Drama, it’s a part of our everyday lives. It seems as through drama is impossible to escape because we are constantly surrounded by girls. Being in this type of environment can be difficult and stressful, and -for some- may be too much to bear. In our society it is easy for girls to confront each other in nasty ways. Technology and Facebook aide in this process and can affect us more than if bullied face to face. Although some fights of aggression can be resolved the memories of things said can last a lifetime.
In this article, by Ditta Oliker, she discusses how society views bullying as something that only happened between males. It wasn’t until recently that female bullying was acknowledged. Why do you think female bullying took longer to be acknowledged? Based on your experiences are males or females more aggressive? Why? Do you think male of females are affected more by bullying? Why do you feel girls have the desire to bully eachother?
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-long-reach-childhood/201109/bullying-in-the-female-world
Just from my common knowledge and past experiences, without even reading the article, I think female bullying has taken longer to be acknowledged by society because of society's definition of the term "bullying". It seems to be defined as any type of physical harassment, which is true. But it also can be mental & emotional harassment, which I feel like are the types females are more inclined to use. This article certainly confirms this. When we hear the term bullying we do think of any form of physical aggression or anger expressed towards someone else. I feel like only recently a new "wave" of bullying has come along; along with the new forms of communication that allow it to flourish. Social networking sites such as Facebook and texting, emailing etcetera, which females have drawn to because it's not "physical" and in someone's face. It's allows people to say things indirectly to others, without the consequences you might get if you to say it to their face. You can even do it "anonymously".
ReplyDeleteBased on my experience, being a girl and having a little brother, I believe females are more aggressive. With boys it just seems like if one of them were to have a problem with another, they would just fight and get it over with. Females, however seem to like to play psychological mind games with the other girl, and can make her believe that her entire class hates her and so on. Animosity towards another girl could be for several reasons: jealousy, and fear, a desire to be more popular, or their own personal self-esteem is low.
When you think of bullying, you think of a movie where a jock goes and beats up a goofy nerdy boy. You never really picture a girl throwing her fists at another girl.When people think of guys, they think of strong and physical. When people think of girls, they think of sensitive, emotional, and not aggressive. Because of this standard, bullying for girls was hidden. When it comes to bullying in the 21st century, the definition is stretched. It no longer means just physical violence but now it can be through technology. Technology plays a big part in today's society. It was only time until bullying on Facebook and Myspace took place. More likely girls will bully each other through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Bullying through those websites can be as bad as physical bullying. The words written on these sites can forever be remembered in the persons mind.
ReplyDeleteI believe that males and females are both effect by bullying. However, as I said before, the way in which they are bulled can be different. This is not to say that males cant be bullied online, they can. It is just more likely for a guy to start a physical fight due to the standards of a guy (tough, non emotional, fighter).
Why does anyone have the desire to bully each other? Its all for attention and jealousy. Either the person is not happy about their own life so they try to make their life better by bringing someone else down, or they want to show people how much power they have. This is a way to say dont mess with me.
I think female bullying took longer to be acknowledged because girls are more manipulative and can twist words around to make you look like you are the one with the problem or that you’re the bad person. Therefore making it look like nothing has happened. I definitely think that females are more aggressive but in a different way that males are, males are more physical where girls are more mental, more or less female bullies play a mind game with you. Also, I don’t think males care about anything as much as females do and if they do have an issue with someone they will make it none to that person, instead of playing the mind game. Because girls care more, I think they are more likely to bully someone else because they may be trying to make themselves feel better or they could be acting out of fear for being replaced or that you may make them the outcast of the group. However, it doesn’t matter what gender you are bullying is an individual thing and how you react to it and are affected by it is on an individual basis. Most importantly no one should have to go through it and deep down bullies are just cowards.
ReplyDeleteLike my classmates already stated, I think male bullying was more acknowledged because when people thought of bullying they thought of the stereotype-physical harassment. Bullying includes but is not limited to physical harassment and until fairly recently that went unnoticed. I don't necessarily think girls or males or more aggressive I think they just deal with their aggression in different ways. Males are more inclined to be upfront about it and even though they may fight it isn't so much an ongoing issue whereas females seem to hold grudges and plan ways to hurt the victim of their bullying. I don't think either gender is more affected by bullying, it's more a case by case basis. Any individual could be more affected by bullying than another no matter what type of bullying. I think the reasons girls bully other girls is to increase their own status, or to prevent themselves from being bullied. If someone is known for being a bully other girls are less likely to attack her, and like everyone else said if they have low self esteem, seeing other people feel badly about themselves may make the girl feel better about whatever problems she may have.
