I was watching an episode of Big Bang Theory last night in which Sheldon and Amy were discussing how fast a meme can spread and Sheldon mentions that “Sheldon Cooper’s a smelly pooper spread like wildfire”. Even as I laughed out loud, it got my thinking about my own childhood nickname and while I found it humiliating at the time, it really wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was very creative as nicknames given by elementary school children go.
Sheldon Cooper (the smelly pooper)
I grew up in a small town that was very sports minded. Even as a very young child I was overtly feminine. I loved my ballet class and had very feminine mannerisms. These qualities got me nicknamed Dainty. I didn’t mind being called Dainty. I wore it as a badge of honour. But then came the year I turned 10. It was the mid 1970’s and the big trend in hairstyles was the pyramid perm. All the girls were getting them. My Mom and I went out and got a Toni home perm kit and set to curling my poker straight hair. After the perm rods cam out, what I saw in the mirror wasn’t a pyramid perm. It looked more like this…
Little Orphan Annie
The next day when I went to school, Dainty officially became AFRO DAINTY. Because I was very insecure about the way my hair had turned out, I found this new add on to my existing nickname absolutely humiliating.
When I look back on it now, it was a clever double pun. The reference to the goddess of love was more complimentary than a myriad of other references I can think of. Certainly nothing to be so ashamed of. I’d rather be called Afro Dainty than Smelly Pooper any day of the week. So I guess nicknames, like so much in life, are relative.
Feel free to use the comments section to share your childhood nicknames.
In my teenage years, a guy I had a crush on was making what I believe was a somewhat sexual joke about me. It was humiliating as well – he called me “chocolate fingers” although he never even spoke to me, but only evoked it whenever I was around. This went on for more than a school semester.
Eventually, of course, I passed high-school and he didn’t (to my knowledge). And that is also when I stopped having crushes on self-absorbed, narcissistic playboy man-whores with inferiority issues. So fuck this bullshit. I hated all children who called anyone anything and always fought them, ever since I was called all the traditional names (such as “four-eyed” or “dirty”). The used to call me dirty because I had a cat, just to show how silly kids can be.
Having a cat equals dirty? Yes kids can be silly.
I like my nickname, although it has a nasty meaning to those who would like it to…My name is Caitlin and my family nickname is Catti, which I like. But it sounds like catty…which I can also be, of course. Luckily, I avoided anything worse as a child. In high school in Toronto I was massively bullied for three years, called a Dog…and my name became Doglin, accompanied by loud barking noises.
Scarred, moi?
I hope you hissed back at them and clawed their eyes out. 😉
When I was 13 a (self-absorbed, narcissistic) boy called me ‘The Ice Princess’ because I would not be part of his ‘posse’ whom he referred to as Vimmin (women). I found his ‘posse’ idea intensely disrespectful. Admittedly, I was impressed by having such a beautiful, fantasy-inspired nickname, despite mixed feelings about the implications of the name itself.