October is bully awareness month. Now, I will admit that I am a touch cynical and at first, I was wondering why we need to be aware of bullies. I mean, hasn’t it always been preached that we should just ignore bullies? Now, they get their own month?
All joking aside, bullying is a very real issue. Today it seems to be one of the hottest issues being discussed. My daughter’s schools both have posters telling them what to do if they feel bullied at all. I wrote about someone we know being bullied a while back. I thought I might take some time this month to talk a little bit more about bullying.
I have a serious question for you. What is bullying? How would you define it? I readily admit that it exists. I readily admit that it is wrong. It should be stopped. But what it is it?
You see, I have heard things called bullying that seemed to be just people disagreeing to me. I have heard people say that they were bullied simply because they were told they were wrong.
I worry for people who really are being bullied because as this movement catches momentum more people, who are not actually being bullied are going to claim it because it will help them “win” their position.
I will share my definition later but for now I’d love to know how you define it. What does it mean for someone to be bullied? Please share your definition in the comments.
The more I think about it, the less sure I become of what my definition is.
Initially I wanted to say the bullying is threatening, intimidating, or harming another person in order to belittle them and/or somehow make yourself feel bigger/better. But then I wanted to expand the definition to be using a position of power (physically, mentally, economically, etc…) to prey on someone who is “weaker.” But that’s where I started to wonder if I’m getting to vague. Because I think that’s where you could suddenly label someone a bully just because they used their money, brains, etc… to get what they wanted.
So ultimately I think that they key with bullying is that the motivation is harming or belittling others, or otherwise causing unnecessary pain.