I noticed that Mary and Amanda were spending less time together. They used to be inseparable, but now they hardly speak to each other. My suspicions were justified when Mary approached me one day after class. Closely followed by Amanda, Mary was about to say something when Amanda interrupted. “She thought she was talking about her, but she wasn’t.” “Yes, you were,” Mary said, obviously hurt by the pain this incident had caused.
Relational bullying among girls is a big problem. Manipulating friendships and spreading rumors are usually ways girls bully each other. These tactics are used by girls for various reasons. First of all, relational bullying is extremely difficult to detect. If you don’t know the signs to look for, it will be almost impossible to see them. In addition, girls resort to relational bullying because, for them, the emotional scars and isolation are more painful than physical abuse.
Relational bullying has an interesting component. A lot of times girls spread rumors about someone they used to think of as their friend, but they don’t even know why they started the rumor in the first place. Also, two girls can be torn apart by rumors started by a third party.
This is usually done by a girl who is jealous of the friendship the other two girls have started to form.
A key factor to remember, relational bullying often happens between girls who used to be friends. This is quite different from how boys bully. Children will rarely bully their own friends. Girls, on the other hand, will put their best friend through emotional torture if the circumstances are right. Paying attention to the relationships girls are forming is a good way to monitor a potential bullying situation. If you see a click suddenly break and take different sides, it’s a warning sign that something is up.
While I am on a school campus, the phrases of bullies always catch my attention. How can I find out what phrases stalkers like to use? I was once a bully. So, if you want bullying to go away, I think everyone needs to know the bully’s excuses and come up with a plan to eliminate the bully’s power.