Following our recent studies about Apartheid in South Africa, we now look into the issues of bullying at school and in cyberspace. Share your ideas that relate to the movie 'Odd Girl Out' and/or the CNN report of 2005 about cyber-bullying. The first video clip below has three scenes from 'Odd Girl Out,' followed by the CNN report.
'Odd Girl Out' (3 scenes from the movie)
A TV News Report about Cyber-Bullying
40 comments:
(This is a comment that Yusuke shared last year.)
Watching 'Odd Girl Out' was not only an 'eye-opener' but also connected to a personal memory because I was bullied while in 3rd grade back in Japan. I can't forget it because it was a frightening experience. Actually, it was one of the most horrible things in my life. This movie showed what high school life is like, so I guess bullying takes place pretty much at any grade in school. The important thing is to think about who is getting bullied and put yourself in his or her situation. In my opinion, this is maybe the most important thing we could learn in school. (One more thing, can anyone explain how this movie connects to South Africa and apartheid?)
'Odd girl out' is one of the many few movies which grasps the concept of verbal bullying online and in school. In class, it was my second time watching this movie and I still could empathize with Vanessa as this has happened with me before. One moment, you are best friends and then a second later, you have no idea what you just did to get you neglected. This movie relates to Apartheid because the blacks were looked as inferior and they were bullied. If apartheid was a school, the whites would have been Stacy's group and Emily would have been included to the ones being bullied. Later in Apartheid, the uprising of blacks scared the whites therefore having them to control the blacks so the blacks wouldn't be treated equally. Vanessa soon has the courage to talk to Stacy and hope to mend their relationship. Nikki and Stacy are afraid that she will be popular again and steal their rights to the student body. So they create more chaos in Vanessa's life causing her to lose hope and have an overdose. The end of Apartheid is when blacks rise and face the problem, confront the whites, and get their rights back. The end of the movie is similar, Vanessa confronts Stacy and that allows her to live her life normally again.
The TV News Report about Ryan is also very similar to the movie 'Odd Girl Out'. The difference is that Vanessa was doing academically well while Ryan was not. Both were considered to have lots of friends but their own friends turned their backs to them, causing them to suicide. Vanessa had the opportunity to face her problems whereas Ryan had died with the encouragement of a so called friend.
Both stories are very significant to all students in school and I am glad that our school is mentioning this topic. The stories also relate to Apartheid and are just modernized ways of telling the same message of odd people left out.
I think that cyber bullying is just the future of bullying. It is just using technology to do the same thing that people do in person...bullying. So I don't see why people make such a big deal about it when normal bullying is just as bad. In synergy, we only learn about cyber-bullying when normal bullying is still an issue in the world. In fact, cyber bullying basically falls into the category of overall bullying. Not saying that bullying is good, but cyber-bullying is not worse than normal bullying.
I have watched stuff about cyber bullying but none of them brought the subject out as good as 'The Odd Girl Out' did. I knew that cyper bullying was a major problem but it was surprising to know that it could happen to the best of friends and their lives could change very quickly. I know take cyber bullying very seriously and I will not be friends with anybody who keeps doing it repeatedly to someone who does not deserve it. This movie open my eyes up very widely to this problem and I will try to make people stop doing it. This movie showed me that people, especially kids, are greatly affected by this. I don't think anybody derserves this to happen to them.
Cyber-Bullying is a form of bullying which happens in computers and phones. It is just like regular bullying. One difference is that physical bullying hurts, and then it goes away, word bullying also hurts, but it could stay with you forever.In Ryan's case, he was bullied so much, that for him the only way to stop it was to end his life. If I was cyber-bullied I would first, stop any connection with the people bullying me. Then if it doesn't stop, I will ask a my parents to help me.
Watching the movie Odd Girl Out help me reconnects with Apartheid. During apartheid, the black were bullied by the white in a way, but a different way than how Vanessa was bullied. The blacks were not treated equally and their rights were taken away from them. In the movie, Vanessa was bullied through the internet, while chatting with her friends online. In both the TV news report and movie, both Vanessa and Ryan had a lot of friends at school, but in the end, it turned out that their friend were actually the one bullying them.
In the TV news report, Ryan was someone like Vanessa, he was being bullied by his friends but he did not open it up to his parents. Later he committed suicide, in the movie, after being bullied hurtfully many times, Vanessa also tried to commit suicide. Later both Ryan and Vanessa's parents found out about the things that the students at school were sending online.
