Tuesday, May 21, 2013

A Jumpsuit as Punishment?

Another entry in the journal of public shaming: punishing a bully with...a bad wardrobe?

This punishment was in response to perceived bullying about a classmate's choice of clothing.
Pros: The clothing that Judgmental Girl was forced to wear was ugly, but not provocative, restrictive, or hazardous;  JG claims to have learned from the punishment and supposedly now understands how she made her classmate feel.

Cons: JG was critical of another student, but I'm not sure her comments qualify as bullying (the article states that the situation had been going on for 3 weeks, but only one comment was mentioned); even though she claimed to have learned her lesson, she made similar comments to another classmate after serving her punishment.

Of course, the psychologists jump in and say that a better option would have been to sit down with the alleged bully and try to understand why she made the disparaging comments, and to encourage communication between the bully and the victim so that the bully can hear the victim's side of the story. What happened to "an eye for an eye" or "giving her a taste of her own medicine" or letting "the punishment fit the crime"? I'm not trying to lessen the importance of communication, but, honestly, whether the term "bullying" is applicable or not, Judgmental Girl made her classmate feel like crap. She found out what that feels like.


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