by Michelle Lowe, UAB Institute for Human Rights Alumni
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”
Repeating this mantra is a daily occurrence on some playgrounds and households. The harsh reality is words do hurt because the bruises and wounds they inflict remain in the core of the psyche and being. A video of Keaton Jones set the world of social media ablaze on his behalf late in 2017. Jones, a middle-schooler from Tennessee, tearfully retold his experience with bullies during the day. There is a temptation to turn Jones into a “poster child for inspiration porn”; thereby negating the reality that being different remains a negative within some societies, including America. Siblings bully each other by calling one another names, coworkers often haze the newbies, jocks put nerds in lockers, and presidents mock journalists with disabilities. In other words, we are in the midst of a bullying epidemic.
The term “epidemic” is generally used to describe the spread of an infectious disease, one that is seemingly out of control. Society, however, fails to view the unintended consequences of words as part of an epidemic that spans the public and mental health sphere and reaches into the realm of human rights. The ultimate issue with this bullying epidemic is that it infringes on the individual’s (or group’s) right to a peaceful environment. Humiliation and marginalization, fueled by a desire for control, are the ultimate effects projected onto countless targets. These effects often cause targets to make irreversible and life-changing decisions like 10-year-old Ashawnty Davis and 13-year-old Rosalie Avila who both committed suicide after enduring copious amounts of schoolyard and online bullying. Their deaths speak to a direct need for awareness and prevention tactics in the classroom, family, and society. The words bully and bullying have a stereotype and stigma that leads many individuals to assumptions about the bully rather than his/her/their actual behavior. The misapplication of labels, placed on a bully, dehumanizes their personhood rather than their behavior. This blog examines the interplay between the assumptions and realities of the bullying persona.
The Bullying Persona
Bullying is a multi-faceted phenomenon, influenced by many factors that are not easily explained. It is a unique and complex form of interpersonal aggression. Aggression takes many forms and manifests itself in different patterns of relationships; it is a show of oppression in an attempt to gain power over another individual. Coincidentally, bullying is not just the result of individual characteristics but a collection of relationships with peers, families, teachers, neighbors, and societal influences. It is important to note this distinction to equate a bully’s actions to be a result of their psychology and their interactions with the environment.
Bullying can be broken down into two categories. The first form of bullying occurs when the bully and their target are in the presence of one another. This is direct bullying and observable when a bully physically or verbally harasses their target directly. Spreading rumors is a method of indirect bullying because the aggressive behavior occurs ‘around’ the target. Under those two umbrella terms, there are four types of bullying: physical, verbal, relational, and damage to property. Physical bullying encompasses hitting, biting, kicking, or punching. Verbal bullying occurs when the bully chooses to use words to hurt and harass their targets. Relational bullying involves efforts to harm the reputation or relationships of the targeted targets. Lastly, damaging one’s property is its own form of bullying because it involves a target’s personhood as well as their property.
Bullying can happen in any number of places, contexts, and locations. It is not isolated to the stereotypical events of being shoved in a locker or thrown in the trashcan after school. The more digitized society becomes the more complex and viral the bullying. Electronic bullying, or cyberbullying, involves the oppression and assertion of power over an individual through social media and other digital outlets. Cyberbullying is invisible, focusing on context or location and happens over the internet. This can include stalking, doxing (where personal information about the individual is shared online without their permission), impersonation (where the bully can impersonate their target to post weird, mean, or problematic things on social media platforms), and other such indirect bullying efforts. Although this form of bullying occurs through the internet, its consequences are just as detrimental to its targets. Depression, suicide, and anxiety are just a few ways that cyberbullying can affect its targets. School, the workplace, the mall, online, and the bar are all places where bullying can be perpetrated. In the case of Ashawnty Davis, the viral sharing of the altercation she experienced at school proved too much for her to overcome.
Bullying and its Perpetrators
When thinking about bullying and its perpetrators, it is important to note that it is fluid in its nature and involvement. Studies show that frequent targets and perpetrators assume different roles in bullying across school years as well as young adulthood. Thus, individuals can observe bullying, experience bullying, and perpetrate bullying across different situations over time. Across contexts, for instance, a student may be targeted by classmates at school but bully his or her siblings at home. Also, we have to be aware that the roles of individual students may shift depending on the circumstances. A friend can become a bystander and a bully can become an “upstander” who acts for positive change.
Research shows that being involved as both a perpetrator and target seems to compound the impact of bullying. Bully targets find themselves at greater risk for anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, suicide, substance abuse, and a host of other psychoanalytic disruptions. The misconception that bullies bully because they have been targets is an overgeneralization of the psychoanalytic aspects at play when an individual sets out to bully someone else. We cannot simply equate their actions as retaliation.
What makes an individual more susceptible to becoming a bully? A variety of factors including the association with callous-unemotional traits like psychopathic tendencies, endorsement of masculine traits, conduct problems, and antisocial traits may contribute to exhibiting bullying behavior. In children, being the target of a bully can manifest in depression, anxiety, truancy and poor performance, loneliness, and withdrawal. Bullies target those who tend to be less well-liked, less accepted, and more rejected by peers. The relationship between perpetrator and targets is a power struggle in allowance for the superior party to oppress and marginalize their targets. The consequences of bullying and targetization are complex by nature. Studies show that bullies are also at risk for many of the same adverse side effects as their targets. Bullying perpetration often leads to anxiety and depression, social withdrawal, delinquent behavior, and an adult diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder.
How can you help?
We, as a society, must assist in implementing intervention and prevention tactics to combat bullying behavior. Education and awareness are essential. Begin by recognizing the many forms that bullying takes – beyond simple name-calling in a second-grade classroom. Bullying transcends the classroom into adulthood. Once we recognize the many facets of bullying, we can begin to have those tough conversations about choosing kindness. The social action curriculum developed by Project Hope will contribute to addressing bullying in schools.
