BULLYING
When someone says the word bullying, many of us begin to think of jocks stuffing nerds into lockers or the popular girls spreading rumors about other girls. While harassment can be in both forms, many females bully verbally rather than physically. With this being the era of technology, females have took to the Internet to cyber bully as well. Tormenting has been a major issue in the past years. Many anti-bullying advocates have administered PSA’s and started campaigns to build recognition of the issue.
Bullying is so severe that is has caused suicides. According to statistics by ABC News, nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying. Those who are victims are 2-9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. No bullying is more harmful than the other. Females in particular participate in verbal and indirect harassment more than physical bullying. Verbal bullying is exactly how it sounds it mainly involves name-calling. Females usually take this route of bullying, because it is a more subtle way to bully. The goal with verbal bullying is to degrade and demean the other person and to show that you are dominant and powerful. This can also be done over the Internet through social media, like Facebook and Instagram. Verbal bullying can affect a person’s self-esteem and cause depression.
Females also engage in indirect bullying. The concept of indirect bullying is very similar to verbal bullying because they both do not involve any physical contact. Indirect bullying is when a person or a group of people spread rumors or stories about an individual behind their back. These can be false and malicious statements. A great example of this is the “Burn Book” in the movie Mean Girls. The book contained statements about females (some true, some untrue) and it caused a brawl between the ladies at the school. Another form of bullying shown in this movie was social alienation. This is when a group of girls may decide to deliberately shut out another girl from the group because they are mad at her or find it funny to hurt her because she’s different. An example of social alienation is when Gretchen hit Regina George with the classic “You can’t sit with us” line in the cafeteria scene.
As childish as bullying may seem it can happen in college. Hazing is a form of bullying that occurs on college campuses, especially amongst fraternities and sororities. Even though hazing is mainly associated with fraternities, sororities also participate. Hazing is any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risks emotional and/or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate. Campuses are now attempting to crack down on hazing and reduce the occurrences.
There is this depiction of bullying only occurring at schools, with children and young adults. But bullying can occur at any stage of life. In fact bullying in the workplace is a growing problem. Bullying does not discriminate so if you know someone who is being bullied or you are being bullied seek help. Tell a teacher, Tell a friend, Tell a counselor.
Miquira J.
