MidBrain’s Musings:
I’m not quite sure what to do with this information, but ScienceDaily reports that high school aged girls who view themselves as attractive are 35% more likely to be socially victimized. This includes everything from being the object of gossip to being physically threatened by bullies. Strangely enough, boys in the same age group reported the opposite result – if they considered themselves to be attractive they were 25% less likely to be picked on.
The research was done at the University of Alberta, Canada based on an anonymous questionnaire filled about by 2,300 students aged 12 to 18. The information gleaned in this study, which is published in the journal Aggressive Behavior, could be used to raise awareness about social victimization among teens. I’m particularly curious to see if the researchers saw any correlation with students who are heavy users of makeup or other cosmetics. And if cosmetics do make a difference, which ones are more likely to get you into trouble. Laura Mercier eyeshadow? MAC lipstick? Or dying your hair blonde with Manic Panic? Hmmmm, maybe some of items on the Mean Girl Carousel below can shed some light on the subject.
What do YOU think? Is this groundbreaking research or no big surprise? Leave a comment and share your high school stories with the rest of Beauty Brains community.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
How strange! I’d have definitely imagined it the other way around – when I was growing up, the girls who were pretty and knew it were the ones in charge. We hated them the most, too, of course, but we’d never have dared to challenge them since they were aces at making us feel lousy about ourselves. Of course, it’s been a while since I was in school … Maybe the self-conscious gals are finally rising up against Tha’ Girl?
If I had to pick a cosmetic item that would inspire me to bully someone, I’d go with white eyeliner. Unless it were Urban Decay. That, I can forgive.
So girls who view themselves as attractive are 35% more likely to view themselves socially victimized? Because surely it’s unfair and bullyish to not like a girl who thinks she is pretty, while it is just natural to shut out one that is ugly.
I’d really like to know how they checked if the girls had been “socially victimized” or not, but as with most of these science stories, the details are nowhere to be found.
BeautyBrains is a wonderful exception to this rule.
Doesn’t surprise me at all. Boys resent girls who have something they want and, in their view, won’t cough it up. It doesn’t stop when they grow up, either. Women are no better — everybody can and does make themselves feel better by picking on the one b*tch they all hate and bonding over it.
Although I’m sure that tons of women would sooner die than admit this or listen to it. When it doesn’t fit their preconceptions, they’ll shut the data out.
In recent years, (since the Columbine High School tragedy),it seems that school personnel have been directing bullying-prevention efforts toward identifying the outcasts, such as Goths, as the victims. The author of this study says that her research indicates that adults should be aware that the pretty popular girls
might also be being harmed by bullying.
As to makeup and bullying, I would think that a girl who uses makeup to look different from the norm, such as Goth-style makeup,could be bullied for it.
Back in my high school years, the seventies, we didn’t wear very much makeup, and a girl who wore lots of makeup could have been stereotyped as a “slut” and bullied for it. She also could have been viewed as someone who was trying to attract boys away from the other girls, or stealing their boyfriend.
I think that there also might have been racist prejudice, in my rural, mostly-white school, associated with wearing lot of makeup, because girls who were hispanic or black tended to wear more makeup. I always thought their makeup usage was normal for their culture, as well as for urban girls.
It’s also important to realize that they simply said “attractivE” and not “wears lots of makeup.” Those two things are not the same.
Not at all surprising, however, who do the girls feel does the bullying and what exactly does bullying mean? Female aggression – passive, non-aggressive for the most part – is most often completely overlooked. Could it be the girls who consider themselves attractive are more concerned about other girls? Even other attractive girls? What research that has been done on female aggression suggests that. However, with that said, males certainly put more sexual pressure on attractive girls but again – what does bullying mean?
The study is based on the perception of bullying by the students themselves. It is possible that girls who think they are attractive also have a higher standard of how they think they should be treated. Therefore, they feel slighted when normal teasing and joking that most people would not regard as bullying are directed towards them.
Girls that think they are attractive usually have an attitude to match it. They are used to the attention from boys and can’t understand why other girls would resent them. Not all of them are that way of course. It used to be that those girls picked on the rest of us.
Now girls that used to be teased know how to stand up for themselves and can shove the teasing right back. Then the attractive girls feel victimized and can’t handle the teasing because they were used to being the bullies. What comes around goes around. it doesn’t make it right, but that’s how it is.
On the other hand, those that feel they are attractive can sense the resentment from those that feel they aren’t. Making friends or having attention from boys could be perceived as “are you being my friend because I’m beautiful or because you like me for me?”