Change the Image of Bullies? | A More Aggressive Campaign Needs To be Tried to Stop Bullying (Bully the Bullies).
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I fully admit that I may make a jackass out of myself with this Hub, but I believe my ideas are at least worth talking or writing about. Furthermore, I want to add the caveat that this Hub was originally supposed to be a blog entry, but I became so frustrated with the blogging program that I made it a Hub instead.
In any event, I have a young niece, and she is precious. I will not give out her name, in order to protect the innocent, and the picture provided in this blog is not her. Nevertheless, the girl in the image is pretty close to her age and almost adorable as my niece is. Unfortunately, she has been having problems lately, and she has been staying inside more. The result is she has gained weight and became “fat”. Recently, she went outside to play and three older girls beat her up because she is fat. They actually hit her hard enough to draw blood and leave bruises.
I know that there is a lot of anti bullying information and stories out there, and you are probably tired of hearing or reading about problem. The dilemma is that the current anti-bullying campaigns do not seem to be very affective. I propose that the only way to get a handle on bullying is to make bullying uncool. There have been some precedents for the kind of campaign(s) that I am proposing.
The KKK was much more popular in the past than they are today. In fact, not to long ago it was popular to make prejudice jokes and to have prejudice television programming (I know that both still exist today to a much lesser extent). I also realize that some people might claim that it was education that turned the tide against prejudice (and they would be partly correct); however, I would also contend that it became uncool to be prejudice in American culture. Hollywood began to change their messages about minorities and the American people responded. Prejudice people were presented as uneducated or hillbillies. That is why, at least that is what I contend, that is why the KKK and being prejudice is unpopular today (and rightfully so). I would like to reiterate, before moving on, that I know that prejudice- against all kinds of people- is still alive and well today.
Negative political ads are effective even though the average American despises them. In fact, many political careers have been made or broken because of negative ads. Currently many anti-bullying activist are trying to make standing up for someone who is being bullied cool, but it is very hard for kids to stand up to bullies. So, why not make bullies look weak, not so smart, and backwards or something as equally unappealing?
I can already hear some people saying or writing, are you proposing bullying, bullies? Don’t you realize that some bullies are bullied themselves? The answer to both questions is yes. As citizens, we are bullied into correct behavior all the time. We have to give out lunch money to the government, in the form of taxes or fines, or they punish us. Furthermore, if whatever law that is broken causes one to go to jail or prison…the punishment can be very physical (even if it was not intended to be so). Oh, the point about bullies being bullied themselves is somewhat valid but it happens a lot less often then you think (some studies say as low as 6%). By the way, kids are not the only citizens who are tricked out of one of their best defenses, because it is not cool, which is snitching
It blows my mind that criminal elements, and some of the rappers who support them, in our society have made it uncool to snitch on people. The only real defense that we have as citizens- against criminals- is to snitch. Most of us do not want to take the law into our own hands, or we do not have the muscle, guns, or numbers to do so.
In closing, I believe that making it cool to help someone who is being picked on is a good idea, but making it uncool to pick on someone is infinitely more effective. I also know that my ideas would need to be really thought through and fleshed out in order to really make a difference (but it is a start). As an aside, everything I have stated in this blog is a matter of opinion; I cannot rightfully say that any part of psychology supports my contentions.
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Patrick - I am contemplating your deal .... got three long days of classes coming up....but I will get back to you this weekend.
If time permits, you might want to check out The Journey on HP. Hubber arb organized 16 over 55 hubbers to write a collaborative hub on "aging." Each of us created a question, all 16 of us answered all 16 questions anyway we wanted to and each of us crated a hub based on the answers to our questions.
You might start with The Journey- Chapter 1 by Nellianna. However they do not have to be read in order. Each can stand alone.
We have posted 10 chapters so far and my chapter comes out around noon on Wednesday. I would appreciate your feedback. Theresa
- AUTHOR
Phdast7, I had to contemplate over your suggestion before giving you an intelligent answer. Coincidentally, during my time of reflection, my wife and I watched Glee the Movie. In the movie, there were interviews, between the performances, of people whose lives had changed for the better because of Glee. I was pleasantly surprised and inspired by the interview additions.
After all, Hollywood has had many movies and television shows about outsiders, the different, and nerds with little to show in changing society for the better. For example, in 1984, there was a movie called Revenge of the Nerds, and I remember Robert Caradine and Anthony Edwards, the stars of the film, actually dressed up as nerds before shooting the movie, to see what it was like, and they were surprised by how badly they were treated. Furthermore, the movie seemed to do little to help nerds from being bullied. In fact, one of the main antagonists Fred “The Ogre” Palowaski was a dumb jock, an ogre, and a cretin, but the scenes where he yelled nerds inspired a generation of bullies to go around and do the same thing.
So, what is my rather long-winded point? The campaign that you and I suggest would have to be extremely well written. Secondly, the anti -bullying message would have to be part of a lengthy campaign in order for the message to gain traction in the minds of bullies. Lastly, the ads that I would write would pack quit a punch, because I believe that is the only way that my point would resonate with people.
Inclosing, I offer you the following deal. If you write a short story based in the World War 2 era and publish it on Hubpages, I will do as you suggest.
I think you are on to something here and you should think it through, flesh it out,and write some more...serious stuff, I mean. I can visualize a PSA campaign making fun of how pitiful and laughable it is for a Bad-ass bully to get his.her jollies by picking on someone smaller and weaker.
The point would be to emphasize that "they must be afraid or weak or insecure or they would compete in "real sports" against people their own size, etc, etc. How sad, how pathetic that they can only feel big by attacking someone small. This could work. Write it up and you might even be able to pitch it to the powers that be with money for PSA's. Go for it. Theresa
- AUTHOR
glmclendon, I thank you for your kind words. This is one of the few serious Hubs that I have done, and I plan to do more of these type of Hubs in the future.
pmorries, this was good and you had a lot of info in this HUB. You have offered one way and if we all get behind it there is a chance it would work. People must remember everyone, is someone's child and should be treated as such.
Stay Well
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