you I only have a very basic understanding, see tweet for explanation) Kendall is doing nothing illegal. The morality of her actions is very much up for debate, but she goes on very expensive safaris and only hunts animals that she has been given permission to hunt. The animals that she kills are sometimes used for research or given to a town for food.

The other thing to keep in mind  is that she’s 19 years old, and just completed her Freshman year (sophomore by hours) of college. Give her a break. If I was publicly chastised for the stuff I did as a freshman it would have torn me up:

“Local Texas Tech freshman can’t figure out that his goatee does him no favors.”

“This 19 year old male still posts those ‘tag your friends’ pictures for some reason”

“That one guy who won’t shut up about Frozen is back and you won’t believe what idiotic thing he did now”

I don’t know how I would have handled all the negativity.

Now I’ve never met Kendall and I have no idea what she’s like, but she’s probably a bit more tough than I am. She shoots guns and goes on hunting trips while I’ve never shot anything in my life and I still cry during The Lion King. But your questions about my own masculinity aside, remember you are dealing with an actual person with actual feelings and stuff (imagine that). And though she might be tougher than I am, wave after wave of hatred cannot be fun for her.

Dealing With The Internet Mob

He doesn’t like the things I like. LET’S GET HIM

Sometimes being on the internet kind of feels like hanging out with a mob that is looking for something to be really really irrationally upset about. Unfortunately they seemed to have found Kendall. In an attempt to redirect, repurpose, and possibly eliminate this anger, I have singled out the three most prevalent factions in this current internet war and have given each of them an alternative course of action.

• If you are outraged at what Kendall has done:
  Direct your anger at the rules that she followed. She did not step outside the line or break any regulations. She did exactly what she was told to do. So instead of signing a petition to ban a 19 year old girl from Facebook why don’t you try signing petitions to change the safari hunting… laws? rules? Whatever it is they’re called. Even better, you can simply never accept a friend request from ole Kendall and virtually achieve the exact same thing that your petition is attempting to accomplish.
• If you are furious at the people who are outraged at what Kendall has done:
  You need to take a few deep breaths and find something more productive than engaging in senseless internet debate. Nobody wins those except for the people who screen shot them and post them on Reddit. Instead do something that encourages Kendall without taking shots at your opposition. You cannot defeat hatred by being more hate-y. It simply doesn’t work like that. Stop fighting on Kendall’s behalf and instead send her some good vibes. Show her a funny video like the one of the polite bear who waves at people. Actually, I’ll go ahead and give you the link for that one.
• Finally, if you are someone who just needs to be mad at something:
  I suggest watching a little film called Transformers: Age of Extinction because… my goodness. There are just no words for that movie. It’s horrendous. An insult to human intelligence, film in general, dinosaurs, and Tim Howard.

Don’t fall into the mob mentality one way or the other. Remember that you are dealing with a young woman who was just graduating high school this time last year. And If all else fails, go watch Transformers and boo the entire time.