I like how bullies seem to shrivel up and die after high school. I mean, no adult seems to label themselves as one, which is curious since I remember quite a few of them running around back in my day. Outside the harshest circumstances, such as the ones examined by "Bully", I think the lines between the victim and the aggressor are much more fluid than realized. I wasn't the most popular kid growing up and I can recall being picked on at times, but I can also remember going after people I viewed as weaker targets. At the time I didn't think I was bullying anyone, but looking back I'm not too proud of what I did. So much bullying (though not all, of course) comes from normal kids who probably view themselves more as victims. The pressure we put on each other to be assholes at the age is astonishing. The problem, which I suppose "Bully" is touching on, is that since we all experienced it we don't take it as seriously once we're out of that situation. As a 27 year old man I forget how much it sucked to be called fat when I was 14, just as much as the person who called me fat doesn't even remember doing it.

I think the motivations behind bullying can be pretty simple: adolescents haven't yet fully grasped the concept of consequences and empathy. This seems to be corroborated by scientific findings that suggest that the frontal lobe of the human brain isn't yet fully developed until the age of 20 in most people, as this article reports. Thus, they do not fully understand the effects of their actions on others. I think that good parenting and teaching can overcome this, as most teens don't seem to be bullies.

Agreed. Kids can't be taught to rush through the psychological development stages, nor should they be. People's brains are going to develop over time no matter what and that's not a flaw. The old "children ask two questions" theory is one that while of course broad, makes a lot of sense. The two questions kids (unconsciously) ask are 1) Does anybody love me? and 2) Can I get my way?

When they answer no to the first and yes to the second, they tend to be bullies. When they answer no to both, they tend to be the bullied. Answering yes to both tends to lead to spoiled brat-type kids, and yes to the first but no to the second tends to be what well-developed kids and teens are. Again, this is a gross simplification, but the basic principles get to the core of the matter.

(Of course, the "does anybody love me? question revolves around what a kid perceives, not necessarily what's true...it doesn't much matter if a kid is loved if he doesn't think he is).

There seems to be a space missing after almost every instance of the word Bully in the review.

Like most nerds it seems, I was bullied pretty bad at school during ages 13 and 14. Eventually you learn to hit back. Keeping quiet and simply "taking it" definitely doesn't work. If you don't confront your antagonists, it never stops.

Well that's always true, while there were some kids that wouldn't leave me be until I hit them back(like that guy in gym class) there were a few kids who picked on me that eventually ignored me after awhile, like some girls on the bus home, one girl in particular liked scratching me with her nails really hard and trying to make me cry(didn't work) but the weird part is after a few months I started having friendly chats with her and her friends, we just shook hands and forgot about all the other stuff, it was pretty weird.

It sounds more like that girl finally grew up. Good for her. Either that, or her parents finally gave her the kick in the box that she needed.

Or maybe she had a crush me and just had a really strange way of showing it.

I agree with the poster who said that the film probably should have explored the reasons behind bullying in the film, but I haven't seen it yet, so I'll save my judgement until then. Has anyone considered that simply being forced to attend school, studying things you're not interested in with people you don't want to be friends with in the first place may contribute to bullying? I mean, at the end of the day, doesn't compulsory schooling bare similarities to being in prison?

Thankfully, I haven't been bullied too much in my life. I was kind of an outcast in middle school, but in hindsight I think I did come off as genuinely weird, so it's understandable. No bullying in high school, minus one time I was robbed while I was by myself in an empty room. I regret not beating the guy's ass, because I think I could have, but at the time I convinced myself that starting a fight would only lead to escalation.

I was a pretty weird kid in high school too, and I might've unintentionally picked on a few other kids, but I never did anything truly mean-spirited or tried to start a fight for no reason.

I never endured any sustained bullying; a few times here and there.

I remember a couple of times in Elementary/Middle school (Grades 1-8) I actually did or said something bad to someone else, enough to humiliate them or make them cry. I wouldn't call it bullying, technically. Still - I am ashamed of those things.

Most of my childhood is a blur, yet I remember those moments clearly.

Okay, being married to a sociology professor and therefore having been uh, lectured to on this topic quite a bit (usually in the form of "I can't believe my students don't understand..."), allow me to chime in. First, where did you get that statistic from about premeditated school shooters being likely to have been bullied, and would you care to provide a link? According to my partner, school shooters are approximately as likely to be bullies as they are to have been bullied. In fact in the past 20 years, there have been a total of 23 school shootings, which is an awful small sample size to work with in a case like this. A larger number to work with might provide greater insight, but I think in this case, the overall goal would be to keep the total numbers down, yes?

In any case, considering the make up of the teenagers who engage in school shootings, there is nothing about them that does not also apply to millions of other teenagers. Divorce, having been bullied, being the bully, consuming violent media/video games, are the sorts of experiences that most teenagers go through.

