Can The Media Address Bullying Differently?

Every year, in the weeks before schools reopen after summer holidays, I open the newspaper to see stories of how to bully proof a child, or how to recognize if your child has been a victim of bullying. I honestly do not recall seeing so much attention being placed on preventing children from becoming bullies, or how to recognize if a child is a bully.

As a victim I fully accept that bullying is normal, we see it among all other animals, chickens, dogs, and rats, although it is certainly less common in many species especially when not kept in crowded conditions like humans live in. I even see it in adults, we set examples for our children by talking negatively about another persons appearance or clothing.

I see women belittle men behind their backs (usually their husbands), supposedly upstanding church people belittling those not of their church. Fully grown men calling people on their favorite team losers if they lost a game, or kicking their dog because the dog messed on the carpet while waiting to get let outside. The list goes on as we adults set clear examples that bullying is okay.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sis/431811019/

Above is an everyday example of adult bullying.

I once had the comment written in my grade six yearbook “To the kid who was never mean to anyone…”, this is probably why I was the target of bullies, I never dealt it back. Still it saddens me that our society on the whole sees my actions as wrong, telling kids to stand up for themselves, rather than tackling the problem of so many people raising children to be bullies.

Where does bullying start? Well I already mentioned some of it presumably is learned by watching parents speak negatively of others, or listening to them making fun of others. Thus setting the example of “that which is different, is a target”. Indeed some bullies are witnesses to domestic violence, it is the only thing they know. Some themselves are bullied by their parents, or older siblings, and are lashing out, looking for their place in the world.

I suspect bullying cases increase in percentage where populations are more concentrated, which in today’s world, is pretty much everywhere. Studies have show rates of such things occur in rats when their populations climb too.