start calling bullying what it really is. peer abuse. no more ‘bullying builds character’ or ‘be the bigger person’ shit. it’s time to recognize that this type of abuse can be just as damaging and just as traumatizing. at worst, it makes people suicidal and too scared to be themselves. not just in the moment but potentially for the rest of their lives. being abused by your peers is immensely harmful and it’s about time people admit that
hey lots not fucking keep devaluing the word “abuse” by comparing someone you love and trust systematically manipulating controlling and hurting you to being picked on at school
i get that internet culture has intensely preached “anything thats really bad is abuse” but thats not true. things can be traumatizing and terrifying without being abuse. abuse is a specific term, stop using it incorrectly
this is the same difference as the one between domestic violence and battery. they are both TERRIBLE but they are DIFFERENT THINGS.
hey, you know what? the term ‘peer abuse’ was actually first suggested to me by my therapist a few years ago and it has helped me tremendously come to terms with the years of verbal and physical abuse i had to experience at the hands of my peers in a supposedly safe environment. this has nothing to do with internet culture.
let’s not keep devaluing the traumatic effects bullying can have by simply referring to it as “being picked on” when it’s for the most part much more than that. there have been recorded cases where people have developed c-ptsd from bullying. bullying is abuse. full stop.
dictionaries define abuse in the following way: “treat with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly”, well, guess what? that’s exactly what happened to me and many others. our peers took advantage of us, laughed at us, threatened us, and sometimes even hit us. usually over the course of many months or even years. i’m sorry but that is abuse and, as i said, it’s about time people admit that
