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by lend000 850 days ago
Not from the UK, but such bullying stereotypes seem to be overblown in US media. I'm not saying they don't happen, but Hollywood seems to show some violent bullying happening to virtually every male teen protagonist.

During my childhood, most of the oddballs or introverted kids, myself included, were kind of ignored and had almost no interaction with the athletes and popular kids who were getting into fights with each other.
1 comments
lioeters 850 days ago
It's not overblown, I assure you, it's widespread and "normal". In the US I saw kids getting thrown into dumpsters, or bullied over months - nasty psychological type, as well as physical beatings. Fortunately I was friends with older kids who protected me, but I felt sorry for some of my peers, who I'm sure were affected for the rest of their lives.

From my observation, it seemed bullying is group dynamics - it always involved a cluster of kids beating on a single child they picked out. It also reminded me of animal behavior, as a way of asserting who is part of the pack, and who is an outsider. And I think somehow it's related to the structure of institutions, like schools, sports, and military.

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jjav 850 days ago
> It's not overblown, I assure you, it's widespread and "normal"

I always wonder how it is in the US. Based on movies and such, bullying is horrible in the US. But how widespread is that? I didn't go to school in the US (other than graduate degree in university) so don't have any direct experience.

I was the prototypical nerd in school (and old enough that it was back when being the D&D/computer/math nerd was not cool at all).

But I never experienced or saw any bullying. I sure didn't get invited to the cool parties and such, but everyone was always nice enough, including the "jock/cheerleader" types. Many decades later now, our whole class is still in contact and in friendly terms.

Maybe I just got lucky with a good class.

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ZeroGravitas 850 days ago
Apparently in non-anglophone countries it's more accepted that bullying is a group activity, where UK/US focus on a single perpetrator.

I think the group dynamic is more accurate.

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