Bullying
This was originally in response to jeannedecarnin being amazing and sweet and supportive to a kid at her school, but I don't want to lose it, so it goes here too.
I don't even think it's that people feel threatened, I think that a small gay teenager makes a very easy target for people who feel the need to be mean. Lord knows that I have been thoughtlessly cruel to someone before because they were just so easy to poke at (and that's in the list of things I will never stop feeling bad about, let me tell you. At least the intense level of guilt I felt made me apologize and try hard to never do it again, but still.)
I think for many people it's just how they operate, and they don't think anything of it except that it's fun or that the other person somehow deserves it.
Bullying has no concrete reason behind it and no way to really *solve* it either. I know that for me, having someone hate me for no reason is the worst thing of all. How do you even deal with that?
I think that by being as much himself as he knows how to be, and having confidence in himself would make him vastly less likely to be poked at, but it's not something you can just *do*. It's something you come to over time and with a lot of effort (usually).
I don't even think it's that people feel threatened, I think that a small gay teenager makes a very easy target for people who feel the need to be mean. Lord knows that I have been thoughtlessly cruel to someone before because they were just so easy to poke at (and that's in the list of things I will never stop feeling bad about, let me tell you. At least the intense level of guilt I felt made me apologize and try hard to never do it again, but still.)
I think for many people it's just how they operate, and they don't think anything of it except that it's fun or that the other person somehow deserves it.
Bullying has no concrete reason behind it and no way to really *solve* it either. I know that for me, having someone hate me for no reason is the worst thing of all. How do you even deal with that?
I think that by being as much himself as he knows how to be, and having confidence in himself would make him vastly less likely to be poked at, but it's not something you can just *do*. It's something you come to over time and with a lot of effort (usually).