How do folks use the term “bullying” these days? (links to dictionaries will be ignored)
When I was a kid it was simple: child on child violence. Then people started using it for just word stuff without real physical harm, then for adults, then with an implication of warranting the enforcement of authorities to stop...
I get the impression it’s currently either used as “being mean in any sense one could perceive” broadly or “being mean in a way we should get people with some form of authority to force people to stop” but I don’t know which, or which is closer, and the ambiguity is enough to change real meaning.
The dynamic I match it to is “being mean for its own sake, to a specific individual, over an extended period of time, in an environment where they can’t get away from their tormentor(s).” The social equivalent of a cat playing with a mouse it’s caught.
N=1 for this interpretation, and it may not be quite necessary or sufficient even by my own lights.
Edit: A more succinct definition might be: “Bullying: persistent, targeted cruelty.”
Thanks! That accords with what people have said and with reason better than the former reigning champion.
Sorry for delay; was at a wedding. When I start typing comments on my phone the submit button disappears, so I can only comment from my computer, and I’m trying to avoid thumbs until they fix the asymmetry.
As with “violence” itself, it seems like some uses of “bullying” strike me as being somewhat metaphorical rather than literal; but the folks using it those ways may not agree.
That said, my experience in school was that physical violence and “word stuff” could be combined arms in an effort to create misery or to drive someone away: perpetrators could use physical harm when they expected to get away with it; aggressive posturing (e.g. miming a punch) to remind the victim of the possibility of physical harm; and verbal attacks when they expected to get away with those.
How do folks use the term “bullying” these days? (links to dictionaries will be ignored)
When I was a kid it was simple: child on child violence. Then people started using it for just word stuff without real physical harm, then for adults, then with an implication of warranting the enforcement of authorities to stop...
I get the impression it’s currently either used as “being mean in any sense one could perceive” broadly or “being mean in a way we should get people with some form of authority to force people to stop” but I don’t know which, or which is closer, and the ambiguity is enough to change real meaning.
The dynamic I match it to is “being mean for its own sake, to a specific individual, over an extended period of time, in an environment where they can’t get away from their tormentor(s).” The social equivalent of a cat playing with a mouse it’s caught.
N=1 for this interpretation, and it may not be quite necessary or sufficient even by my own lights.
Edit: A more succinct definition might be: “Bullying: persistent, targeted cruelty.”
Thanks! That accords with what people have said and with reason better than the former reigning champion.
Sorry for delay; was at a wedding. When I start typing comments on my phone the submit button disappears, so I can only comment from my computer, and I’m trying to avoid thumbs until they fix the asymmetry.
As with “violence” itself, it seems like some uses of “bullying” strike me as being somewhat metaphorical rather than literal; but the folks using it those ways may not agree.
That said, my experience in school was that physical violence and “word stuff” could be combined arms in an effort to create misery or to drive someone away: perpetrators could use physical harm when they expected to get away with it; aggressive posturing (e.g. miming a punch) to remind the victim of the possibility of physical harm; and verbal attacks when they expected to get away with those.
Metaphor makes sense; I’dn’t thought of that. Thanks!