Stand Up

Bullying in our school systems is an abominable problem that is plaguing the lives of many teens in todays’ society. Children all across the world are facing the devastating effects of bullying because they do not fit the way that our media portrays “normal” people. Kids who are bullied tend to be different whether it be how they dress, how they act, their sexual orientation, or any number of things that will have them labeled as an outcast. While this problem is causing widespread chaos people are beginning to take a stand. Advocates against bullying are using anecdotes, assertions, tone, and many more rhetorical techniques to fight the problem through a variety of texts such as documentaries, social media, and traditional articles.  

Bullying only persists because we allow it to. While media is the cause of the problem, we must also use it as the solution. We can all play a role in the eradication of bullying by taking a stand against it. By just standing by and watching we are playing the role of enablers and making bullies feel as though what they are doing has no consequences. Through many different texts, authors are using anti-bullying rhetoric to call people to action. Anecdotes that depict true events are the most effective rhetorical technique used to fight bullying because they provide evidence of the problem as well as appeal to audiences’ emotions. The most effective source is a documentary directed by Lee Hirsch called Bully because it gives true stories of kids who have suffered through being bullied in an emotional and effective way with a diversity that most can relate too. It portrays the stereotypical reasons that a kid is bullied such as being gay, ugly, stupid, or weird which also help it to have very good credibility. The combination of all these aspects is what truly makes Bully the best rhetorical source with its’ anecdotes being the strongest technique. 

The strongest of the rhetorical techniques, anecdotes, are stories used by the authors to appeal to the audiences’ emotions as well as to increase their credibility. The Youtube video “Stand up! - Don’t Stand for Homophobic Bullying” created by BeLonGTo YouthServices tells the story of a teenage boy who is bullied for being seen in public holding hands with his boyfriend. He cannot get away from the bullies and he sees them wherever he goes in his school. This story, while fictional, mirrors the stories of teens all across the world. It appeals to viewers emotions because we can see how trapped the boy is and how he has nowhere to turn. Later in the video the powerful affect one person can have against bullying is shown as a larger kid comes up to the boy in a crowded cafeteria and loudly tells him, “I’ll hold your hand.” The effects of this one kid taking a stand are astronomical as it causes everyone in the cafeteria to stand up and link arms with a member of the same sex making the bullies feel like the outcasts.   This scene inspires all people to want to take a stand because they can see the drastic effect they can have on a kids life.  It also boosts the authors’ authority because we see how this can work in a simulated real life situation. 

While “Stand up! - Don’t Stand for Homophobic Bullying” depicts a hypothetical story, other sources use real events to show the effects of bullying. Bully is a documentary directed by Lee Hirsch which follows five families in their real life struggles with bullying. One boy named Alex is shown in the film repeatedly being called “fish face” and being physically assaulted on his bus ride to school which causes a wide array of emotions in the audience including outrage, grief, pity, and disgust because they can see how cruel bullying really is. It gets to a point where Alex is being tormented so bad that he says, “I’m starting to think I don’t feel anything anymore” when being questioned about how the bullying makes him feel. This will raise concern and urgency with the audience because they will see how threatening it is to the mental stability of young kids. Since the terrible events in Bully are real life events they also establish the authors credibility because they are real evidence that bullying is a serious problem with serious consequences. Kenneth Miller also uses real life stories in his article, “Gay Teens Bullied to the Point of Suicide” which was published in Ladies’ Home Journal. Miller recounts the story of a teenager named Rashad Davis who “realized he was gay and he was terrified that family and friends would reject him.” This is a scenario that is all too common. Bullying can leave many victims stuck between a rock and a hard place. They are getting bullied at school and than when they come home they are afraid to tell their parents because they do not want to disappoint them. This is also apparent in Bully where Alex is afraid to tell his parents about the bullies because he never sees his dad emotional and he wants to be more like him. Alex tells his parents that the bullies are “just messing around” so he does not feel like he is letting his dad down. Seeing both of these anecdotes can drastically affect how parents deal with their kids because they will logically see why they should accept and support their kids no matter what paths they take in life. 

