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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
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Created: September 16, 2002
Latest Update: September 16, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Bullying and Solidarity

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, September 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

1. Issues for Discussion

   • Women and Society: The need and opportunity for various types of solidarity for females as compared to males.

   • Sociology of Law: The effect of social change on the definitions and handling of crime and corrections and Others.

   • Re-Interpreting Theory: The need for recognition of harm done when solidarity betrayed. Role of trust in social organization, and kinds of social organizational structures that grow up around different levels of trust.

   • Moot court and Social Justice: The effect of different types of solidarity on social justice. The meaning of norms of answerability.

2. Preparatory readings for module.

   • Bullying the Sisterhood
   • Sisterhood: What Does It Really Mean?
   • Race-ing Greek Life

3. Discussion questions.These are very complex questions. And most really have no clear-cut answers. They are designed to make you think about real issues.

   1. Why does one of the authors cited say that bullying is like sorority hazing? What details do you think she was drawing on to create that metaphor? (theory, wom in soc.)

      Consdier the extent of violence involved in hazing. It does result in tragedies, but how often? Consider how bullies operate? Humiliation, teasing, name calling, arrogance, disdain, advantages (lunch money or minor possessions - balls, calculators, whatever) wrested from the target. Think of the expression that "girls are cattty." Do they lions and tigers, or alley cats, or sweet kittens in mind? Does the harm from hazing and bullying come from the magnitude of the force used, or from the small but lasting slights one experiences.

   2. Hazing is at most a misdemeanor in many states. Why doesn't it cause more interest in criminal law? (crim, law, moot court)

      Consider such simple things as job descriptions and the unstated assumptions that are inherent within them. What does the criminal law assume about inmates? What does the criminal law assume about corrections officers? How do those assumptions affect such activities as hazing.

   3. What's wrong with the interpretation that "hazing" is "just paying your dues?" (law, moot court, corr)

      Consider that we are highly competitive nation with the great myth of the frontier to guide us. Consider that in any hierarchical society the one on top must fight off all the potential competitors to get to the top. Then consider that the one or (ones) that eventually win may be best at aggressive and motivated comptition (think of Pres. Bush), and not necessarily best or even very good at other skills that are absolutely essential to the successful management of the entity over which the hierarchy rules.

      Does something like hazing happen in prison? How does the "just paying your dues" principle apply in that setting?

      How is the new inmate socialized into prison life? Since prison life is formed in this culture, and since this culture is hierarchical, and based to a large extent on power for that hierarchy, what does prison socialization take from our general socialization patterns?

   4. Does the fact that you've suffered a crime, say an assault, justify your harming the one who assaulted you? What policy is this based on? (crim, law, moot court)

      Remember that criminal law is founded on the principle of self protection and protection of others (and of property, but not with deadly force). The law does not countenance revenge or retribution. The policy is that only the State, not private persons, may prosecute for retribution. Why do you suppose that revenge is not an acceptable excuse for assaulting another?

   5. How is hazing relating to authenticity of identity? (theory, wom in soc)

      Consider that persuasion theory and cognitive dissonance theory suggest that the more difficult it is to attain admission to a group, the more prized that admission becomes. Consider that we are an advanced capitalist nation very much dependent on advertising to creat needs and wants, and to differentiate between the products on the markets. From which branch of theory does the concept of subjective authenticity come from? and what originally raised the issue? Think of the colonized East and Colonized Africa.

4. Experiential activities related to module.

   1. Think back to the last time you felt really badly about the way someone treated you. Can you explain whether hierarchy and power were involved? Can you distinguish between sovereign and disciplinary power. Based on that definition, can you explain how trust and interpersonal relationships affect the power relationships in the organization in which you felt bad?

      Discuss this with a small group with whom you feel comfortable. Have several of you had similar experiences? Do you think they affected your work, school, or family functioning? Share an oral or written report with all of us.

5. Self-test questions related to module.

   True or False? And explain briefly why it's true or false. (25 words or less)

   1. Most bullying is physcial.
   2. Women are more likely to bully other women than to bully men.
   3. Bullying doesn't do any real harm.
   4. Hazing in fraternity and sorority initiations or Hell week is bullying.
   5. At least in the sorority instance, people who put up with the bullying are doing so by choice.
   6. Since bullying isn't a crime, at least not in most states, it doesn't belong under criminal law.
   7. Crime socially defined. Quinney.
   8. Crime is socially constructed.
   9. Bullying is socially constructed, so that what is acceptable in one culture is not acceptable in another.
   10. Social construction says that something is the way we think it is because we have all agreed to treat it that way.
   11. We could socially construct gravity to equal half its present force. (If you say this is true I'm going to send you to take a physics class.
   12. There really is a real object world out there. (Like, I mean, I really can't walk through that table.)
   13. Hierarchy and dominance are natural forms of social organization.

6. Conceptual linking we had in mind as we prepared the module.

   • Crime socially defined. Quinney. Think of what we mean by "socially defined."
   • Social construction - some things are true if we believe they are true, because we all act as if they are true. "If mena believe situations to be real, they are real in their consequences." W.I. Thomas.
   • Recall that both sovereign power and disciplinary power can be exerted. Then consider whether instances of bullying and hazing involve sovereign power or disciplinary power. See Power Goes to School: Teachers, Students, and Discipline Link checked September 16, 2002.