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What is Bullying?

 Bullying is a serious problem.

Kids are bullied every day.

But, what is bullying?

By definition, bullying is aggressive behavior that occurs using the power of oppression and superiority. This means that the person who is targeted is regarded as or is made to feel inferior to their bully because the bully holds more power. Bullying usually has the power to continue repeatedly over time as some different forms of harassment. Bullying, however, is a term most commonly used in the position of harassment between school-aged children. This form of harassment is cruel and usually uncalled for.

 

But harassment, a term that can also be applied to adult situations, differs from bullying. Because bullying is only a form of harassment, what happens in the real world between adults cannot always be classified as bullying, seeing as bullying itself is more juvenile.

 

It is often hard to identify whether or not the bully is intending to hurt the person. Most bullies are said to have a direct intent to hurt the person they are targeting, but some other bullies may not even realize how much they are affecting the person, and may not have intentionally bullied them.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IT'S BULLYING?

In order for school-aged harassment to be considered bullying, the behavior must be hostile and have:

 

  • A Variation of Power in between the Bully and the Bullied: The bully often uses their power to control or harm another, which is a very common aspect of bullying. The bully makes the target feel that they have more power and they are therefore superior. This can happen in different ways.

 

  • Recurrence: in order for harassment to be considered bullying, it must occur repeatedly over time or be able to repeat over time.

 

  • When the behavior harms or humiliates the person.

 

  • The people being bullied have difficulty putting an end to the harassment.

 

This question varies from place to place, but when most people think of bullying, it is commonly envisioned as a smaller kid being physically hurt by a larger kid. Even thought that is but one form of bullying, there are many other ways that a person can be hurt. But how does one know when someone is being bullied?

BULLYING: BY DEFINITION

YOU CANNOT LET ANYONE CONTROL YOU. YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK.

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