English Composition II - Bullying

Luke Hodges

Dr. Noah Lelek

English Composition II

November 17, 2014

Insert Clever Bullying Title

        Twenty percent of U.S students in grades nine through twelve reportedly have experienced bullying or are feeling bullied, while twenty-eight percent of students in grades six through twelve report the same (Bullying Statistics).  Some may say that bullying is calling people names or simply teasing a person. Others may say that physical abuse is bullying. Bullying, however, is the act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something (BS). Most bullies would say that they harass others because it gives them this so called high and makes them feel better than that person (BS). Another reason people bully, is the societies in which they were raised. Some places do not uphold a standard of living and do not enforce how one person should treat another person (BS).

        A bully’s personal history has a one hundred percent effect as to why a person becomes a bully (Kaplan). People experiencing rejection as children from people of higher status are more likely to pass on the feelings that they feel to another person. Bullies also feel rejection from close friends and even family. Sadly, around the world, seventy-seven percent of children are bullied either physically or verbally (BS). Victims of bullying suffer psychological consequences as well, usually all the way up until they are middle aged, with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and suicide (Kaplan). Most people that are constantly bullied growing up have a higher chance of committing suicide more frequently by the age of twenty-five (Kaplan). Bullying takes a toll on people physical, mentally, and emotionally. Certain people cope with things better than others while others do not cope with areas of life in good ways at all. The different types of bullying usually.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF BULLYING

        Bullying comes in various shapes, sizes, and forms. The three main types of bullying are: verbal bullying, social bullying, and physical bullying (Bullying Definition). All of these forms of bullying can occur anywhere. Bullying is expressed as 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 (BD).

        Next, one needs a deeper understanding of the three types of bullying. Verbal bullying s a very dominant way of bullying and it tends to happen more inside schools. Verbal bullying is teasing, name-calling, inappropriate sexual comments, taunting, and threatening to cause self-harm (BD). Name-calling often starts out as an innocent joke. Adults and children often tease each other but often this joking can lead to something bigger than what this joke is. Children who call one another names often turns into a person getting upset and in turn, posting rumors on social media and talking negatively about another to other pupils. Often, some people do not realize that one’s feelings are hurt and that one actually is bullying another. Name calling and bullying are often misunderstood.

        Furthermore, social bullying, often called relational bullying, involved damaging another’s reputation or relationship(s) (BD). Social bullying includes leaving others out on purpose, telling others not to be friends with that person, spreading rumors about another, or embarrassing someone in public. Bullying usually occurs in packs at school. Sometimes, individual bullying is one on one bullying that may take place in person or online as well as being physical or emotional (BS).

        Another type of bullying is physical bullying. Physical bullying is bullying that takes the form of physical abuse, such as shoving, pushing, hitting/fighting, spitting, and tripping. Threats, physical harm, and attempts to force people to act in a certain way that they don’t want to are also included (BS). Physical bullying is not nearly as prominent as the other forms of bullying (BS). Physical bullying happens in the school, like the others, but also more secretive. It is so secretive because most schools implement a zero tolerance policy on bullying and if caught, the bullies could be suspended or even expelled. While all bullying is frowned upon, physical bullying is usually disciplined harder than the other two type of bullying. Physical bullying is disciplined more because again of the zero tolerance policy and because it is also considered fighting.

BULLYING HURTS NOT ONLY YOU, BUT ALSO THE PEOPLE YOU ASSOCIATE WITH

        On that hot, humid, sweaty day, the sun was beaming and I did not want to be outside. As a child, I was more of an indoor type of kid, I did not want to do anything that involved sweating. We were just lining up to go back inside from recess and a kid came up to me and told me “you’re a punk and a faggot and you should’ve stayed inside like the other girls that don’t like to run around.” This was true, as I stated I didn’t like to be outside and I would have rather been inside doing paperwork, grading papers, or helping others with school work. I would not have gotten my feelings hurt if he had not had used the adjectives that he used nor said it the way he said it. We all went back inside and continued about our lives and I tried not to think about it, but those words pierced me.

        From that day forward, those words stuck in the back of my mind just as if he said that to me again every day like he did that first day. That was really where it all started; the bullying. I often ask myself on a daily basis, why do people bully? What drives them to become such vicious people? I see bullying happen way too often. Most people would say that bullies harass others because it gives them this feeling of sensation and they feel dominant. People who come from broken homes are more likely to bully (BS). From personal experience, if you were to find me on a day bullying someone, it was normally because I had so much pressure on my back and I took my problems out on other people because I was upset that people would ever bully me. When a person is bullied, this does not only effect the victim, but also those around the victim on a daily basis. When a person is bullied, they are usually infected with a negative energy from the bully and in turn infects those around them. This only happens when the victim portrays that negative energy.

AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

        Autoethnography is a form of self-reflection and writing that explores the researcher's personal experience and connects this autobiographical story to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings. Autoethnography is different from ethnography, a qualitative research method in which a researcher uses participant observation and interviews in order to gain a deeper understanding of a group's culture while autoethnography focuses on the writer's subjective experience rather than, or in interaction with, the beliefs and practices of others. As a form of self-reflective writing, autoethnography is widely used in performance studies, as a method in living educational research and English. I am incorporating autoethnography in this paper because I want the reader to understand my point of views. I personally believe that writing is better understood when one gets a personal story to go along with the paper.