ReplyDeleteFemale bullying is definitely more severe then male bullying. Guys tend to only hurt each other physically, and after beating each other up, they're friends again. Female bullying attacks a victim emotionally and can cause more damage than a punch. I think it's only been recently acknowledged since more media sources have addressed the topic. I find that the movie Mean Girls was definitely a realization to the world that girls aren't nice all of the time.
ReplyDeleteFemales are definitely way more aggressive. Though males use bullying to seem tough and use physical violence, females attack the emotional state of a victim, and can cause the victim to have low self esteem issues. We all are insecure about something, but when a whole group of people calls us out on our insecurity and humiliates us in front of our peers the affects can be very damaging. I don't think a specific gender is affected more by bullying. Female bullying doesn't always victimize girls; it can target males as well. There also has been the release of videos of girls using "male bullying" to beat each other up. For that reason, I think the issue is just insecurity and the groups that surround us in our environment. It's definitely insecurity that drives girls to bully each other. Girls have the tendency to think "Rather than having someone notice my flaws and single me out for them, I should make everyone else focus on someone else's flaws."
I think female bullying took longer to acknowledge because it isn't the same type of bullying the males participate in. Male bullying is mostly physical while female bullying is more verbal. I think males and females are both aggressive just in different ways. Males will beat each other up, but move on after that but girls will verbally harass each other and hold grudges for a long time even after the bully has apologized. And now with social networking sites, bullying can take place outside of school and be private. I think females are more affected by bullying because we are more emotional, and internalize what is being said to us. I feel like girls have the desire to bully each other because the bully is insecure or jealous of another girl therefore she will make fun of someone else to try to make herself feel better.
ReplyDeleteI think bullying with female teens was overlooked because it is not physical violence, like male bullying. Very rarely with female teens does one see a physical fight. Rather you will hear about something that someone said over a text message or to someone else. Also, with female teens, a lot of the bullying is through rumors. Girls spread stuff to one another, rather than confronting the person they have a problem with. When males get into a fight, rather than holding grudges as many girls do, they move on and let go of their problems. I think both males and females are equally aggressive but in their own different ways. When a guy gets into a physical fight, he will give it his all and so will a girl, but in a different way. When a girl gets into a fight, she will try to "ruin" a person or try to completely bring them down. I definitely think that females are more affected by bullying because they use words. Words can be blunt and harsh, and have a lot of feeling along with it. Girls are emotional and sensitive people, but they also love to have power. With girls, they want to be the one with the last word, rather than be the one that was put down, causing them to think of more hurtful things to say the next time.
ReplyDeleteFemales and males bully differently, this is why it took so much longer for female bullying to be acknowledged. Whereas males tend to bully physically, females are verbal and mental bullies. Females have the ability to find someone's weak point and attack it. Females are vicious and brutal to each other. Male bullying causes physical pain but that lasts for a set amount of time. When females bully it is mental and it gets into your head. Twenty years after the bullying occurs, the person could still be affected by it. If a female can find someone's weak point and attack it, it is more often than not worse than getting beat up. It's like that saying we learned when we were little, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me". I always wondered, because this is one of the worst lies I have ever heard. The revision I know is more accurate, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will cause permanent psychological damage". People don't realize how bad their bullying is affecting someone, especially when they hide behind a computer.
ReplyDeleteLike many have previously stated, I feel as though female bullying took much longer to be properly acknowledged because males and females typically differ in bullying tactics. As a society we are accustomed to hearing about boys bullying each other by physically fighting in the playground, but only recently has female bullying been pushed to such a forefront. With the internet especially instant messenger and Facebook, secretive and manipulative bullying is much more accessible and in most cases, young girls are behind it.
ReplyDeleteMen and women, I believe also differ in aggression. Men are thought of to be macho and aggressive around the clock but women can be just as aggressive depending on the individual. The difference is that men and women show their aggression differently. A immature boy might decide to be physically aggressive while an immature girl could decide to sit behind a computer and be mean.
I also believe that any type of bullying affects both men and women equally. When you get down to it, bullying hurts and both men and women have feelings and experience pain and sadness.
Women, I think, may care more about what others think of them and this insecurity lends itself to the bullying culture that we live in today. Insecurity breeds pained individuals who often exert their pain on to others.
