Alright, I've been keeping it to myself, but here ya go. I really have some issues with your most recent quiz:

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1. GoldCoyote says, "In my mind, oftentimes if you demand respect, and walk in with your head held high, and not wearing what adults would consider "punk clothing", but wear jeans that aren't down to your knees, without holes, and shirts that aren't black with some death message; you get much better results."
Taken from the board Can we stop prejudices against teens?
Yeah, you have to be careful when you see some kids with spiky hair and all sorts of piercings. You never know, they could be high or up to no good.
At my school kids like that usually hang out in one area, so you know who the punks are.
You should dress however you want, who cares what people think of you?

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Just because one knows that we, as active, concerned youth, can get more respect by not visually putting people off with dramatic counter-culture attire DOES NOT mean that that person is themselves prejudiced against punks. Hell, it doesn't even mean that person doesn't consider himself or herself a punk. I, for one, realize that when I really want to connect with someone in order to foster honest, politically deep conversation, it really does help to wear a bra, have my hair looking decent, and just wear clean, plain clothes.

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2. samanthat says, "I was at a camp, and we all had to group up with someone and I got this black girl… when we went to drag all of our stuff to the campsite, this girl puts all her stuff in a pile in front of me and says "my ancestors worked for you whites for years! now its your turn!"
Taken from the board You know, there is racism against whites too.....
That's rude. It makes me so mad to see black people who are still angry about something that happened over 200 years ago. She should be glad for the chance to go to camp.
She's a hater. She's basically guilty of doing what she is accusing your ancestors of, which is hating on a person or group of people because of their race.
Maybe she was mad about something that just happened to her or something someone said. It stinks that she took it out on you, but black people get hated on all the time.

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Well, this question doesn't even have anything to do with stereotypes. At least not in any way I can imagine. It has to do with racism and discrimination, not negative generalizations of social groups.

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3. chaostoad says, "To tell the truth, I've always thought of Catholics as odd, but Jews took the cake...not meaning they were bad or wrong, I just prefer not to associate with people that make me uncomfortable."
Taken from the board This made me very mad..... grrr...
I totally understand where you're coming from. I have found Jewish people to be a little strange also.
Jewish people and Catholics probably think of you as odd, too.
How can you tell if someone is Jewish or Catholic?

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"How can you tell if someone is Jewish or Catholic?" is obviously meant to be the "right" (as in morally correct and/or superior) answer -- which is fine with me, except that I think it's a pretty ignorant thing to say. How can you tell? Well, I know that they have distinct value systems and cultures -- I think it's stupid to deny that, and the least stereotype-based thing to do is celebrate diversity, not ignore it.

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4. Gaz13 says, "Gay people have morals, you know, and they aren't going to just come up and fondle you. Gay relationships start the same way straight ones do: maybe it starts with a smile, conversation, and eventually asking for a possible date."
Taken from the board Homosexuality.....
Gay people need to understand that straight people don't want to be flirted with by some gay or lesbian person.
That's all good but I still would feel uncomfortable if some gay person tried to push up on me.
That's true and it works both ways -- what if a straight person was flirting with someone who turned out to be gay? You wouldn't want that gay person to go off on you, just for saying hi.

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While I agree with the point here, and I think it's a good question to bring up, I also don't believe this issue is about stereotyping -- it's about recognizing our own homophobia and learning to be comfortable with our sexualities, it's not really about queer people at all.

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5. redchick4life says, "to tell you the truth i think that if women are going to go on tv and shake thier behinds in a song that says things like that then they must be fine with it."
Taken from the board Misogyny In The Media
If you dance like a ho and dress like a ho -- you know, short shorts and tight baby tees -- then you must be a ho.
I'm not saying everyone who dresses a certain way or dances a certain way is a ho, but what else are people going to think when they see girls like that?
Not everybody who wears revealing clothes is a ho and not everybody who listens to rap or rock music with bad lyrics about women is a woman-hater.

