April Pace
Prof.
Intro to Philosophy
19 November 2014
1,261 Words
Description: Positive Side Effects of School Bullying Definition of Bully: A blustering brow-beating person; especially one who is habitually cruel to others who are weak; retrieved from website http://www.miriam-webster.com. As controversial as this may be, I am for school bullying as well as all forms of bullying. I have been continuously victimized my entire life by blustering, brow-beating individuals. My earliest memory is that of my eldest sibling forcing me to lie to my mother as to the knowledge of the person who stole the crisp $5.00 bill from her pocket-book; I was 4-years old, baby-faced, chubby handed and sweetly innocent and I knew my brother was the perpetrator. His threat: "I will murder your favorite baby doll, Emily if you tell on me." I lied for him because, indeed, I was fearful that he would follow through with the epic, bloody murder of my beloved Emily. As parochial school began for me, my religious upbringing lead me to believe that indeed being bullied by men was the way of life. I saw countless women in my life quietly serve their men, putting their husbands and children in front of their own needs, no matter how asinine the request. I watched my shining example of a mother dish out everyone's meal, my father's being first of course, before her own and being at everyone's beckon call day in and day out at the dinner table, jumping at every whim that we may have during our meal time. My father consistently drilled into my head that the only type of woman to be is a submissive woman who does everything her husband demands of her, no matter how ridiculous the request, without objections. By middle school, in my private Christian School, I began to explore my identity. I retaliated with a touch of rebellion in my choice of friends, in which my father adamantly disapproved of. This small group of "Christian" friends, who not only attended school with me, but as well attended the same church youth group consisted of a homosexual boy with whom I am still friends with; a Goth girl who was victimized so much that she attempted suicide unsuccessfully three times in middle and high school; a quiet, pretty, drug addicted young lady who slept with anyone who had a dick for her daily cocaine fix; and a deeply religious girl who was later diagnosed with bi-polar/schizophrenia disorder in her late 20s, who had the entire King James Version Bible completely memorized. What was the one thing that we had in common? All of us were victims of bullying and none of us had a voice. Our daily discussions consisted of politics, women's rights, religious choices, our parental units, sexual encounters (from the experienced one in our group), social behavior and the homosexual community. Our opinions were sealed tightly in the four walls where we met (which frankly was any place that gave us just a few minutes of privacy) , never to be spoken about in our liberal secret society. We made a pact that whatever was discussed between the five of us that we were to never repeat our true feelings, our true beliefs and that we would remain outwardly agreeable to the conservative, Christian adults and teachers, as well as our Christian peers, because that made our life easier, in a sense. We accepted the fact that we were bullied. We helped each other up when we were shoved down. We covered for our gay friend when people gossiped about how he kissed the boy next door, quoting the Bible that it was an abomination to be in a same sex relationship. A recent SAFE survey showed that teens in sixth through 10th grade are most likely to be involved in activities related to bullying. According to their website www.bullyingstatistics.org 77% of those bullied, only 14% have severe or bad reactions to the abuse which includes poor self-esteem, depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts. Two out of three of my small group of secret liberal