Monday, June 16, 2014

Mean Girls-Why Can’t We All Get Along?

Why are so many girls mean to one another? This question really baffles me but it is a question that constantly comes up in my life. I feel like the worst time for this is middle school. Why though? For me at least in elementary school I was friends with everyone and everyone was nice to one another, the minute I hit middle school everything had changed. Once middle school begins it seems like everyone forms cliques and you are defined by the type of clothes you wear or how far along you are in your physical development. What happens in that summer between 5th grade to 6th grade to cause this change? I know nothing changed for me but girls were meaner than they were in elementary school.

                The problem with this is girls are beating each other down emotionally and telling each other they are not good enough and this can define a girl’s perception of herself and her self-image. Middle school students range from 12-14 years old, this is a very impressionable time in a kid’s life. At this age kids are just starting to discover who they are and what type of person they want to be, however this is destroyed when girls are mean to one another. Today is even worse with developing technology and this bullying goes beyond the four walls of the classroom and literally follows a person home.  I actually wrote a blog about social media and how it is a danger to us if it is used incorrectly. As girls we have so many things to worry about so it seems strange that we would want to hurt another person and destroy their self-esteem. It is not only kids who do this, even in adult life this phenomenon is occurring. It is time to stop this and work together to make the world a better place that is free of bullying and intentional animosity to others. I hope that as the years go on girls and women can learn to work together and actually build each other up instead of being mean girls and hurting one another

                Have you ever been the victim of mean girls? Or were you a mean girl yourself? If you were a mean girl what was your driving factors. I would love to hear about any experiences!     

4 comments:

  1. There is a movie out called Bully and it really highlights this issue - with girls and boys. It is so sad! And you're right - social media has made bullying even worse. Before, you saw the consequences of bullying… if you hurt someone's feelings you saw them cry and that usually made you feel bad and prevented it from happening again. You learned a lesson. But now, people can bully from behind a computer screen and they don't see any negative effects they just get a power high. It's awful. I'm scared for Brielle with this too - I hope she isn't a mean girl or sees the impact of mean girls...

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    1. I would love to see that movie! I am glad you brought up the point about boys also getting bullied, for this blog post I focused on the girls but the boys get it just as bad as the girls. Our society teaches boys that they need to be tough and they keep their feelings inside which eats at them and can damage their self image. I completely agree with you, as a kid I was the one who was a friend to everyone so when someone got hurt emotionally I was hurt myself because someone hurt my friend. It is so sad all of the cyber bullying that is occurring today, I experienced the beginning of it when I was younger but now it is horrible. I am totally on the same page as you, I think Brielle will be a wonderful girl. With great parents like you and Chris she will have two living examples of how to act and how to be a nice girl! :)

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  2. Seriously!!!! Mean girls bother me so much!!!

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    1. Yes !!! I honestly don't understand why some people go out of their way to hurt others. It is very sad, I just hope that we can create a culture that empowers one another instead of beating each other down. I can dream! Hopefully though kindness and determination we can make it happen!

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