NPC009 said:
I think much of bullying is also what you allow people to get away with in the first place. I broke another cheerleaders nose once for trying to pull my socks up, so I wasn't exactly the type of person that would take shit if they tried. From what I saw of bullies, is they target the introverts much more so than extroverts.. I dealt with bullies, not because of them targeting me, but because they targeted others that could not defend themselves and I wasn't just going to sit there and let it happen without doing something. They tend not to target people who they know are going to punch them in the face...
I disagree. Fighting back can make things worse. I fought back and that just resulted in having to deal not with two or three people, but with half a dozen. Worst part was that Columbine was still fresh in everyone's minds. They knew I played videogames (though not what kind), so any sign of aggression was another watchful teacher's eye.
Besides, girls seem to prefer other tactics over plain old violence. Instead of punching your face in, they'll attack your reputation with rumours and other nasty tricks. One of the worst was during Valentine. Students could purchase roses and other gifts and have them delivered during class. Few people participated, mostly just the cool couples who'd been together for a while, meaning that anyone who recieved something drew a lot of attention. Some girls send me a rose, signing it with the name of boy who was a popular target for bullies. Then they made fun of me for recieving a gift from him. I tried to throw it away but then they switched to: Be glad someone is interested in you! It's a Valentine miracle!
We had teachers who played games with students and frequently went to the gun range with them here so games and guns were not seen as anything for them to be concerned with here. The reaction by educators in Texas was to arm teachers and hire armed guards, rather than to freak out about guns or games. I think how they view that is also regional, as it is much more accepted here that many 8 year olds know how to shoot and go hunting with their families already by that age. I guess here girls are not as "prim."
I know all about girls "other" Tactics, however, I think it is also how you handled them in that regard as well. Most importantly, I honestly never really cared what anyone thought about me, I cared what
I thought of me, and did what I wanted. As my friend put it, I am the type of person that people are drawn to me, but I honestly do not like people that much so I tolerate them but I usually do not like them. If someone " dissed me" I thought it was funny, it didn't make me feel bad.. I actually had fun with "dissing competitions" and we would try to come up with the worst most disgusting repulsive horrible insults for each other imaginable, and we found this funny, not got upset about it. I also had friends who were very loyal, so if someone attempted to say something about me, for the most part people took up for me rather than turned against me. I was also confrontational, and if someone did that crap, I called them out on it to their face.
That is sad about Valentines day, I always received many gifts and flowers so I honestly cannot imagine what it is actually like to be alone on Valentines, as I have never been. It is really sad though that they took a positive experience and turned it to a traumatizing one for no other reason than to be mean. When I was in middle school and High school, most people were rarely ever mean to me, the whole incident with the senior cheerleader pulling my socks up was because I was an underclassman and they " hazed" younger Squad members at the time, but I wouldn't even put up with that at the time.
I guess where I grew up it was okay for girls to be more of a "tom boy" liking games, shooting, hunting, sports ect. I was still very feminine in other areas, I modeled, had long "princess hair", wore dresses and did not appear "tom boyish", even though my interests in gaming, hockey, shooting ect would be considered such elsewhere. It is sad they would try to make you feel bad for liking games, everyone here liked games, and I had some of my fondest memories playing with both my male and female friends growing up. Sure, with my girl friends we spent more time doing hair, makeup, shopping ect but we also spent a good deal of time goofing off playing mortal kombat, sonic, Zelda and Mario games as well. It is sad they treated you like that where you lived. Fighting back never backfired for me against bullies, but then again people were usually on my side, not against me for the most part.
