Thursday, November 10, 2016

Bullying & Heteronormativity, Correlation?

Bullying is known to be an ongoing problem within both the education system and social media. The internet has lead to a rise in bullying as well as the creation in new ways to humiliate others. The socially created norms that society holds onto continue to persists, especially in bullying. While examining the link between bullying and the societal norms of masculinity. I came across an article from The Huffington Post on Facebook. The article analyzes research from their 4th Annual Bullying Survey in 2016 through the use of twitter and analysis of the people on twitter.
The first claim in their research is that, "those who identify as being male or who have grown up in a male-dominated household were more likely to bully than those who identify as female or have greater female influences at home." The second and even more intriguing claim is that, "masculinity continues to be heteronormative; actively discriminating against young men who do not identify as being straight. Homophobia was mentioned in 9% of conversations revolving around fragile masculinity and homosexuality was often used in a negative, non-literal sense to criticize behavior seen as non-conformist." The article points out that males who are "less macho" or do not conform to the "macho stereotype" were more supportive towards others. 


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