I think that both the TV news report and the movie has an important message that it's giving out. I think that what they are trying to tell us is that everyone can become a victim through the online chat. I think that they are also saying that the people who are being bullied are hurt both mentally and socially, and this can leads to bigger problems such as suicide.
Watching "Odd Girl Out" is just one more movie that show younggirls in high school, bullying another girl mostly because they are jealous. It was good for me to watch this movie because even though i already knew and had in mind how crazy or upset people can get when they are being bullied, i learned a lesson from the movie, and this lesson is that we don't always have to be popular to have friends, we just have to be ourselves. The girl called Nicky in the movie was jealous of Stacy's and Kate's friendship. She wanted Stacy to like her as much as she liked Kate and so she was trying to make them break apart so Stacy would like her more than the usual.
I was never bullied by anyone fortunately, but i have bullied someone in six grade. I was mean to some people but not because i was jealous, it was because they were mean to my friends, so we all bullied the girl.
I think that cyber bullying is a bad thing. It can cause kaiosk and can actually hurt somebody. I have never been cyberbullied in my life but I've heard plenty about it and have seen kids that actually have been bulllied physically. In the movie "Odd Girl Out" was exactly what I had pictured in my mind. Stacy and her friends or rather 'gang' didn't like Vanessa because they thought that she was going to be popular and try to take over the student body. But I am only going to say that I am glad that Vanessa confronts Stacy, telling her to stop and getting her life back. This relates to Apartheid because during that time, people actually were grouped by their skin color. The blacks were treated unfairly by the whites because the whites were scared of the blacks taking over. Also, the whites such as the Afrikaners, beleived that they could communicate with god and that god gave them permission to do this to the blacks. So basically cyber bullying is apartheid, in a differet perspective. People do get left out but I think that we need to judge others by the way they act or on the inside but not on the outside.
‘Odd Girl Out’ is one of few movies which illustrates the concept of cyber bullying as well as verbal bullying. It shows that people could get mad over the simplest of things. For example, Stacy and Nikki got mad at Vanessa because Tony asked Vanessa out. However, they did not show their feelings towards Vanessa but they illustrated it to Vanessa through the computer. Also, Stacy and Nikki seemed to be mad at Vanessa for being intelligent and getting straight A’s. It almost seemed like they were jealous about that. I think all the bullying started from jealousy towards Vanessa. In the scene where Emily visited Vanessa in the hospital, Emily explained that Vanessa was just making Stacy and Nikki more powerful. When Vanessa cut off most of her hair, Stacy and Nikki just laughed. When Vanessa nearly killed herself from taking an overdose of drugs, Nikki’s friends called Vanessa ‘pathetic’ while laughing. All those things made the bullies more powerful and Vanessa became more helpless and weak. Later on, Vanessa stands up for herself and the bullies suddenly seem so weak. I think this movie was a good idea to show in class because it showed the horrors of bullying and it also connected to the hero’s journey.
The movie connects to the hero’s journey because Vanessa went through all the stages of the journey. Her call was when her friends told her to ask Tony to ask out Stacy. The threshold was when Vanessa’s friends wouldn’t let her sit at their table and she had to sit with Emily who wasn’t popular. Her challenge was to avoid Stacy and all her friends. Her temptation was to think of Stacy as her friend again. However, Vanessa fell into her abyss when she realized that Stacy told Vanessa to go to a ‘fake’ party and Vanessa tried to kill herself. She reaches the stage of transformation when Emily tells her to stand up for herself. Her atonement is when she finally tells Stacy to stop bullying her. Vanessa is finally free from her bullies and she can finally live a normal life. Vanessa’s return is when she walks off with Emily because Vanessa had completed her journey and she knew that she would never be bullied again.
After I watched the clips of ’Odd Girl Out’ and the CNN report, I felt that cyber bullying is really a big problem among ourselves, especially for teenagers. Severe bullying can even make someone suicide and it makes someone feel so intimidated. Long time ago when I was in an elementary school, there was a girl in my class who was totally odd that everyone hated her. She was bullied –but not so brutal like Venessa in the movie- by many of my classmates. I also agreed that she was weird but I felt so sorry for her being bullied like that. They were treating that girl as whites treated blacks during apartheid. I wanted my friends to stop bullying her wondering why they couldn’t just leave her alone. However, I couldn’t say to stop bothering her to my friends because I feared I might be bullied like her if I stood on her side. She could have killed herself like the boy on the CNN report. I hope that people would stop bullying people even though they are really weird, why can’t they just leave them alone?
