Ženski bullyng

The silence on hidden aggression by girls against girls has finally ended. Now is the time to end the silence on an important topic – writes Rachel Simmons in the introduction to her book “Female Bullying” – the hidden culture of aggression by girls against girls, in which bullying is epidemic, exists and is specific and destructive. This epidemic is not characterized by overt physical and verbal behavior, their aggression is channeled into non-physical, indirect and covert forms. Girls use slander, exclusion, gossip, derogatory nicknames and manipulation to inflict psychological pain on their chosen victims. Girls often carry out attacks in tightly woven networks of friendships, which makes their aggression even harder to identify, and the damage it leaves on the victims is only increased. In this culture of aggression, girls fight with body language and sophisticated relationships, instead of fists or knives. In this world, friendship is a weapon, and the sting of someone’s exclamation pales in comparison to a whole day of someone’s silence. There is no gesture more destructive than turning your back on yourself. In a hidden culture of aggression, anger is rarely articulated, and every day at school can be a new social minefield that reactivates without warning. During periods of conflict, girls will turn on each other with a language and a justice that only they understand. Behind the facade of female intimacy lies a territory traveled in secret: marked by anxiety and fueled by silence.