Greta Thunberg, Billie Eilish and the era of journalists bullying teenage girls

This was the week that multiple prominent journalists took aim at a 16-year-old girl trying to save the planet.

Greta Thunberg, a Swedish environmentalist who has Asperger's Syndrome, has recently become the face of the fight against climate change. She is a powerful, unapologetic speaker, and her youth definitely goes a long to way to shaming those who have sold out the future of the planet in a way that will be most severely felt by Thunberg and her peers. She's the one behind the "School Strike for Climate" movement that drew huge crowds even here in Ireland, where protesting is not exactly our strong suit. And as with any historical figure who is desperately working to change the world for the better, Thunberg has met with a wall of vicious criticism. This is nothing new. The only thing is, when you watch how these people address a child with a developmental disorder, campaigning for a cause that is regarded by the majority of the world as a very serious one, you can only wonder how they're still getting away with it. Brendan O'Neill, a writer who has repeatedly embarrassed himself on the subject of Brexit, has done something similar now on this new subject. In a short article that engages only with one single quote by Thunberg, he calls her "a weirdo," notes her "monotone voice," comments negatively on her appearance and calls the way she interacts with her audience "an entirely S&M relationship". She turned 16 in January. Australian writer Helen Dale similarly called on BBC's Andrew Neil to interview Thunberg in the hopes that she would have a "meltdown on national telly". In her tweet, she expressed the desire that Thunberg never be heard from again. Journalist Toby Young attempted to dismiss the validity of Thunberg's message simply because her mother was on Eurovision in 2009. The nonsense continues unabated. Surely, we can all agree that there is something profoundly abnormal about well-known journalists using their platform to make ad hominem attacks against a child? Surely, no matter your feelings on climate change, people in their 40s attacking an environmental activist, with Asperger's, speaking in her second language, should be personae non gratae in decent society? Surely, if we can agree on anything, it's that bullying little girls is fundamentally wrong? After all, Thunberg cannot be accused of trying to hurt anybody. The idea that she is wrong about climate change is about as valid as flat-eartherism, and is no longer worth discussing. At the very worst, she's given kids a few days off school. Thunberg is not the only very young woman to be so prominently featured in the media at the moment. Elsewhere, there's pop sensation Billie Eilish. Rod Liddle — a man who famously "ran off and left his wife for a young one" — has offered his expert opinion on her. He has rendered the judgment that "thick 12-year-old girls" listen to Ariana Grande and that the smart ones listen to Billie Eilish. What qualifies him to speak with such certainty as to the listening habits of 12-year-old girls is completely unclear, but the 59-year-old Liddle is happy to earn his coin insulting them either way. Again, it's a strange portrayal of young women and girls by an old man. Liddle even associates listening to Eilish with the propensity to self-harm. It is grotesque. The attention directed at Eilish swings both ways though, with many utterly obsessed with her songwriting prowess. In all the breathless reverie of Eilish, it seems as though the media has happily forgotten that she is a child. Something that they are happy to do, time and again. Surely there's a more normal way to talk about a 17-year-old singer than "she's every bit as awesomely messed up" — a quote lifted directly from the Rolling Stone review of their album. Maybe awesomely messed-up is not something we should actively seek out in 17-year-old popstars. We only need to look at how this ended up for Lindsay Lohan, or Britney Spears, or Mara Wilson, or Amanda Bynes, or River Phoenix. The list of children damaged by stardom is quite simply endless. https://twitter.com/13swift1989/status/1121084435758112768 One could surely draw the conclusion that both Thunberg and Eilish have chosen the extremely public life they now lead. One in a pursuit of her undeniable talent and artistic goals, the other in pursuit of literally saving the world. Both are valid, and I mean that genuinely. Thunberg and Eilish are both in a very tough position. Their respective talents and capacities go well beyond what can be expected of anybody their age. Maybe anybody at all. It's not as if they should be wrapped in cotton wool. Nevertheless, there is a duty of care to children, or those with developmental disorders, that is our shared duty to uphold. Unfortunately, we don't live in a society built to respond to these young women in a healthy and normal way. We live in an age where combativeness and contrarianism from certain media figures knows no limits — not even those that are enshrined in the most basic decency. Anybody is fair game, and the game is very ugly indeed.