I agree with most of the other posters. Females are more subtle and confront each other with words rather than physical force. With a rare exception, girls typically hurt each other through comments or gossip. I especially agree with Taylor, who said that girls are manipulative, which in many ways can produce effects that last much longer than a physical attack.
ReplyDeleteThe effects of female bullying tactics outlast the physical pain males feel as consequences of physical bullying. This can eat away at girls' self-esteems and can leave emotional scars that last a lifetime.
I think female bullying took longer to be acknowledged because when guys fight, it's physical, girls are verbal. It's easy to see one boy punch another one. It's not as easy to catch a girl saying something mean or hurtful.
ReplyDeleteBased on experience, guys are quicker to react with aggression, girls consider the options of how to handle it and usually what will cause more pain, which words will be taken as more distressing, where guys just throw a quick punch to get the anger out.
I think both girls and guys are affected by bullying at a fairly equal rate. Guys pick on each other for more physical reasons, while girls choose the snide comments that make them as Dane Cook would say "mind ninjas". The comments are small and biting, but they tend to hurt more and more as time goes on.
The same reason any bully acts as a bully, a girl with bully another girl. Bullies feel weak, insecure, self-conscious, and afraid of rejection usually. A bully needs to put someone else down to make themselves feel better. The sad reality is, as "Mean Girls" explains putting someone else down, doesn't make the bully any better. Sorry for all the references but in short, bullying is bad, dumb, and immature, but girls and guys do it. It's a problem in our country and bullying prevention should be something addressed in schools.
In my opinion, female bullying took longer to be noticed because it's not as obvious as male bullying, which may include physical fighting. Female bullying is more hidden; it takes longer to notice when a girl is a victim, as she may not act out overtly. Instead, she may bottle her feelings, whereas a guy would be quicker to retaliate.
ReplyDeleteAlthough female bullying may not be as prominent, I agree with Mary in that both guys and girls are affected by bullying equally. Despite the fact that both have different ways of bullying each other, it doesn't seem less likely that a girl will be bullied over a guy.
I also think that both males and females can be aggressive, though in different ways. I agree with the article that males typically bully by outward fighting, whereas girls are more verbal bullies. Overall, I think that girls bully because of social issues. They may do it in order to feel in control or better than the other.
I think female bullying took longer to be acknowledged because it is usually conducted behind closed doors. Whether it's a whisper of gossip between two girls or nasty things written on the Internet. With males it is easier to see when there is friction between them because they conduct their fight physically. I obviously think that males are more physically aggressive. It is rare to see two girls in a fist fight. It's much more common to see boys get into physical altercations. However, I think that female bullying hurts a lot more emotionally. When boys bully each other, I feel like they get it out of their systems and can move on. With girls, the words said can scar you more than any kind of physical fight. You can never forget words said to you that truly hurt and it becomes almost impossible to move on. For this reason, i think that females are more affected by bullying. The worst thing to happen, i would think, would be for a best friend to turn on you and started writing hateful things about you on the Internet. I have heard of this situation and I can't imagine the kind of pain these girls endure to be betrayed like that. I think girls choose to bully for many reasons; jealousy, low self-confidence and a search to make them feel better about themselves all add fuel to the fire when it comes to bullying.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the article in that bullying by females tends to having longer-lasting, and often more damaging effects. I think that part of that has to do with the way that justice is served in regard to physical and social bullying; when someone is physically bullied, he or she has noticeable signs and evidence that something has been done to them, and often the person who bullied them will be held accountable. However, when bullies use other "weapons", as the article stated, such as alienation and humiliation, not only can the effects be longer-lasting, but they often have to be carried without any justice because the signs are not as evident to authority figures. Often, it is not until after something radical happens - like the victim committing suicide, as we have often seen recently - that anything is done to hold the bullies accountable, and we often see in these cases that even when the bullying was brought to the attention of school officials, they could not or would not do anything to stop it or reprimand those responsible. This is why I think that greatly due to the anonymity and detachment of social networking sites, girls can be much more aggressive and the effects of their bullying on other girls can have much worse and longer-lasting effects. I also think that girls might feel this desire to bully other girls because as adolescents they are going through serious emotional changes, and their desire to fit in and not want to be the one on the other side of the bullying causes them to put someone else in that place - only so that it does not have to be them.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, female bullying took longer to be acknowledged was because it was seen as "girls will be girls", like they are supposed to act this way or that a typical girl's life is constantly filled with drama. Also because it is done subtly and behind closed doors. Based on my experiences, I have hardly ever seen girls getting ready to physically battle to the death. I have seen boys fist fight and usually it is due to an on going rivalry. Boys seem to be more aggressive, in my opinion, because of the hormones and chemical differences that they have. And because of this chemical difference, I think that females are more affected by bullying. We are more affected by what people say to us than what they do to us. This is because people's opinions matter to us. Other girls know this a play on it. They bully other girls for many reasons such as jealousy, low self-esteem, or even just because they like the satisfaction of making someone feel inferior.
