Finding Safe Spaces In A Variety Of Places

            The invention of the internet was a major breakthrough. Whether it is beneficial or detrimental differs amongst its users. People are not only taunted and teased in person, but on the internet as well now. One kid, Jonah Mowry, decided to use the internet in a more positive way and finally speak out against his long struggle with being bullied. In a recent article by Susan James (2011), she talks about Jonah and a YouTube video he posted. In this YouTube video, he does not speak using words, but by using note cards. The note cards reveal how he has been bullied since first grade for being homosexual resulting in him cutting himself and contemplating suicide. The video ends with him refusing to let this taunting affect him anymore and how he has become stronger from it. In this blog post, I elaborate on gender-based bullying using Theo Van Der Meer’s article (2003), “Gay bashing- a rite of passage?.” I further mention gender-based bullying and a  possible solution with Nan Stein’s article (2007), “Bullying, Harassment and Violence Among Students,” which suggests a way to help create a safer space.
             Bullying is not only an issue that affects younger kids, but one that affects older kids and adults as well. Van Der Meer’s article discusses the appalling phenomena called gay bashing. These “gay bashers” are “young men who operate in groups, sometimes at gay cruising sites or near gay bars,” (Van Der Meer, 2003, 56) where they would find gay men and severely beat them. They beat them because they were afraid of the gay men being attracted to them and they believed by beating them they were helping out society. Gay bashing was used as rite of passage for these men into masculinity (Van Der Meer, 2003, 59). In Jonah’s situation, kids his age may use bullying as a way to be accepted at school. If you help bully then everyone will accept you, and the gay kid seems to be the easiest target. It is hard to fit in at school so kids will do anything they can to gain their peers’ approval. In Van Der Meer’s article many of the gay bashers were foreigners so just like it is hard to be accepted at school, it is hard to be accepted in a new country. The foreigners harass a group commonly discriminated to help feel accepted into their new country’s culture (Van Der Meer, 2003, 61).
             Despite, many attempts to try to end bullying, especially in the school system, not much attention has been paid to gender-based bullying. Stein’s article, touches on this lack of attention to gender-based bullying within the school system and poses a possible solution. She comes up with a term called zero indifference. Zero indifference means that when encountered with gender-based bullying school officials should “notice the behaviors, comment on them, intervene, and make corrections accordingly (Stein, 2007, 50).” To successfully enact this program, there would have to be many necessary measures such as: instituting classroom education, training staff, and when faced with a situation involving the children’s parents (Stein, 2007, 51). Maybe if a zero indifference program were carried out at Jonah’s school he would not have been bullied since the first grade. The school would have been made into a safe space where homosexual students would not have to dread going to in fear of being harassed.
             Safe spaces should not only be available within the school system but everywhere. By Jonah speaking out through his YouTube video he created a safe space within himself as a state of mind by saying bullying made him stronger and refusing to let it bring him down like it has for so long. In addition, he creates safe space for others being bullied by spreading his positivity across the internet through speaking out and showing them they are not alone. Many people have also provided him with a safe space by showing they are here for him, such as Perez Hilton and Ricky Martin, as well as a Facebook page dedicated to his cause (James, 2011). Bullying, especially gender-based bullying, is a serious issue. People’s lives are negatively affected by others such as the gay-bashers in Van Der Meer’s article. This bullying can be extremely injurious and even result in suicide. If a safe space can be created of any kind it may save a life or two. 


Bibliography

James, Susan D. "Gay Teen Jonah Mowry Says Bullying Made Him Stronger." Abcnews. 5 Dec. 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/12/05/gay-teen-jonah-mowry-says-bullying-made-him-stronger/>.

Van Der Meer, Theo. "Gay Bashing: A Right of Passage?” in Culture, Health, and Sexuality, Vol. 5 No. 2 pp 153-165. 2003.

Stein, Nan. "Bullying, Harassment and Violence Among Students" in The Radical Teacher, No. 80 “Teaching Beyond Tolerance” Winter 2007 30-35.


Link to Jonah Mowry article: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/12/05/gay-teen-jonah-mowry-says-bullying-made-him-stronger/