I think that the clips from ‘Odd Girl Out’ do represent a current problem that is going on at many schools between students. I myself have been one of those people that others don’t always want to talk to, so I can kind of connect to sitting by yourself and feeling left out. Furthermore, I know that lots of kids are often dealing with this problem, so I think the clips do an accurate job of representing bullying. Also, those clips also showed an aspect about how bullies chose their victims. For example, in the clips the girl didn’t seem to be one of the types of people with plenty of friends, so when the others girls tried to use her for their own personal gain, she just went along with that and didn’t really try to stand up for herself, but when she got a friend outside the popular group then she seemed to start getting more courage. Also, the second clip of the boy who committed suicide shows what some kids are going through. This was similar to other stories I have heard because you often hear that the kid who committed suicide seemed happy and people who were close to him didn’t really see what he was going through; of course I really don’t know why that is. Last but not least these clips connect to apartheid in South Africa since just because of peoples’ status they may be treated like they’re inferior, even though they really aren’t.
The movie Odd Girl Out is one of the best films about teens I have ever seen because it had captured the concept of cyber bulling so well and it showed it could happen to anyone even the most popular kids. The main character Vanessa is one of the most popular kids in school the others being her supposed best friend Stacy who is the queen bee of the school and Nikki another friend of Vanessa. Stacy had a crush on this boy Toni who liked Vanessa, one day Nikki and Stacy had told Vanessa to ask Toni if he wanted to go out with Stacy for her but when Vanessa asked Toni told her he liked her while Nikki was watching. Nikki then started making lies about Vanessa saying that Vanessa stole Toni from Stacy which turned everybody in the school against Vanessa. Nikki and Stacy started harassing Vanessa by making websites about her and harassing her at school. A friend of hers Emily and her Vanessa’s mother had tried to help her but Vanessa didn’t listen which lead her to cutting her hair, skipping school and eventually have a drug overdose. After the over dose her mother saw people messaging on Vanessa’s computer trying to harries her again her mother then typed the names from the computer and showed it to the principal of Vanessa’s school. Who found out it was Nikki and some of her friends and punished them. Stacy the came up to Vanessa when she returned to school and she apologized for she has done and Vanessa accepted but the next day Stacy talked to Vanessa online and Vanessa started saying how important her friendship to Stacy is so important to her but Stacy showed it to Nikki who again bullied her for saying such words. Vanessa had then had went to Stacy and told she had enough of what Stacy has done and Vanessa moved on. The movie has a great effect on the concept of cyber bullying another great example is the CNN report on how a boy who was popular at school had committed suicide because he was cyber bullied now his tells parents that they have to be careful and keep an eye on their children so something bad wont happen to their kids. Both of the report and the had said that the kids that were bullied were both popular so that makes me wonder its not only unpopular kids who can get bullied its also popular kids to so people need to be careful because this type of bulling can cause you to die.
After watching the CNN news report about cyber bullying, I was very surprised about how Ryan reacted to the bullying. Cyber bullying is becoming a problem that is rapidly growing larger around the world, and it is something that is hard to avoid.I think that even though so many people try to make everyone more aware of the problem, cyber bullying will still exist because there is really nothing you can do to stop it, because even if u stop one person, there may be someone else getting bullied too.
Cyber bullying means to bully one person by spreading rumors through a cyber space. Normally, those victims suffer mentally or physically, they even suicide as bullying comes as a big shock. The movie, “Odd girl out” demonstrates the cyber bullying of a girl, Vannessa, who is smart and pretty.
As Christine had said, Nikkie and Stacy were jealous of Vannessa and tried to isolate her from their friends. Vannessa hurt herself and even cut her hair and this reminded me of my elementary school in Korea. In my class, there was a mentally handicapped boy who can’t speak properly. So, no one could easily understand what he is talking. He wasn’t seriously bullied like Vannessa, but was isolated and lonely. According to the news, it was a great shock to me that Ryan, a victim of cyber bullying, suicide at the age of 13.
I’ve heard that everyone had been bullied or felt alienated at least for once. So, I think we all should know that we can always be neglected or isolated by the society. And we must look from the victims’ perception; we should know how it feels to be cyber bullied. If we see someone being bullied and treated unfairly, we should stand up for them, like Emily.
The movie ‘Odd Girl Out’ demonstrated the cause and effect of bullying among teenagers, including physical, emotional, mental, social, and even cyber-bullying. In my perception, bullying happens everywhere, like in schools or online chatting, since bullying starts in the mind, not from places or surroundings. Bullying does not affect only the victim but also the people involved, like parents. In the movie, Vanessa’s mother knew that she had to support her daughter.
