Teen Girls Face Charges After Beating Video Shared Online
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has reported on a potential case of cyber-bullying in Beloiel, Quebec . In a modern twist on high-school interactions, two girls took turns beating and mauling a boy in their school parking lot while the other videotaped the confrontation on a cellphone. The boy chose not to fight back. When posted to Facebook, the video got thousands of views.Sgt. Harry Wadup of the Richelieu-St-Laurent municipal police force said the girls are facing charges relating to issuing threats, assault and inciting violence.
While bullying does happen in many settings, and bullying in school is something we have all likely witnessed or experienced, what is the motivation for sharing bullying videos on the internet? What can an understanding of the problem do to help potential bullies not go down the "bullying" road?
For example, the identity of men is derived from a lot of... "tropes", shall I say. For example, office politics is said to be a "men's game", often by men. They will ask a phd student to "man up" and accept loss when his professor steals his work. Often it will be women saying "it is a man's world" when they see shitty country level politics. Thus, you get both men and women referring to politicking as a masculine trait. This is gender bias without a doubt, with 'feminism' being defined as a philosophical difference. "An employee is the boss' bitch and the manager is 'The Man'".
Then we have "sexism" where women are considered poor at maths, lack voting rights because 'they are prone to mood swings and irrational behavior', and until very recently lacked the rights to fight for their country because 'they are physically weaker'. Now, women in general ARE physically weaker, but it cannot be a basis for discrimination because of a lot of men are a lot weaker!
The feminist friend of GP was referring to the first type of discrimination. Look here for a TED talk by Tony Porter about it. It is not about 'expecting more' from both men and women, it is about removing this idea that 'delivering less' is girly (which GP possesses, sorry dude!). It is important to accept that a lot of boys DO get beaten up and that there shouldn't be a shame in getting beaten up by girls, there should be pride in standing up to a bully and shame in being the person who beats. Asking a parent/police to intervene shouldn't be talked about as being 'bitchy' and 'complaining like a girl'. That IS the right form of protest.
If you think about it, the philosophical difference is being called 'feminism' purely because your choice of words. If we didn't call politicking a "man's game", we wouldn't be fighting based on sex but we would be fighting over our collective worker's right.