Through these anecdotes, authors are trying to assert different points in which the audience can logically agree with. They might not come out and say what they are trying to assert but it may be subtle or hidden in the text. Miller comes right out with his assertions and demands that parents and the community take a stand against bullying. Miller uses examples such as Rashad Davis telling his mother, “I don’t care if anybody else accepts me as long as you do” to show the audience what drastic affect parents can have on how their kids feel about themselves. Miller says a “clear pattern” has been found that, “The more supportive the parent and family, the better kids do over the long run” which logically appeals to the audience because anything is easier with the support of caring people such as family. This story also helps to back up the credibility of Millers’ assertion because it is an example of his assertion being effective in real life. Miller also calls for “schools to adopt anti-bullying policies” which is also logical because parents want to be able to feel like their kids are safe when they take them to school. It is also logical because as Miller says, “if bullying goes on, it creates a chaotic environment where no one can learn.” Through making all these logical points which most can agree on Miller is making a very strong and demanding case for his assertion. 

Bully, on the other hand, has an assertion that is a little more subtle than Millers’. Through examples in the film, Bully is asserting that figures who are in authority are not doing enough to prevent bullying. One scene shows Alex’s parents going to a meeting with the assistant principle at his school to discuss Alex being bullied on the bus. Although relentless, bullying is clearly seen earlier in the film the assistant principle tells the parents that she has ridden that very same bus before and the students on it are as “good as gold.” This causes audience to question if authority figures are oblivious to what is going on and establishes the credibility of the directors’ assertion because it is clear they are not doing enough to prevent bullying. Later in the meeting the assistant principle does tell them that she will look into it but when leaving the meeting Alex’s mom says, “that’s what she said last fall” which shows that obviously the authority figures are not doing nearly enough to prevent bullying . The same assistant principle is seen in a different scene trying to solve a conflict between two boys by making them “shake hands.” She claims by not shaking hands he is just like the bully to which he responds “like someone who pushes you into walls, threatens to break your arm, threatens to stab you” which is a ridiculous way of handling bullying because it is logical to see that she is doing nothing to make the problem go away (Bully). It is also a huge emotional appeal because the audience will be shocked at the idiotic way she goes about treating the problem like it is no big deal. She responds to his claims of being terrorized by saying, “he apologized” which will also cause the audience to go into an uproar because logically any claims such as the one he made should be taken very seriously but she blows it off as kids being kids. 

Although it asserts the same thing, “Stand up - Don’t Stand for Homophobic Bullying” takes it a little bit further. It subtly shows that authority figures are not doing enough to prevent bullying by having a school setting with not one authority figure being present in the whole clip. This leads the audience to question where the teachers and staff are when the kids need them the most. To take it further this video asserts that other kids must be the ones who stand up to bullying and prevent it. By showing us the chain effect that one kid standing up against bullying had on all the kids around him, the author shows the logical effects of positive peer pressure to inspire others to do the same for their peers. He is asserting that one person can make a stand just like in Bully when Kelby, a teenage Lesbian living in a small town, tries to make a change in the ideology of a whole town. Despite her terrible abuse of being told by her teacher that they “burn fags” and receiving a note in her locker saying, “faggots aren’t welcome here,” she still had the courage to say she wanted to be the individual who makes a change (Bully). This emotionally appealing story will also help back up the videos’ assertion because the same claim is made in a separate text. 

Along with anecdotes and assertions, authors also use tone to instill emotions onto an audience that will help their message come across the way it is intended to. While analyzing the texts, clearly the most effective use of tone is when the tone shifts gears somewhere in the article from sad and depressing to hopeful and inspiring. In Millers’ article he starts off by listing off teens who have committed suicide because the bullying they were receiving at school was sending them the message that, “if you’re gay or thought to be gay, life just isn’t worth living.” This lulls readers into a depressed state which makes them vulnerable to his call to action later in the article. Once he has achieved saddening the audience he lays out his zero-tolerance plan. Since it is logical to believe that, “those kids should be in their classrooms, not in caskets”  people now have the inspiration to go out and make a change using Miller’s plan (Miller). Without that seed of depression being placed people would just look at Miller’s plan and ask why they should take action if it does not effect them. 