Relating the movie to apartheid in South Africa, Stacey, Nicky and their friends in the movie symbolizes the whites in apartheid because Stacey thought she was superior than Vanessa, the one being bullied and treated as inferior who represents the blacks, since Stacey was in group and more powerful. As a result, Stacy and her popular group took advantage of Vanessa due to the misunderstanding that she tried to get attention of Stacey’s boyfriend. Vanessa was by herself and did not have enough power to defend the bullying, similarly to the blacks in South Africa. According to apartheid law, race discriminated the whites and the blacks. For the whites, they had power over blacks, by using apartheid law to gain land and resources from them. In contrast, the blacks lacked power and opportunity due to apartheid. However, at the end of the movie, Vanessa gained courage and self-confidence to stand up for herself from any bullying and cyber-bullying that once caused her to overdose. Comparing to apartheid, the growing oppression of white supremacy caused the blacks to react and fight back.
The CNN News reported about a bullying situation that caused Ryan, a boy, to commit suicide. He struggled in learning at school. He liked to do online chatting, but faced with cyber-bullying. One of his friends encouraged him to kill himself, which he did so. This news of Ryan is similar to the movie. Vanessa was bullied by her friends, at school and online chatting, which made Vanessa decide to overdose. Furthermore, the similarities of Ryan’s and Vanessa’s bullying was that they did not want their parents to be involved with what they were encountering.
Overall, whether it is the ‘Odd Girl Out’ movie or the news about Ryan, they all have the same message. Every kind of bullying is harmful and can cause more incidents to the victim and the society in which he/she lives in. Like apartheid and white supremacy, they both discriminate the blacks and the whites.
I really enjoyed the movie because it really showed how rapidly friendship can turn to hate. The only thing about the movie I am disappointed with is that at the end, Stacy was confronted by Vanessa, but not Nikki. Sure, Stacy was to blame for pretending to be Vanessa's friend and going along with Nikki, but there were times when she truly seemed to doubt her decision. On the other hand, Nikki spear-headed the whole cyber bullying mission.
I watched the video about Ryan and found it really sad because he's around our age and seemed just like us. I can't believe someone could be driven to such a mad point as to actually commit suicide. Like Nimarta said, Vanessa's and Ryan's stories are really similar, just that Ryan's grades were not as good and he died. Luckily, Vanessa survived.
When Vanessa told Stacy, "You don't have anything I want," she was referring to something Emily said earlier in the movie. I think this relates to how most of the time, hate generates from jealousy. Stacy and Nikki were jealous of Vanessa because she was athletically and academically better than they were. Emily might have meant that she didn't want to stoop to their level, or change herself to fit in with them, just because they were popular.
I think that cyber-bullying is as bad as verbal bullying, the only difference is that nobody else except for the person who’s bullying and the one who’s bullied won’t notice that the bullying is taking place because nobody can see it, since it happens online. I was once bullied by my ‘best friend’ and her friends when I was in fourth grade. Just like the movie ‘Odd Girl Out’, I was bullied by my best friend although it happened at school, not online. It was a very sad experience. I got really hurt because I believed that she was my best friend. In our class, we didn’t get to watch the movie but I watched the video clip that is posted on the blog. In the clip, they didn’t have the scene where Stacy was cyber-bullying Vanessa, but there was a scene where Stacy told Vanessa that she can sit with Emily when there wasn’t room for Vanessa. Also they had a scene where Vanessa was at the hospital. She hurt herself in some way, because of the cyber-bullying. I never knew that cyber-bullying can be that serious. I can remember a particular scene very well that was at the end. It was when Vanessa went up to Stacy. The phrase that I really remember was when she said “You know what Stacy, I feel so sorry for you.” I was surprised at first because Vanessa was the one who was bullied, but I watched the clip one more time and I thought the same. Basically the cyber-bullying happened just because of jealousy, but Vanessa stood up for herself to be stronger.
I think that cyber-bullying is a really big problem for kids and teenagers at the present day. I’m sure many people at ISB have both bullied and have been bullied through text messages, email or msn. Despite this fact, I think that bullying and cyber-bullying are not as common here as at some schools. I think this is the case because the teachers respect each and every student and this helps them detect unhappiness in a person and evidentially it could help a victim deal with his or her problems. I’ve also noticed that bullying is looked down upon more here than at any school I’ve ever been to and I think everybody respects each other more at ISB.
