The Goal Behind Anti-Bullying Campaigns

Haley McCurry
English 101
Professor Haviland
16 October 2014
Anti-Bullying Campaigns
Anti-bullying campaigns are presented everywhere from the televisions in homes to assemblies in schools. As a result, thousands of young people all across America are lavished with benevolent ideals as a quick fix to an incomprehensible issue. With society's extreme pressures to end bullying, one would have to wonder: why has bullying not ended? The goal behind anti-bullying campaigns are that those viewing these presentations leave realizing the possible error of their ways, and hopefully become changed people from then on. However, the more I research, the more I understand that bullying is an issue that takes more than social reforms to fix. Granted, there
For example, the “It Gets Better Project” for the LGBT community says “It gets better”, however, there is still bullying found all throughout their lives. Studies show that even though it is not mentioned very often, bullying in adulthood is just as common as bullying found in childhood. In Bullying in Different Contexts, the author thoroughly explains the cause and effects of workplace bullying, although many times it is not as extreme as bullying with youth. Therefore, rather than just expressing how “It gets better” emphasize on how with emotional and mental maturity, it is an issue that can lessen wit age. Even with the emotional impact anti-bullying campaigns are supposed to have on viewers, the emotional impact does not prove to be life changing. “The (anti-bullying) program may be upbeat, stimulating, and thought-provoking, and if the school is lucky, the program may even change students' behavior for the rest of the day. However, students and adults quickly return to their old behaviors and styles of relating” (Kuykendall 134). If there is no consistency of anti-bullying programs, there is likely going to be very little change in the behavior of people. It is also to keep in mind that it is not enough to stress slogans in a campaign if they have no strength of
Although the consequences of bullying is important to be know, however, without teaching viewers how they can handle bullying, it makes these campaigns counter-productive. For example, the “Just Say No” campaign to try to end the use of drugs only told their viewers that they should just say no—with not real method or strategy to actually solve the problem. “The problem is that “just say no” is an overly simplistic suggestion...When people are addicted to drugs, just saying no is insufficient” (Kuykendall 138). Even though anti-bullying campaigns emphasize the emotional aspect of bullying to a certain degree, it does not properly teach viewers how to overcome the emotional struggle that results on bullying. “Victims need time to go through the normal process of grieving. Victims experience multiple losses. They need to grieve the loss of respect, loss of social connections, loss of safety and security, loss of trust, and loss of educational or work opportunities” (Kuykendall 97). As expressed by Kuykendall, moving on from bullying is an emotional process that should not be taken lightly with slogans or hopeful phrases. These slogans may be an easy way to remember a certain campaign, however the lack of depth could potentially result in viewers misunderstanding the main point of how to deal with the emotional