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Sidenote: Funny how other "iffy" terms that aren't even derogatory are censored in the boards, but the staff uses the word "ho" in one of YouthNOISE's own articles, isn't it?

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6. marine16 says, "The preps at my school are just like the ones you guys have described. They are so hypocritical and think of themselvs as Gods. What gets me is when the Preps have no other preps to hang out with, so they try to act like your friend."
Taken from the board predgidous preppies
That annoys me, too. If you're going to be in a clique, be in it and don't try to act like you're not.
What's wrong with one clique hanging out with another?
I don't think people should pay so much attention to cliques -- why can't everyone just be their own person?

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Someone can be accepting of different people and still like to keep to a smaller group of friends. I don't feel like your answers allow for that opinion. Also, I don't see how this is an issue of stereotypes (except for marine's comment).

I also don't agree with the little tagline summary: "How Can You Spot A Punk Or Prep?
If you can answer this question, you might be guilty of stereotyping. Take this quiz and find out." I disagree with the statement for the same reasons I didn't like the third question.

Well, I know someone's going to respond and say, "Jenny, you can contribute too! Go to blah blah website to learn how, we'd love to hear your ideas for quizzes!" Yeah, thanks. I've thought about it, but don't really have any ideas of my own (I guess it's easier to pick apart what I don't like about your material than be creative).

In conclusion, I encourage y'all to put more thought into what you write. Sorry if I'm coming off as harsh, angry, overly-PC, or whatever. I guess I'm a harsh perfectionist, but I really don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings or anything. Just venting, I guess.


Love, Jenny

noone said weezer was punk. the question between bouncing souls vs. weezer is a metaphor for punk vs emo.

punk is nihlism.

you cannot just 'become' punk. eithe you are or you are not. It's more than the way you dress or how you do your hair. it's a way of life and a set of belifes. I am punk but my hair is just plain dark brown and my clothes are just slight unordanary.
and i hope you don't think Weezer is punk because they are not even close. check out some real punk bands such as one man army, rancid, or lower class brats

You brought up some really good points, Jenny!

Please don’t apologize for voicing your opinions. We really depend on the feedback of our users to make this site useful and informative and we encourage NOISEmakers to critique and question things they don’t understand or don’t agree with.

All those examples that we gave are examples of stereotypes. Stereotypes play a huge role in racial, religious and homosexual intolerance and the purpose of the quiz is to get NOISEmakers to examine their actions and some of the things that they say.

The way the quizzes are programmed we can only have 3 answers, which makes it impossible to include every view and opinion.

Our writers, who are journalists with lots of experience working with teens and writing for teen publications, put a lot of time and effort in the quizzes we post. Even still, we know that everything we write is not going to appeal to everyone. As mentioned above, quizzes and all YouthNOISE articles are meant to get NOISEmakers to think about and to sound off on the issues. And in this case, it looks like the quiz has done its job.

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I know someone's going to respond and say, "Jenny, you can contribute too! Go to blah blah website to learn how, we'd love to hear your ideas for quizzes!" Yeah, thanks. I've thought about it, but don't really have any ideas of my own (I guess it's easier to pick apart what I don't like about your material than be creative).

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Yes, we do encourage you to sumit your own article. Please believe, this is not an attempt to shut you up but rather get you to really share with us and other NOISEmakers what goes on in your life and your school.

Here’s a few examples of submissions that we have used,

http://www.youthnoise.com/site/CDA/CDA_Page/0,1004,894,00.html

http://www.youthnoise.com/site/CDA/CDA_Page/0,1004,560,00.html

Feel free to let us know if you have any further comments or questions by posting here or by writing us at feedback@youthnoise.com

real mature. who would win in a fight between Weezer and bouncing souls? your mom.

Who freaking cares if people are prejudice against punks are not? True punks don't really care what people think about them. They realized when they became punk that people are going to give them crap. So that means 2 things.... if you want to make fun of punks we really don't care so go ahead, and if you say your a punk and you cry when people make fun of you you're a freakin emo kid, and should just go hide in a closet and cry.