Letter of the week: Bullying over hairstyle shows society is still backward

In South Korea, women with short hair are at risk of being attacked for their choice of hairstyle (

Hair’s how South Korean women push back against anti-feminists,

Nov 19).

In Singapore, my daughter who decided she wanted short hair in Secondary 1 was bullied and called a tomboy by the boys in her school, not just those in her class, but also those in upper secondary whom she did not know.

As a result, her depression worsened. The school addressed the issue with some of the bullies, but it got me thinking how backward we are.

Children of even this generation see girls with short hair as tomboys and mock them. Maybe there should be a new subject taught in school called “common sense”, because it seems to me that common sense is not that common.

How did we get to this stage where people are no longer kind to others and see bullying as a sign of power?

The recent act of kindness by the student praised for providing shelter to passengers alighting from a bus in the rain (

Springfield student who held umbrella for alighting bus passengers wins praise from Baey Yam Keng

, Nov 15) was heartening.

To me, kindness and not hurting someone intentionally, either physically or mentally, is also an important virtue to learn. Society should be going forward, not backward. 

Lok Pei Ping