Whatcha "Mean," Girl?

Always on the search for blog ideas, I sat in the doctor's office this morning and gathered some dust. In reality, my time spent wasn't bad. I was out at about 10:00 from a 9:15 appointment. Sitting in one of the little exam rooms, where you sometimes feel you have been misplaced, I started my way through a pile of "healthy" magazines as I waited. In the Table of Contents of a Disney produced magazine, I think, was an article about bullying, and because "bullying" is high on the list of My 7 Deadly Sins, I decided to read it. When I turned to page 20, I discovered the bullies in the article were girls rather than boys.

So, I read the article. It wasn't long. It also wasn't terribly illuminating, either, but it contained a thought that has troubled me for years. The article suggested that "teenage girl bullies" are artists of manipulation, very capable of causing adults to see them as acolytes of Little Mary Sunshine, while their peers feared them as bullying scourges. I hate to get manipulated almost as much as I hate bullying. What has troubled me for a long time is just how often, over the years I taught, did I get manipulated into believing that a snotty spirited girl was a sweet natured kid.

Boy bullies are generally up front and clumsy about it. They're awful and rough and wedgie-driven. A couple of them, who I, in retrospect, think might have been steroid-driven, were dangerous. Certainly, most didn't try to manipulate anyone into thinking they were goody-two shoes. Suggesting such a thing would have been worth a couple noogies.

Girl bullies, I guess, are secretive and sly and even more effective as a result. People don't wish to believe it. After all the word "bully" has a masculine origin. I'm also not sure who is better at not ratting out the bullies, boys or girls. There is an effective code of silence for both sexes.

I'm almost done with this minor ramble, this examination of appearance vs. reality. Since retiring, I've talked to a bunch of young people after they graduated, and found out about some of the GAP and Abercrombie-uniformed bullies I missed over the years. I'm sure I missed a bunch starting way back in 1969. I'm mad about being manipulated. Sorry for being dumb.