Getting Involved - Making Your State Better

[icarusfall]

I'm pretty sure we used to have rights-of-passage to prevent this sort of thing.

On the bully tip there's almost always a relatively easy way out. Crazy. If you're the craziest motherfucker on the block, then no one touches you. My first incident with being bullied at school I bit a piece of flesh out of a kid's neck. Never happened again.

[Fe 26]

Thats a good character trait. Chux might want to pay some kid just so his daughter will be like that as an adult.


I hate how people have pride in pain. It can be the most annoying shit when you want to go in and improve something. The seniors actually look back fondly on it, despite it making everything worse by whatever being that shitty.

Cool, great, you got through the shittiness. But not everything needs to be shitty because your proud that you dealt with it. We should all strive to make things better.

[Josh]

True story. Ryan and I became friends in middle school after some fisticuffs because he thought I was bullying him.

[Josh]

From 0? Did your parents beat you for not being black?

They would punch his mother in the belly while screaming racial epitaphs into her bellybutton.

[Type Ryan]

On the bully tip there's almost always a relatively easy way out. Crazy. If you're the craziest motherfucker on the block, then no one touches you. My first incident with being bullied at school I bit a piece of flesh out of a kid's neck. Never happened again.

That'll certainly do it.

When I was 10, I brought a baseball bat to a fight where I was outnumbered 10 to 1. Literally. The look of sheer terror on their faces bought me some time, but I still had to deal with shit. Maybe I should've taken a few swings.

re: people having pride in pain, people identify themselves with their pain because they think that's who they are. I personally refuse to let my past pain determine who I am. It's a hard process, but I'm a fighter and a survivor so I know I'll succeed. I want to basically share that message with anyone who was bullied: There is hope. It bums me out when I hear about some kid who committed suicide because he/she was bullied.

I might try and reach out to Ray Rice. He's local and is all about anti-bullying.

[Satsuki]

Serious question. Is "teasing" the same as "bullying?" in this modern terminology? Maybe it's because I'm a chick, but i remember being teased a ton when i was a kid but it never escalated to violence or sexual stuff, unless you count a boy telling me in 7th grade "that my boobs jiggled when i walked." I never considered teasing something that really needed to stop, it's just what kids do and it sucks when you're 8 but then you aren't anymore and it's kind of funny. But, as guys, do you usually get punched/kicked/beat up while growing up? Is that what "bullying" is?

[MechDeus]

I believe it has to be coercion or force of some kind. Not sure teasing necessarily falls under it but if people were telling another kid needed to do something for them or they'll beat him up it would be bullying (similar to assault, I'm guessing).

They would punch his mother in the belly while screaming racial epitaphs into her bellybutton.

Doctor pulled him out of the vagina and slapped him for his skin color.

[icarusfall]

I'm not defined by my damage, but I'm certainly informed by it.

Life's not a pile of sunshine, and sometimes bad things happen.

I'll clarify that I'm not pro-bullying, but a certain amount of skin does need to be built up through your formative years imo.

[Type Ryan]

Serious question. Is "teasing" the same as "bullying?" in this modern terminology? Maybe it's because I'm a chick, but i remember being teased a ton when i was a kid but it never escalated to violence or sexual stuff, unless you count a boy telling me in 7th grade "that my boobs jiggled when i walked." I never considered teasing something that really needed to stop, it's just what kids do and it sucks when you're 8 but then you aren't anymore and it's kind of funny. But, as guys, do you usually get punched/kicked/beat up while growing up? Is that what "bullying" is?

Bullying is bullying. It doesn't discriminate. People get teased all the time, but there's no malice behind it. Once malice is introduced and it becomes repetitive, then you have bullying. Don't think I can't paint with broad strokes, but the guys in my neighborhood were jocks or the ones who got into fights, but I've seen plenty of girls get violent. Shit, my old Spanish teacher in high school retired after being beat up by a girl with a baseball bat (the bat was there for a pinata the Spanish club or something). All he did was bend over to answer a question from a student in front of her. Her personal space was apparently violated, but saying "Excuse me" didn't work for her.

I'm not defined by my damage, but I'm certainly informed by it.

Life's not a pile of sunshine, and sometimes bad things happen.

I'll clarify that I'm not pro-bullying, but a certain amount of skin does need to be built up through your formative years imo.

That's good. Take the information you have and move forward. Life certainly isn't easy, but there are better ways to develop one's resolve. People need to understand that they won't like every person they meet and vice versa. It just comes down to respect. Once respect is lost, that's when bad shit happens.

[Fe 26]

Bullying lacks any of the humor or friendliness of teasing. They're is also an effort to control others via the bullying that is not present in teasing.

Its like, I'm going to be mean and hateful to MAKE you feel bad, make you change, make you not be around me.

There are variations based on family and gender background. Some people come from abusive families and the line between bullying and teasing is blurred. And some women bully other women but present it as teasing because they think they're clever.