The same movement of tones is used in both “Stand up - Don’t Stand for Homophobic Bullying” and Bully. In the beginning, Bully kicks us straight in the stomach as it opens with an obviously emotional David Long talking about his son Tyler, who committed suicide because of bullying. As the film goes on we are hit time and time again with heart-wrenching scenes of what bullying can do to individuals and families. One particularly heartbreaking scene is when Ty Smalleys’ young friend, Trey, takes Mr Smalley back to where they used to hangout before Ty committed suicide due to bullying. Trey painstakingly describes how much he misses hunting rabbits and playing in the “secret clubhouse” with Ty. From the saddest point of the movie it then switches gears when Trey tells us he is going to stop bullying if he ever becomes “King of the United States.” This small statement represents a tone of hope and inspiration for the coming generation as we can see they are becoming aware of the problem and desiring to stop it. Coming from Trey, who self-admittedly used to be a bully himself, this also helps to develop his authority because he has seen both sides of the fence. Trey also says that Ty was “the strongest kid I know.” The emotional effect this will have on the audience is huge because it shows that even the strongest kids can fall victim to the cruel effects of bullying. 

  In a similar way to Millers’ article and Bully, “Stand up - Don’t Stand for Homophobic Bullying” starts out by crippling our emotions through saddening scenes such as when the bullies insultingly tell the kid to “give us a kiss” and than inspiring us by showing a resolution to the problem. We can see the boys’ intolerable pain building up through the beginning of the movie as he is bullied everywhere he goes. Once his intolerable suffering is shown through scene after scene of him getting weird looks and being laughed. To call them to action the video shows the impact one kid can have on someones life. The tone comes off here as inspiring. This inspiration will cause the audience to take action and make change because they can see the difference they can make in a persons’ life. Knowing a person may be the difference between someone living or taking their own life will give them loads of incentive to put an end to bullying when they see it instead of being a bystander. 

Acting together, these articles play off each others strengths and weaknesses in a way that unifies them as one whole source. Since Bully only provides examples of the problem, Millers’ article steps in and provides a Zero-Tolerance Plan that people can follow for the prevention of Bullying. They also work together to make each other more credible such as when “Stand up! - Don’t Stand for Homophobic Bullying” shows us that an individual can make and change and in Bully when Kelby says she can be the one to “make a difference.” Another connection is that all the texts use stories that describe different life experiences but for the same purpose which allows them to be relatable to a broader audience. This diversifying of their audiences causes them to be overall more effective at achieving their goals of anti-bullying rhetoric. Connections between characters in each story can also be drawn such as Kelby being bullied for being gay, the boy in the youtube video being bullied for being gay, and Rashad being bullied for being gay. While this builds credibility for the authors because it  results in three sources which can be cross-referenced, it also allows one article to fill holes in the others’ stories such as the parental factor with Rashad, Kelby taking a stand as an individual, and peers influencing the prevention of bullying in the boy in the youtube video. Since this makes the story complete it will allow more people to be inspired by the different texts. They also respond to each other such as when Kelby says she wants to be the individual who makes a change and the youtube video showing the audience how that individual can make a change. These different stories also make each others cases stronger like how Miller asserts that parents need to be the ones who become activists and than Bully strengthens this by having the parents of Tyler Long hold a conference with the school board and other parents to make this change. This also strengthened by Alex’s parents taking action and going into the assistant principles office to make a change for their son.   These stories are very much intertwined in a way that makes them complete which will in effect broaden their audience base and strengthen their cases. 

These intertwining stories show us that bullying is a problem that is plaguing society like a cancer. The only way to prevent it is if we all work together towards a common goal. While one person can make a difference that difference is not big enough to end bullying as a whole. Everyone must realize the very real issue we have facing us and do anything they can to make the change. We must continue producing anti-bullying texts to persuade society to take a stand against this treachery and end it. Bully is a great example of a text that uses the insanely effective technique of real life assertions that new authors can use a The day is on the horizon when men will lay down their arms against what seems to be different and accept all for who they are, humans. 

Works Cited

Bully. Dir. Lee Hirsch. The Weinstein Company, 2012. Film.

Miller, Kenneth. "Gay Teens Bullied to the Point of Suicide." Ladies Home Journal. Meredith Corportation, n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2012.

BeLonGToYouthService. “Stand Up! - Don't Stand for Homophobic Bullying.”YouTube.      YouTube, 01 Apr. 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2012.