Can a girl be a bully?
By Alison Molea-LaVigne There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead When she was good she was very, very good and when she was bad she was horrid… Bullying, or aggression, comes in many shapes and sizes and the non-physical type can hurt a person even more than being punched or slapped. Girls use social relationships as a weapon for harming one another, and most often the motivation comes from feeling dismissed or ignored. This type of bullying is called relational aggression. Signs of bullying, by age Although there is a multitude of ways this weapon is used, some of the more common tactics with elementary school-aged girls include: • Excluding or ignoring someone when angry (giving the “silent treatment”) • Telling peers not to play with someone • Not inviting certain peers to a birthday party and then talking about it in front of them • Name calling/critiques of body, hair and clothes Cliques come into play starting at the middle school level.
