5 ms·

You did weightlifting? So you were a pretty big kid? That, probably more than anything else, helped you to not be bullied.

James_Duval 13y ago
I was a tall, strong, athletic teenager and I was certainly bullied. This is partly why I'm concerned about the strong vs weak/natural order talk going on here. I don't think it's that simple.
- gradstudent 13y ago
  I'm not trying to make a point involving absolutes but I noticed, among my peer group anyway, that size and fitness is inversely proportional with the amount of attention a kid receives from bullies. Certainly there can be other factors -- I think bullying is primarily the result of social ostracism, which can have many causes -- but it's much easier to pick on people you do not perceive as a serious threat.
VLM 13y ago
Not huge, big for a non-athlete, kinda on the wimpy scale of athletes, at least until after .mil. More like basic training prep, which was physically pretty easy after proper preparation (other than the sleep deprivation). Not unusual at all for the biggest bully to be kinda wimpy compared to even an average kid, I think there's a bit of a compensation reaction. I will admit the "helped not be bullied" bit IS true solely WRT my point of diversity although I think you have the reaction mechanism wrong. I did not hang out with the football players much but we did commiserate about leg days (everyone hates leg days, lets just say the soreness the day after is probably the most painful thing anyone intentionally does as an inherent part of any sport) and I did not hang out with the mountain biker kids but we could talk about favorite trails and stuff. I don't think it matters that I was big-ish, even as a scrawny little long distance runner I could have at least talked with track and field kids about blisters or something even if I never joined the track and field team. The point being that it gave me the diversity to communicate with kids other than my classmates who took calculus and "intro to o-chem" their senior year. In retrospect, solely looking at bullying oriented outcome it probably is a heck of a lot easier to listen to some heavy metal than to doing squats in the weight room, for the identical quantity "X" of not being bullied, if that makes any sense. The other problem with weightlifting is it leads to ... enhanced caloric intake, which becomes a problem later on in life if you drift away from lifting but continue to eat entire roasted (small) chickens in one sitting, for example. I'm still kinda fat even now.

James_Duval 13y ago

I was a tall, strong, athletic teenager and I was certainly bullied. This is partly why I'm concerned about the strong vs weak/natural order talk going on here. I don't think it's that simple.

gradstudent 13y ago
I'm not trying to make a point involving absolutes but I noticed, among my peer group anyway, that size and fitness is inversely proportional with the amount of attention a kid receives from bullies. Certainly there can be other factors -- I think bullying is primarily the result of social ostracism, which can have many causes -- but it's much easier to pick on people you do not perceive as a serious threat.

VLM 13y ago

Not huge, big for a non-athlete, kinda on the wimpy scale of athletes, at least until after .mil. More like basic training prep, which was physically pretty easy after proper preparation (other than the sleep deprivation). Not unusual at all for the biggest bully to be kinda wimpy compared to even an average kid, I think there's a bit of a compensation reaction. I will admit the "helped not be bullied" bit IS true solely WRT my point of diversity although I think you have the reaction mechanism wrong. I did not hang out with the football players much but we did commiserate about leg days (everyone hates leg days, lets just say the soreness the day after is probably the most painful thing anyone intentionally does as an inherent part of any sport) and I did not hang out with the mountain biker kids but we could talk about favorite trails and stuff. I don't think it matters that I was big-ish, even as a scrawny little long distance runner I could have at least talked with track and field kids about blisters or something even if I never joined the track and field team. The point being that it gave me the diversity to communicate with kids other than my classmates who took calculus and "intro to o-chem" their senior year. In retrospect, solely looking at bullying oriented outcome it probably is a heck of a lot easier to listen to some heavy metal than to doing squats in the weight room, for the identical quantity "X" of not being bullied, if that makes any sense. The other problem with weightlifting is it leads to ... enhanced caloric intake, which becomes a problem later on in life if you drift away from lifting but continue to eat entire roasted (small) chickens in one sitting, for example. I'm still kinda fat even now.