This story is about a real incident that happened years ago, but it does relate to SL a bit.
When I was 9 years old I moved to a new town and enrolled in a school where I was immediately befriended by Kim, the most popular girl in class. Kim was sweet, helpful to new people, and the other girls followed her around as if she were a saint. I thought we got along just fine, but for some unknown reason, Kim suddenly decided she didn’t like me.
What happened? Kim came against me in this bizarre way, totally out of the blue, then made it look like I did something bad to her instead. And, on her word alone, my new classmates went from accepting me to shunning me.
Sometimes, girls can be physical bullies. Believe it or not, I would have preferred if Kim had tried that instead. The Kims of the world do not hit you, though. They slander you then play the victim, and this was something my 9-year-old self did not know how to defend against.
One classmate came over when no one was looking. “You’re nice,” she whispered. “But I can’t be your friend. If I am, it will make Kim sad.”
So that was the gist of it. The other 9-year-olds didn’t know anything about me or have anything against me, they just wanted to keep Princess Kim happy.
School days are over, but I’ve seen adults exhibit the same behavior I saw when I was 9. Princess Kim still exists, she just got old and joined Second Life.
What makes a Kim? My friend D—- said it’s because the person always wants to be “top dog.” That’s probably true, but a bigger part is secret insecurity. Kims are cowards, so they stir people up behind the scenes. Socially, they appear nice though, and try to maintain a goody-good reputation.
It’s been a long time since most of us were children, but no matter how old we get some people still act like they’re nine. I probably do too sometimes. I was never a follower (maybe that was part of the problem?) but I admit it: Sometimes I just want to take my ball and go home.
I think this is a very astute and insightful observation. Sadly we do come across ‘Kim’ occasionally in life, and also inworld: Perhaps more so – maybe because it’s such a closed environment and people’s loyalties are more aligned to being in favour with the top dog (it’s a bit like prison – now there’s a great marketing slogan for Linden Lab – ‘Join SL, it’s like being in prison’).
Joking aside though, people like Kim are generally power-hungry and – sadly – haven’t lost that childish approach to life. They were probably bullies as kids!
s. x