In light of Pink Shirt Day, I want to talk about something that really irritates the stuffing out of me…bullying. Everyone has experienced it at some point in their lives; an older sibling, that mean kid at school, the boss who just lives to point out your shortcomings; bullies come in all shapes and sizes and they have one goal, to negatively impact you.
In light of Pink Shirt Day, I want to talk about something that really irritates the stuffing out of me…bullying.
Everyone has experienced it at some point in their lives; an older sibling, that mean kid at school, the boss who just lives to point out your shortcomings; bullies come in all shapes and sizes and they have one goal, to negatively impact you.
The best way to describe bullying is to think back to a time in your life you felt powerless and inadequate because of someone else.
Personally, I think it is emotional terrorism, and with the rise of both cyber-bullying and good old-fashioned schoolyard bullying it's not hard to justify it. Emotional scarring is worse than physical scars because you don't see the wound. Point blank it's a learned behaviour that has been reinforced throughout a bully's life as a way of both establishing dominance and power over someone else. Bullies are, generally speaking, bullied themselves.
I was fortunate enough to work with Gary MacLean, a member of Halton Regional Police, while I was in school. MacLean said bullying is a gateway crime. Early intervention and stopping it in its tracks is crucial to the community as a whole because it's a crime of control that goes beyond the scope of the individual being bullied.
Dr. Jean Clinton, a professor at McMaster University in Ontario, believes we have the tools to eradicate bullying if we as a community foster a culture where peers feel comfortable intervening when they witness an act of bullying. Clinton said that she had seen, both clinically and in actual practice, that bullying will stop within 10 seconds if there is peer intervention.
Now I would like to clarify that I do have some experience with this topic. I myself was bullied and I studied the culture of it in both college and university. It really hit home for me when I was a resident advisor in college and saw the way the residents treated a transgendered student.
Whatever your views on the subject, no one should ever be made to feel worthless as a human being. Period.
This student would get harassed daily because she didn't look like your average female. This struck me as odd, because I don't look like your average female. The bullying and harassment stopped once a group of us “girls” challenged the bullies.
I'm not saying that it was the smartest thing to do, however, I was taught you stand up for what is fundamentally right to you. This meant I wasn't going to let someone who has had a literal life altering experience be tortured for being his or her authentic self.
I can say the defining moment in my hatred of bullying, was in grade three when I refused to ostracize another girl because she was different from the rest.
Apparently having an accent and dressing up for school was a no-no. I, clearly, at seven years of age missed that memo. By standing up for her I went from queen bee to a target of bullying.
When I hear coaches and parents say “you need to suck it up” or “don't be such a wuss” it really bothers me. I don't care how old, what gender or even what species you are; your feelings and sense of self-worth is just as important as the next person's.
Cyber-bullying seems to be on the rise because there is a sense of anonymity with posting hurtful things on blogs, Facebook pages and even in Social Media. As someone who was terrorized for more than seven years of my scholastic career, bullies do this because there is no consequence to their action. As I stated before, peer perception is key for bullying. It's my hope eventually no child should ever fall victim to bullying.
