Bullying: A Closer Look

A kid with a disability gets laughed at by other kids for not being able to do the
simple task of standing up in school. A nerdy teenager gets picked on and threatened by
bigger, meaner teenagers as they were walking home from school. A teacher screams at,
and demeans a student for not being able to answer a simple question. An elderly
woman gets shoved around and ignored by an intimidating man while trying to ride a
public vehicle. The manager storms around the office, thrashing papers, screaming
insults for something not entirely related to work. A third world country is forced to
accept a one-sided trade agreement by a large, well-developed country.
These mere actions described above, belittling, picking fights, or subjugating
others to ones wants and will, are forms bullying; and everyone may have experienced
this at least more than once throughout his or her lifetime. The Merriam Webster
Dictionary defines bullying as use superior strength or influence to intimidate
(someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants. Bullying or being
bullied, anyone young or old, male or female, normal or abnormal, no matter from
what race and culture has experienced this before. It can happen to anyone, and thats
a fact.
There is a heightened awareness to bullying lately due to alarming trends which
show that bullying has gone beyond the control of those in power. In fact, according to
bullyingstatistics.org, 4 out of 5 kids in the US experience bullying of some sorts.
Parents, school administrators, organizations, and governments that try to fight and
eradicate bullies and the culture of bullying in schools and in society at large, often
conduct campaigns, programs and symposia, or impose rules and regulations, and post
advertisements or posters. Despite these efforts, it is yet inconclusive whether such
actions would prove effective in combating bullying.
One classic example of bullying is in school. Bullying in schools is the
unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or
perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be

repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading
rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group
on purpose. In the Philippines, there were a total of 1,700 case of school bullying
reported for the School Year 2013-2014. The smallest kid in the classroom is often
laughed at or yanked around by his or her bigger classmates. Sometimes, these more
physically able children man-handle frailer kids into doing things for them like doing
their homework, extorting money, food, toys or other material things just for the fun of
it. Bullying is not just physical, it can also be psychological. Children ganging up on
one child, chanting inappropriate words, name-calling, yelling, laughing, and cursing,
also constitute bullying, as they inflict psychological pain to that person being bullied.
Sometimes, these instances arent just all about physical traits where the strong harass
the weak, but also those smarter kids who belittle less intelligent kids to make them
inferior.
In schools, bullying doesnt just exist between and among the students, but also
between the teacher and the students. Instances of teachers calling their students with
inappropriate names, swearing or cursing, or even inflicting physical harm constitute
bullying. Bullying is not just a one-way street, in fact, students sometimes also bully
their teachers by calling them inappropriate names, harassing them with false charges,
and/or inflicting physical harm to him/her or his/her belongings. These kinds of
behaviors are not only observed between the teacher-student relationships but also
between other personnel involved in schools. However the setup, student-to-student,
teacher-to-student and vice-versa, bullying results to poor performance on the one
bullied, and the worsening of social and disruptive behaviors of the bully. And more
often than not, leads to psychological and physical wounds that may amount to
something in the long run.
Technology has recently given birth to a new form of bullying: Cyber Bullying.
The advent of the Social Networking Sites and other forms of media in the internet has
spawned Cyber Bullying, a modern yet seemingly familiar trend in inflicting physical,
emotional and psychological harm not only to kids but all netizens in general. Those
acts mentioned above, like verbal and emotional harassment, or embarrassment through

pictures or videos, have somehow found a way to the online world, and proliferated
these modern bullies and bullied. Statistics show that about 80 percent of all high
school students have encountered being bullied in some fashion online. These growing
numbers are being attributed to youth violence including both homicide and suicide.
About 35 percent of teens have been actually threatened online. About half of all teens
admit they have said something mean or hurtful to another teen online. Most have done
it more than once. The existence of cyber bullying has led to some scandalous events in
the online world like suicides, suicidal attempts and other forms of violence.
Bullying doesnt only occur among kids or at school. Another form could be seen
in politics, where a high ranking official to intimidate a lower-ranking official or
ordinary people into following orders which may be unlawful or harmful to other
people. Case in point, in the Philippine political scene, congressmen, governors, or
sometimes mayor overexert their influence outside their spheres in order to get what
they want or what they need. An employee will often feel threatened by high ranking
officials, keeping their mouths shut to whatever shady deals their superiors do.
In the international arena, a more massive form of bullying among nations also
occur. Superpowers like the US tend to deal with lesser developed countries with offers
which favors them greater than their counterparts. An example of which is the Visiting
Forces Agreement, an agreement between the US and the Philippines where US forces
may train and operate in Philippine soils but not the other way around. The recent
incursion of China to territories which the Philippines have rights to in the West
Philippine Sea is also seen as a bullys move to get whatever they want, without fear of
retribution or penalty. These kinds of one-sided deals could sometimes just exacerbate
the already pitiful condition of the aggrieved nation, and further give the bullying
country to continue their acts.
Clashes among different cultures and traditions also constitute a form of nonperson-to-person bullying. The act of belittling one culture or tradition as inferior
compared to another one, can be seen as bullying. During the Spanish conquest of the
Philippine Archipelago, the Philippine traditions and way of life were purged and
replaced with the more civilized norms of Spain. People were taught not to follow the