When watching the movie ‘Odd Girl Out’ during humanities, I was greatly struck by how quickly the whole bullying process took place. Though this might have been because it was a movie and the story could only been told in a shortened amount of time, I believe that there is an actual reason for this – I think the bully/s acted at the ‘spur of the moment’ and on jealousy. I thought this movie was a big slap in the face for me because I realized actually how someone can become so upset by bullying that they try to take their own life. I thought how it was really interesting that the quote ‘You don’t have anything I want’ came up a lot when Emily was trying to tell Vanessa that she didn't need to be friends with the 'popular' kids. I think that this quote is a little bit ironic because that was the whole reason why Nicky, Stacy and the other girls started bullying Vanessa – because Vanessa had the looks, the grades and most of all, Tony.
I also watched the video about Ryan and I thought it was really sad because it was a real-life situation. A 13 year old committed suicide because of cyber bullies and that is something that nobody can ignore. I felt really sorry for Ryan’s family and especially his parents because they had no idea what was going on. The reaction of Ryan's parents reminded me a lot of Amy Biel's parents' reaction. Both parents (Amy's and Ryan's) did not blame the cyber-bullies or blacks for the murder of their son or daughter.
I think that this move is a transition from the South Africa unit to the Middle East unit because I think the quote ‘You don’t have anything I want’ is important in the history of the Middle East and I also believe that it is the main reason for the conflicts that are happening in the Middle East.
Although I wasn't in the scene itself, I can totally relate to Vanessa. Was it wrong that Vanessa got asked out by Tony? No. Was it wrong that Vanessa got straight A's? No. Even though Vanessa did nothing wrong, she was bullied verbally and talked into killing herself and cutting her hair. Stacey and Nikki probably thought it was quite humorous that Vanessa was hurting herself. It didn't seem right to me that someone who didn't do anything wrong would get bullied like that. Cyber bullying (verbal) really does hurt more than physical bullying. For one, physical bulling makes you hurt from the outside but for verbal bullying, it hurts your feelings and makes you think negatively of yourself. A physical wound is easier to heal than a verbal one because once someone says something harsh or rude, it stays and haunts you. Even if the person is only joking, it can make you do really bad things. As for the boy in the CNN report, I really feel sorry for him. He had done nothing wrong; he was just another victim of cyber bullying. The worst part was that he wasn't bullied by a maniac stranger or a drug addict but was bullied by those he calls his friends.
I agree with what Christine said about connections to the Hero's Journey. Vanessa's life followed the steps written by Otto Ran. Although Vanessa may not seem like a hero, but she is one. She has overcome all the obstacles, finally changed herself for the better, and becomes strong enough to stand up for herself as well. I think that doing all the things Vanessa did (like standing up for herself) really is a hard thing to do; it may not sound hard but standing up for yourself after you've been made to think badly of yourself is difficult. I requires a lot of courage and belief.
I think that this can also connect to the first outcome statement because in Odd Girl Out, people viewed the same event in totally different ways. In real life, there are people who are like Stacey and Nikki. Also, there are victims like Vanessa. In my perspective, Stacey and Nikki thought that bullying was "fun" and it made them feel better about themselves but really, it was just their insecurity that had taken over. The teenage girl who came to give Vanessa the teddy bear and flower viewed the same event in a different way. She thought that it was cruel to hurt Vanessa like that and one thing that surprised me was that she took action and tried to change people's perspectives.
Cyber-bullying is very much bullying, but a kind of bullying that can lieave a person scarred for life. A normal bullying will hurt physically, then it will be gone. Cyber-bullying would not hurt a person physically, but mentally and emotionally. A bruise will go away, but memories and feelings won't. Cyber-bullying is like the future of bullying, only much worse. In 'Odd Girl Out' Vanessa was habitually bullied by her close friends Stacy and Nikki. Through the movie, she was bullied by a number of ways until she managed to stand up and face her bullies. This could connect to South Africa as it shows how Vanessa is neglected by her friends like the black South Africans. In the CNN report, Ryan was a thirteen year old boy who committed suicide because he was badly cyber-bullied by his friends. This first thought that came to me was that Ryan was very similar to Amy Biehl. Ryan's parent had a calm reaction to his death. However, Ryan's dad went to fight the issue of cyber-bullying in contrast to Amy's parent fighting for the cause of Amy's killers. Cyber-bullying is a very bad as it could, and would, make the victim scarred for life and maybe even bring some poor decisions to the victim.