ReplyDeleteReading this article I can understand why it took longer for female aggression to be acknowledged. As Sav stated above people will often say that "girls will be girls" as if it accepted that girls can be mean to one another. Men are more aggressive in a physical sense but females are more aggressive verbally. Men will have a fight and soon forget about it, whereas girls hold grudges. People probably did not associate verbal aggression on the same level of physical aggression. I believe girls are more affected by bullying because it is done in a more malicious manner. It is usually done through social networking which can leave a lasting impact on the female image. I feel that girls have a desire to bully one another because they are envious. They may bully girls who are pretty or have the boyfriend. They do not feel confident about themselves and now want to take that out on other girls seeking to take that away from them.
ReplyDeleteLike many have said, I agree that males and females are very different in the way that they express their aggression. I have seen the ways that males confront each other in conflict and most of the time it has led to the aggression being shown physically. Even though females are capable of being physical, verbal aggression seems to be more popular among this population. All in all, I do believe that both are equally aggressive. With that being said, i believe that both males and females are equally affected by bullying, but have different ways of showing this hurt as well. For both populations I agree with many statements, that bullying is a factor of jealousy or even intimidation.
ReplyDeleteAs everyone else might have said, I agree that there are visible differences of between male and female aggression and how it is expressed. Men often look to express their anger through fist fights while girls get more "cat-y" by verbally abusing each other. I personally think that female bullying took longer to be acknowledged because it is done more secretly than boys who put it all out in the open for everyone to see. Also, I feel that males are more aggressive than females because they would rather "duke" it out and use their anger to hurt another physically. But in contrast, I feel that females are more effected by bullying because words really hurt, unlike fist fight where the pain goes away in days, the pain of nasty words last a lifetime. Often they can cause girls to go into depression or to some extent it may cause them to commit suicide. I honestly believe that girls desire the need to bully one another because it boosts their self confidence and makes them feel better because they are putting someone else down below them.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the reason different types of female aggression took longer to recognize than different types of male aggression is because it takes time for the internal, long-lasting effects of emotional abuse to surface. As stated in Dr. Oliker's blog, male aggression is so easily recognizable because, for the majority of men, the aggression is visible on their face or any other area of their body. Because men fight with their fists, their aggression does not always carry the same type of psychological impact the way women fight with their words can have.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is extremely difficult to discern whether one sex exercises aggressive behavior more than the other. I would have to say that being a female myself; I am of course going to say that women are more aggressive. I believe this to be true purely based on the fact that I have not had enough experience recognizing different types of male aggression and their long-term psychological effects can alter their behavior or even lifestyle.
Because male and females experience different types of aggression, I think that females take a harder hit when it comes time to coping with the sometimes life altering effects of both social and relational aggression. Both the human body and mind mature at completely different rates for men and for women. As the female mind progresses through adolescence, there is more than just one change occurring at this time. It is a challenge for many girls to wrap their head around the motivations of the actions that their female peers exercise. Women take one thought and process it many times over, analyzing it in a variety of ways. Men tend to act on impulse, where no thinking is really involved. I think that the long lasting effects of the different types of aggression have a greater impact on females than males.
In my opinion, I feel that girls have the tendency to express their relational and social aggression on others in response to a form of aggression that they feel themselves. Regardless of age, I feel that females (& males alike) have a tough time distinguishing the difference between the 'right' and 'wrong' way of coping with aggression. By selecting an individual to cast their pain, grief, and/or emotional suffering on; girls at that point are only feeding a cycle. As a way of coping with the aggression that they feel in their lives, insecure girls will pass their negative feelings on to others in order to provide themselves with a false sense of power and control that they otherwise do not posses. Other possible reasons that girls might target one girl over another is that the receiver of the harsh emotional aggression might represent or reminder the aggressive a lot of herself where she might be trying to recreate a scenario in order to learn how she could have acted in response to her own personal aggression.
I really liked this post! Good choice Katie