“She deserves better” : a feminist exploration of gendered bullying

Abstract

Bullying is repeated behaviour that occurs over time in a relationship characterized by an imbalance of strength and power. Gendered bullying refers to the gendered power structures that benefit heteronormative youth (Shute, Owens, and Slee 477). The research questions I am interested in exploring are: What is the relationship between bullying and hegemonic idea(l)s of masculinity and femininity? How does being bullied by boys affect girls’ sense of self and their relationships with others, in both the short and long term? I investigate these questions using feminist theories and in-depth interviewing of four women who self-identified as being bullied by boys in middle and senior high school. Results suggest that bullying took the form of gendered policing as a way to maintain the boundary between “abject” and “normal” gender identities, and the short and long-term effects on participants were low self-esteem and difficulties in social interactions. I argue that when boys bully girls, they are frequently engaging in gender policing, and are punishing girls for not conforming to a sexist, neoliberal idea of girlhood. Gendered bullying could be labelled as sexism, thus conceptualizing it as a societal, not an interpersonal, problem.