If there is a trend it's this, most occur in suburban/rural areas, with a high degree of social conservatism. That is in areas with easier access to guns and where students with issues would less likely to be able to receive help with the sorts of social issues and mental problems that typically plague teenagers. Not to mention a higher stigmatization would be attached with seeing a counsellor/therapist or simply being different in some manor.

And getting a little off topic, but there has also been little to no increase in school shootings, (insofar as the past 20 years is concerned) merely growing public awareness. Probably, this was due to Columbine having the most casualties of any school shooting, but also occurred at the same time the 24 hour cable news networks were getting started, thereby increasing the coverage.
-Jeremy

I initially tried to use force to stand up for myself but this just cause my antagonists to come back in greater numbers (haha, Sand People!). Towards the end, at about 16, I tried again but by this point I'd badly underestimated the level of violence that would be used against me, even in a public setting.
I had a few good friends in school but along the way but it was just simple numbers; they had more. Some people I know even began to avoid my company due to the danger it put them in.

There's picking on people and teasing them in a light hearted fashion, then there's just cold calculating maliciousness. Things I could set my watch to on a daily basis included theft of my school books, pens, PE kit etc usually under the nose of a teacher; mild physical assault, like dead arms/legs, being shoved into lockers and in PE classes deliberate fouls etc or in the case of Swimming, attempts at drowning (for real, no kidding here). Also, verbal abuse. This was the most common thing and was no less harsh, which included comments on my weight and size, the way I always had a shaved head (this led to Holocaust jokes), the fact my family was Scottish. I even had suggestions made to me that I should just hang myself and make everyone happy.

There were several more isolated incidents that I can't be bothered to type here about really but in short, classrooms where there were objects that could inflict pain, were used as such when the chance arose. Including an acetylene torch...

Somebody mentioned being married to a Sociology professor - care to make some views?

You can start with this U.S. Secret Service document (go to page 30 [marked page 21]). Also, look at some of the high-profile cases: Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech), Dylan Klebold (Columbine), Eric Harris (Columbine), and Jeff Weiss (Red Lake)- every single one of them was confirmed to have suffered bullying in school by other people.


I never said that bullying is the only factor, and neither does the Secret Service document I cited. There are plenty of other reasons, including mental illness.


Welcome to America? I'm not sure what you're saying here that could be called "earth shattering".


Virginia Tech beat Columbine in terms of body count by more than double.

Thanks.





The problem is that people assume that bullying is predictive or overly important as a factor in what causes people to snap. Millions of teenagers are bullied, only a very small number actually end up inflicting violent revenge on their classmates.

You are also ignoring the fact that school shooters have been documented to have been the bullies as well.

Granted, the small numbers to work with make it hard, but allow me to reiterate the average make up of a school shooter (in terms of things like having been bullied, been the bully, not having endured bullying at all, having divorced parents, consumption of violent media, etc.) is not terribly far removed statistically from the "average" teenager. At least not to the degree that a meaningful conclusion could be drawn.

Also, consider this. Bread is Dangerous!





Earthshattering? Not to a sociologist. But it's not a factor that the media usually brings up. Except perhaps in the context of "in a quiet little hamlet, where everybody knows everybody and therefore is the last place you would expect something like this to happen". Which is actually really ironic, come to think of it.





Whoops should have included "up until that point." My bad.

Perhaps it's a good thing that firearms are not that prevalent in the U.K., at least not to the degree that they are in the U.S. And I say that in terms of the people who liked to gang up on you, because in your shoes, I'd be tempted to shoot them all.


Again, good thing that guns aren't that easy to get in the U.K. I'm not sure how long I could have gone before planning a mass murder rampage on those bullies.

After weeks of controversy surrounding its initial decision, MPAA has lowered the rating for Lee Hirsch's doc "Bully" from an "R" to a "PG-13," The Weinstein Company has announced. The decision came after three uses of the "f-word" were removed from the film. However, the scene that has been at the forefront of the battle with the MPAA, the intense scene in the film that shows teen Alex Libby being bullied and harassed on a bus, has been left fully intact and unedited. The MPAA is also allowing the film to be released with the new rating before 90 days, which is the length of time their policy states a film must wait to be in theaters after a rating change to avoid confusion or inconvenience for moviegoers. Thus, "Bully" will expand to 55 markets on April 13th with its new rating. It had opened this past weekend in New York »

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni25737901/

Got back a little while ago from seeing this. Had to go about 20 minutes from home to do so. But it was worth it.

Bully is well-made and well-done and harrowingly effective. Harrowing enough that it's likely to join The Grey Zone and Beloved on a list of excellent movies one cannot watch more than once.

This film confirms something I've come to suspect over the past several years: that schools tend to look the other way when it comes to bullying. Their attitude seems to fall into the category of: Hey they need to get used to it now so they can deal with it later.