At one point or another, bullying became a normalized way of life for far too many people. Bullying others has consumed and even destroyed lives as well. Bullying can come in a variety of forms that society does not perceive, especially in adolescents. 

Unrealistic examples of bullying shown in movies and television shows such as “Heathers”, “Glee”, “Pretty Little Liars”, “The O.C” for example, demonstrate unrealistic examples of bullying because of the lack of adult supervision or discipline from parents, teachers, or principals. Movies and television also show more goofy sides to most scenes and sometimes dialogue for comic relief to draw viewers in and keep the show alive depending on the genre. Although unrealistic qualities pop up in shows and movies, portions of storylines and characters portray as realistic and touching to viewers, especially if the viewers relate to a storyline or feel a personal connection to one or more characters.

“I definitely relate to Ginny from ‘Ginny and Georgia’ because I related to some of her family issues and her relationship with her mom. I feel as though the writing of the show realistically portrayed a non-standard relationship with a parent,” freshman Katie Divis said.

In a school environment, bullying frequently occurs, but not in ways that society expects it to. Everyone knows physical bullying exists as a prominent type of bullying. This occurs less in schools now because of adult supervision and school rules, but teachers and administrators can not control bullying in conversation unless told by someone, which could truly come off as emotional abuse. Verbal bullying in conversation occurs so frequently that it has become normalized as just hard and harsh insults. However, one effective insult could trigger someone and they could snap and change their life forever. 

Unfortunately, the majority of people who bully others do not even realize it. People may not realize this because of how casual a conversation seems or how the conversation does not seem like a problem.

“In my case the majority are men. They don’t think before they speak and end up hurting people without realizing it by saying things that they know are offensive. It’s like they think that because someone shared something with them, they can casually bring it up whenever they want,” Divis said. 

People need to realize what qualifies as bullying and need to accommodate what they say to certain people. Bullying could happen to anyone and no one would realize it because the bullying cannot easily be noticed or may be seen as a casualty, since bullying portrayed in most films is not accurately represented and not recognized in the eyes of adults. Parents, teachers–anyone who works with kids– should try to recognize the situations going on with someone in their life, and should not fake support for anyone.