Bully - The Movie

[Scuba]

Originally Posted by aishah

i can't wait to see it! i only heard about it recently because a friend was mentioning that they excluded the fact that tyler long was on the autism spectrum from the movie. i thought that was interesting but other than that i haven't heard much about the film, so i just went to look at the website now i'm very excited to see it.

i was bullied in school and i'm working on a project for youth who are queer and/or disabled who are responding to bullying and other forms of violence. one of the attitudes i've run up against a lot is that bullying is just "kids being kids" and that stopping it isn't important, we just need to teach kids to deal with it and get over it. i find that really troubling - that there is this belief that physical and emotional violence is okay or, like, a rite of passage.

I find this extremely troubling too. As the spectrum of diversity becomes more visible (physically, mentally, socioeconomically challenged kids, gay youth, ethnic youth) in our communities and schools more attention needs to be paid to kids and their peer groups. Parents need to be aware of "indicators" of bullying. This is hard to accomplish when a community of adults is fearful of their own reputations should they take a stand against bullying. Taking a stand means that human beings, gay, straight, rich, poor, minorities, physically challenged or mentally challenged have a right to be treated with respect. That's a big leap for many, especially when it comes to gay and ethnic youth.

I was bullied in school for two reasons; socioeconomic class (I was middle class amongst the wealthy) and because I was gay (I looked like a tomboy).

Come back and post your thoughts after you have seen the movie. I'm incredibly excited and hope to actually see the original R rated version one of these days.