Bullying
Posted: May 3rd, 2013, 1:05 pm
Bullying is the most awful thing I've ever dealt with in my life, but I don't even think I got it that bad. In school, the typical namecalling went around, mostly directed at my clothes by kids who found fashion to be the only object in a place where, I don't know..maybe we should be focused on LEARNING?!?! Anyways, as insignificant as it may seem, getting made fun of certainly did bruise my ego. I used to just dress for myself, maybe try to look good for the girls sometimes. Now I have to worry about GUYS comments on what I'm wearing? Come on, really? The most liberating thing for me was getting out of highschool and being able to go shopping not worrying what these assholes thought about what I wear. I tried REALLY HARD to look cool in highschool, and did develop my own sense of style, but it never seemed to cut it with the brand worshipping sheep of my generation, oh well. I thought I looked good... so when I went to college I just unashamedly wore whatever the fuck I felt like throwing on.. Thrift store sweaters, wacky colored button ups, ultra tight jeans, mix matched outfits ( like a plaid and polka dots sorta thing ) just anything... I knew I was in an environment of adults where the last measurement of your success is based on how you dress. I knew I stood out, and I wanted to. I'm sure people gave looks and talked about it behind my back, but it was my own private victory to be able to walk those halls and not GIVE A FUCK about anyone's opinion.
That's the least of the bullying I've gotten, kids can torture you in such a myriad of ways. Since I'm relatively average looking ( not 'ugly' ), seemingly financially well off, Social, but mostly kept to myself- these kids would look for the first thing they could get a rise out of me about so It was usually clothes. I'm so happy to be out of that place. Now I can admit I do put thought into how I dress, but it usually revolves around how I will look weight wise- so a lot of xl t shirts and baggy pants are my standby. I'm just glad that whenever someone notices my clothes now it's usually a compliment and not the bullshit I had to deal with. Maybe this seems overdramatic to bring up but fashion is a huge deal in highschool, kids just kind of measure you by it and want to be around kids who look like them. I didn't even realize it was a big deal for me until I started writing this.
I can get into a lot of the cruelty I've experienced later in this thread, lord knows it'd be good for me. For now, I want to go into why I started this topic. Bullying is RAMPANT in schools these days, but to those of us who have left ( I'm assuming most here are past highschool age ) it's relatively a non-issue until we see the news about another kid killing themselves. It's going on WAY TOO MUCH lately, and I think that social media has played a big part in giving the bullies more tools to do harm against others- you used to go home and it'd be safe haven from those scoundrels. Now I'm sure kids log into their social networking sites where they should be absolutely accepted and they catch another beating there. It's really sad how assholes always manage to co opt our greatest technological advancements.
Okay, so I started this thread because I witnessed a bullying episode while I was on the bus today that dredged up all these emotions I had from highschool. An overweight woman in her mid 20's sat down a few seats away from me in the back of a bus where the other seats were filled by black teenagers ( no stereotyping here, just the facts ) So first the kid she sat next to got up and moved seats when the other girls asked ' is that your girlfriend? ' and started laughing. From there I guess they decided to make this woman a pet project until they're next stop. They just berated everything about her but pretended to be nicely engaging so they could capture it all on video. It was too painful to listen to, so I just had my headphones on the whole time blocking it out. In the meantime this Women a few seats over is going through hell after a day of work, dealing with these creeps who have no right to take up even a second of her time. I wished she had the chance to move, or put in her own headphones and ignore them, but she had to endure every second of their taunting, and although I did my best not to listen, I could feel the discomfort in the air and these kids were not letting up. Saying the most vile things they could think of with no reprecussions. It made me want to become violent, but the last thing I need is an assault charge on a minor right now...I just got off probation last week.
So, I guess the question I would propose is: what line has to be crossed for you to stop minding your own business? I couldn't care less about anything in the world than what these punks had to say, but since they're making jokes out of a complete stranger I should intervene? It was a real dilemma in my head...because I knew that any involvement on my part would turn the bullying to me and questioning my 'manhood' and I absolutely could not tolerate it. One of these kids would get fucking knocked out. I can't have that happen in my life. So a women goes home feeling like total shit for having to deal with people who are utterly less than her, and I go home feeling like the biggest asshole for not defending her. And a couple kids make a video that will unfortunately probably go viral on youtube in a couple days. It's a sad state of affairs, the only silver lining I can see to it is that it won't be a video of me stomping a teenagers head in.
please share your thoughts on the topic of bullying. Sorry if it was overlong. I just had to get this out there...
That's the least of the bullying I've gotten, kids can torture you in such a myriad of ways. Since I'm relatively average looking ( not 'ugly' ), seemingly financially well off, Social, but mostly kept to myself- these kids would look for the first thing they could get a rise out of me about so It was usually clothes. I'm so happy to be out of that place. Now I can admit I do put thought into how I dress, but it usually revolves around how I will look weight wise- so a lot of xl t shirts and baggy pants are my standby. I'm just glad that whenever someone notices my clothes now it's usually a compliment and not the bullshit I had to deal with. Maybe this seems overdramatic to bring up but fashion is a huge deal in highschool, kids just kind of measure you by it and want to be around kids who look like them. I didn't even realize it was a big deal for me until I started writing this.
I can get into a lot of the cruelty I've experienced later in this thread, lord knows it'd be good for me. For now, I want to go into why I started this topic. Bullying is RAMPANT in schools these days, but to those of us who have left ( I'm assuming most here are past highschool age ) it's relatively a non-issue until we see the news about another kid killing themselves. It's going on WAY TOO MUCH lately, and I think that social media has played a big part in giving the bullies more tools to do harm against others- you used to go home and it'd be safe haven from those scoundrels. Now I'm sure kids log into their social networking sites where they should be absolutely accepted and they catch another beating there. It's really sad how assholes always manage to co opt our greatest technological advancements.
Okay, so I started this thread because I witnessed a bullying episode while I was on the bus today that dredged up all these emotions I had from highschool. An overweight woman in her mid 20's sat down a few seats away from me in the back of a bus where the other seats were filled by black teenagers ( no stereotyping here, just the facts ) So first the kid she sat next to got up and moved seats when the other girls asked ' is that your girlfriend? ' and started laughing. From there I guess they decided to make this woman a pet project until they're next stop. They just berated everything about her but pretended to be nicely engaging so they could capture it all on video. It was too painful to listen to, so I just had my headphones on the whole time blocking it out. In the meantime this Women a few seats over is going through hell after a day of work, dealing with these creeps who have no right to take up even a second of her time. I wished she had the chance to move, or put in her own headphones and ignore them, but she had to endure every second of their taunting, and although I did my best not to listen, I could feel the discomfort in the air and these kids were not letting up. Saying the most vile things they could think of with no reprecussions. It made me want to become violent, but the last thing I need is an assault charge on a minor right now...I just got off probation last week.
So, I guess the question I would propose is: what line has to be crossed for you to stop minding your own business? I couldn't care less about anything in the world than what these punks had to say, but since they're making jokes out of a complete stranger I should intervene? It was a real dilemma in my head...because I knew that any involvement on my part would turn the bullying to me and questioning my 'manhood' and I absolutely could not tolerate it. One of these kids would get fucking knocked out. I can't have that happen in my life. So a women goes home feeling like total shit for having to deal with people who are utterly less than her, and I go home feeling like the biggest asshole for not defending her. And a couple kids make a video that will unfortunately probably go viral on youtube in a couple days. It's a sad state of affairs, the only silver lining I can see to it is that it won't be a video of me stomping a teenagers head in.
please share your thoughts on the topic of bullying. Sorry if it was overlong. I just had to get this out there...