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What's So Trendy About Bullying That Everyone Is Crazy Over It?

With the recent events at Dowen College in Lagos State, school bullying has increasingly become the focus, with many people recounting their school experiences and raising awareness of its prevalence.


There's a probability some people do not understand what bullying is or perhaps didn't experience it as well. If you haven't ever encountered this menace, I would actually proclaim you a very fortunate person.


Bullying, according to Wikipedia, is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing, or threat to abuse, aggressively dominate, or intimidate someone. The action is frequently repeated and habitual. 


There's however more to bullying that meets the eyes. It isn't just the superficial, stereotypical notion of bullying that people pass across as the "definition" of bullying. To bully someone, or be bullied by someone mustn't necessarily involve the use of force or physical actions, it's wayyyyy more than that. 

 

Nevertheless, bullying comes in different forms, and I've compiled the most common forms here (you're welcome 🤗):

✧ Physical (ouch my eye!🤕)

This is experienced when a person uses physical actions such as kicking, beating, boxing, tripping, hitting, pushing and intentional destruction of properties to intimidate another individual.


✧ Verbal(yo so ugly, your plastic surgeon had to close his eyes while fixing yo face😏) 

This refers to any spoken word intended to cause harm to another person. This can include name calling, insults, and derogatory remarks directed at someone.


✧ Emotional(I love you buuuut I'll still give you the silent treatment for a month because I'm cool like that😘)


This is a form of bullying whereby a person gains control of a person's emotions just to criticize, shame, manipulate and embarrass them. 


✧ Cyber Bullying


This is any form of bullying that happens over the internet. It usually comes in form of threats and malicious comments or messages.


✧ Sexual(don't we all know this...¿)

This type of bullying is a form of harassment that occurs as a result of a person's gender, body, sexual orientation, or sexual activity. So no, rape isn't the only form of sexual bullying; that ass you smacked inappropriately, making that random person very uncomfortable? Yeah, that's bullying too.


✧ Prejudicial(urgh, did you like forget to wash your skin in heaven?🤡)


This form of bullying is centered on a person's skin colour, religious practices, and even sexual orientation. This type of bullying is usually as a result of a mistaken or learned belief that certain groups of people deserve to be handled differently or with less respect.


One important thing to note is that any form of bullying is not exclusive to children alone. In recent times, what was thought to be constructive criticism, corrections and advice has turned to bullying. This happens everywhere especially the cyber space where people have suddenly grown wings simply because they're speaking from the comfort of their houses and would not have the same counter-reactions that they'd normally get in a real life conversation.


I know that there are even way more instances of bully, some that are so obscure, we would be surprised.


There are lots of stories to be shared. I'm pretty sure that given the right platform, a lot of people would love to tell their stories.

I've been a passive victim of bullying and have witnessed people close to me suffer because of someone else's power tussle. Back then in secondary school, excessive and unnecessary punishments were christened "corrections", even by fellow students (I'm sure a lot of you can relate).

 We were flogged and punished by our immediate seniors on the basis of teaching us to turn out well in the society. I just felt like they were pouring out their life's frustration on us at that time. 

Was the inflicted pain unnecessary? 

Hell yes❕

Or was it when I was mocked at and ridiculed for being very slim as a teenager; I have been called A LOT of names lol🤭.


Say no to bullying

I've had the opportunity to listen to people share their bullying experience and I can't help but wonder why another human being would do that actually. I believe it is up to us to play our individual roles in being a little more kinder, more helpful, spread a little more love and be the change we want to see in the world.

Have you experienced, or been a witness to bullying? Was anything done about it? Is it still ongoing? Please share with us in the comment section.

Fun Facts:

◉Social exclusion is a form of bullying. That means, when your mates leave you out on purpose to hurt your feelings, they are indirectly bullying you.

Post a Comment

9 Comments

  1. Bullying happens to many people, but they fail to recognize it because it comes in diverse forms. Thanks for the knowledge passed.

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    1. Thanks for reading through, love to see more of you.

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  2. The topic might be over flogged, but your approach is unique and intriguing.

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  3. A lot of people go through bully everyday , most people don't even know constantly body shaming someone is bully , but nahhhh society Won't make that clear ... Stay strong loves , don't allow people's words get to you .... Thank you for this piece dear

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  4. Ah yes, bullying....or in my case, body shaming and emotional abuse. It's nice that people are getting more aware of this. Can't wait for the world to realise how stupid it is and just stop.

    I love the way you wrote about it too: serious but not sombre. Nice.

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    1. I really can't wait for the world to realise that, thanks for sharing. Hope to see more of you here.

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  5. Your writeup is so nice and speaks volumes of truth. So many forms of bullying have become a norm and no one bothers to think twice about it anymore. Very nice piece

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    1. Thank you so much for dropping your 2 cents, really wish people would pay attention to the after effects of this things.

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