This "stand up to the bully" thing is an easy way to blame the victim. Usually it's not one person against one person... It's a gang of people. Secondly, bullies usually go after the weakest person they can find. Someone smaller, and weaker. When taunted into fighting a bully I ended up with a black eye and busted nose.. But worse, he knew he could beat the crap out of me since I didn't know the first thing about fighting, especially fighting someone fitter and stronger than I. Thing was that Ron knew not to throw the first punch because that was always the first question the teacher would ask, so as long as I didn't start the fight I would not get the crap beat out of me. But that left him with free reign to call me lardass, take my lunch and step on it saying "you don't need to eat that", or grab my hat and toss it down the corridor say "I'm doing you a favour... Making you get some exercise". He was HOPING I would throw a bunch because then he could break my nose again and say it was self-defence.
I think the whole "bullied kids need to stand up for themselves" is blaming the victim. There are kids who just don't have the physical prowess to defend themselves.
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