old local traditions but to follow the new ones, in fear of prosecution or annihilation.
Presently, cultural hegemons like the US, Japan and most of Europe exert a large
pressure against lesser developed countries in order to advance their own interests and
twist the worlds point of view into their favor. Not far from this kind of bullying is
religious bullying, where a dominant religion inflict fear against those of not the same
fate. Regrettably, some of the worst sins in the history of humankind has been in the
name of their God, gods or goddesses and these often lead to annihilation of
civilizations like the extinction of the Incas and other South American ancient
civilizations.
The phenomenon of bullying is, at most, largely seen by scientists as
psychological. A bullys mindset cannot be entirely fit into a neat descriptive box. They
come from all walks of lives, all ages, all genders, all races, and all cultures. Bullies
are very often people who have been bullied or abused themselves. Sometimes they are
experiencing life situations they cannot cope with, that leave them feeling helpless and
out of control. (TktTuder, 2000). Many times, a bully does not feel that they can find
any other means of fitting in or carving out their own niche in life so they turn to being
powerful in a way that they feel brings them respect. They feel that being feared is the
way to gain respect and surround themselves with friends and people who look up to
them. However, what they do not realize is that people are friends with them so they
do not become a target of their bullying. It all comes down to fear.
Another possibility of the reason being the bullying attitude is that the bully
themselves feels that they have no control in their lives. Maybe their home life is out of
control and they are not listened to or valued by their family. In order to compensate for
the lack of value at home the bully finds it in other places in inappropriate and
unhealthy ways. Even though these are all valid explanations sometimes the only
explanation is that the bully is a mean and cruel person who only feels good when they
can cause others harm. These types feel no remorse and rarely stop bullying. This may
be a pattern for their entire lives. The above mentioned facts on bullies have been
widely accepted for many years, but new research proposes that bullying is something
entirely different to some people. Psychologists used to believe that bullies have low

self-esteem, and put down other people to feel better about themselves. While many
bullies are themselves bullied at home or at school, new research shows that most
bullies actually have excellent self-esteem. Bullies usually have a sense of entitlement
and superiority over others, and lack compassion, impulse control and social skills.
(St.Clair, 2011).
On the other hand, the mindset of the ones being bullied are not entirely far from
the bullies. Though anyone can become the target of a bully, there are some
commonalties between those who fall victim to bullying as bullies tend to choose a
certain type of person to abuse. There are many reasons how and why bullies target
others, and the reasons are consistent between cases.(Bully Online, 2006). People who
are victims of bullying find themselves being bullied due to their achievements, do not
have a large circle of friends, subjected to unwarranted teasing and rumors, and tend to
be more serious about important things in life such as school or work.
Most people who are targets of bullies have something different about them.
Maybe they wear thick glasses, dress differently, or are painfully shy. Many are
awkward in social situations and try not to draw attention to themselves. Targets of
bullies often have little or no friends who can stick up for them (which is one reason
that they bully feels that they can abuse them.) and already have low self-esteem.
Bullies also target those who appear to be vulnerable and the main theory is that they do
this so that there is little chance the person will stand up for themselves, making them
easy to abuse. When bullied, they become visibly frightened, cry, or do not have an
appropriate response. That is just what the child who bullies wants; it becomes an
invitation to even more bullying. (NBPC, 2011)
People nowadays see the threat of bullying and its effects to be a modern
problem that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. However, history suggests that
bullying bullies and those that are bullied has existed throughout the history of
humankind. They come in many forms, and they happen to different people of different
age, sex and culture. Biologists see this phenomenon as a trace of our primal instincts,
similar to that of animals. In a pride of lions, the lead male has control over the biggest
share in their hunt, and dominion over the females in the group. He subjugates frailer

male lions into his command by both strength and intimidation. Same can be said in a
pack of wolves where the alpha male can berate anyone in the pack. Humans, as social
beings, also developed these kinds of relationship between and among them: the more
aggressive ones get whatever they want while the weaker and the passive ones just
stand by.
Despite these arguments about our human nature, or our history and culture of
bullies and bullied, our tendency to dominate others or cower in fear, bullying can
ultimately be prevented. In the school, the best way to address bullying is to stop it
before it starts. There are a number of things school administration, parents,
governments and organizations can do to make schools safer and prevent bullying.
Assessing school prevention and intervention efforts around student behavior, including
substance use and violence is a start. It is important for everyone in the community to
work together to send a unified message against bullying. For cyber bullying,
establishing rules about appropriate use of computers, cell phones, and other technology
can often help. It is important for kids to know how to be smart with what they say or
do online. Everyone must be properly educated at proper behavior so that everyone
would know which one is correct and which is not. In the society at large, bullying can
be stopped if everyone lands on a consensus of mutual understanding of everyones
differences, respect for the sovereignty of nations or culture and humane treatment for
everyone, regardless of ones age, gender, race, or culture. No matter how daunting the
task of stopping bullying, I believe, as many others do, that bullying can be stopped
despite the failures of our current efforts.
In the end, in spite of what scientists may say that we are merely higher forms of
animals, with tendencies to trail back to baser instincts of dominance and power like
animals in the wild, we human beings also have higher intelligence and sentience which
we can use to rise above these primal behaviors and be more humane towards our fellow
human beings. Bullying is a human phenomenon, and therefore can be stopped by
human beings.

References:

http://www.stopbullying.gov/
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/
http://www.theravive.com/
https://www.psychologytoday.com
http://www.philstar.ph
http://www.britannica.com.ph
http://merriamwebster.com