Pandora’s Box

My, aren't all these bullying posts cathartic? Necessary? Sure.

Michelle Sagara

Seanan McGuire

Jim Hines

Kate Harding

Catherynne Valente

Similarly, a wave of anti-bullying sentiment went around the YA writing community a few months ago. Notable stories surfaced there as well, stories that made my soul ache for the children who underwent the horrible things that happened to them.

But you know the most notable post for me in this recent rash of posts?

Diana Francis stands up to a bully

And I'll talk about that, but first I've got to get to the point where it makes sense, the comments that I make.

***

These posts about bullies are important. They serve to show solidarity and identification, and show that there's a problem out there, and that it hasn't gone away. They point out to young people being bullied (although I'm not sure how many of them are reading our exploits in the blog-o-sphere), that lives can get better, or that there is a tribe for the geeks.

All this has its purpose.

This is the point where I have to talk about myself a little bit. And these days, that makes me uncomfortable.

You have to understand that I am Angry Writer (TM). Not at you. At blaming myself for a wide variety of ills and hurts that were done to me in my early life, and repressing those hurts so I could get on. The mantra, yes, I had a bad past, but I am the poster child for recovery, applies.

The good news is that my counselor thinks my righteous anger is healthy for me. I just had a lot of it stored up, you see, so sometimes it feels like an endless supply.

We'll call this next part of the essay, so you've been bullied and you know what that's like. What happens next?

Don't go under here. There's some self indulgence under here. It goes to a point, but we're in the really dark part of the forest and you may not want to go there.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.