Bullying comes in many different forms, but I believe verbal and cyber bullying is the most dangerous and hurtful. Physical bullying hurts you on the outside; it stays with you for a while and gradually heals. Verbal bullying however, hurts you on the inside causing more damage where the pain takes much longer to cure. I find it interesting how guys and girls use different forms of bullying. Boys usually engage in physical bullying whereas verbal and cyber bullying are more common among girls. In the movie ‘Odd Girl Out’, Stacy’s dad also points out this detail.
I know people who have been victims of bullying and also those who have bullied others. I’ve heard different sides of the same situations and it is quite unnerving how oblivious people can be towards other people’s feelings. A small action to you may be a huge insult to others. In ‘Odd Girl Out’, Stacy and Nikki thought it would be a joke to trick Vanessa into going to the club where Stacy’s ‘party’ would be. As a result, Vanessa almost killed herself. Though, some people are not as lucky. In the CNN news report, Ryan Halligan, a victim of cyber bullying, successfully committed suicide.
I have seen many movies and television shows that display bullying at school. I don’t know what to think of this because I’m not sure if it allows parents and teenagers to become more aware of how brutal this issue is or if it is giving bullies the advantage of getting ideas and transforming those movies into a reality.
Bullying can gravely affect people and is a matter that should be taken very seriously by both adults and teenagers. It happens at every school in every country. There are probably hundreds of kids being bullied at this moment and we should all help to stop it before it destroys and takes more lives of innocent kids.
The whites 'bullied' the blacks and Stacy's group bullied Vanessa. I think watching the movie, Odd Girl Out really made it easier for me to understand the relationship between the blacks and the whites. First the whites took what had intiially belonged to the whites like Stacy took away Tony from Vanessa. Then the whites 'bullied' the blacks just as Nikki and her friends did to Vanessa. I think that this movie was made really well because it wasn't an over exagerated situation it was just something that happens in people's lives. I cannot connect to this personally but I know people who can and when I watched this movie I felt like crying because I empathized so much with them. I think if we had watched a movie about the blacks being bullied during apartheid, I would have empathized the same amount. I really enjoyed watching this movie and like Yususke said, it was a real 'eye opener.'
‘Odd girl out’ shows how cyber bullying can affect someone significantly. Both in the movie and the CNN news report they show how the two students had been hurt. Though the two students had different attitudes on how they confronted the situation. As you feel more confident and safe to abuse someone, people tend to speak out more than in reality. So more people are involved in these actions so many students have been cyber bullied. I don’t really know how it feels because I’ve never been cyber bullied. However looking at how Ryan, a funny active boy resulted in by cyber bullying I felt the significance.
I guess cyber bullying has a same effect as apartheid. Like apartheid the cyber bulling had made Vanessa apart from her friends and made her feel bad about herself. Same as blacks thinking they are inferior during apartheid. Also the end of apartheid can be connected to the end of the movie where she overcame cyber bullying and stands back to the students that bullied her. She gains confidence and even felt sorry for Stacey just like when in the book WftR Tengo felt sorry for whites having a narrow mind.
The movie we watched in class called ‘Odd Girl Out’ relates to both the history of South Africa’s apartheid and our everyday lives. I think this movie clearly reflects the way some teenagers act and live their lives wishing to be able to fit in and feel accepted by others. In the beginning of the movie where Stacy and Nikki convinced Vanessa to shoplift and steal the piece of clothing that Stacy took along and ‘forgot’ to pay. This clearly is a set-up for Vanessa to test her ‘loyalty’ or in other words, how much she wishes to be accepted by her ‘friends’. Vanessa wanted to be accepted so that she would not be ignored or bullied, like Emily. She knew that if she somehow became unaccepted, she will lose ‘everything’ she has and everything that she ever wanted. However, in the end Vanessa realized the Stacy has nothing she wants and needs to have, instead, she is the one with the privilege of things that they want but cannot have. When one does not have something that others do, they tend to show jealousy causing people like Nikki and Stacy to take advantage of Vanessa’s dependence on their friendship and how much it meant to her and held it against her for something she never really wanted.
The video about Ryan taught us that when something or someone is bothering you, enough to hurt your feelings, you have seek help as soon as possible instead backing yourself into a corner of dreadful decisions. Even though no one our age would want adults to be involved with our social life but sometimes you have to let others know what is going on in order for them to keep an eye on you. We can see from the interview with Ryan’s friends that a large percent of the teenage population have been bullied in various ways. When the girl talked about how their lives depend on the internet because if they were not online at a certain time, they will miss out on various things and feel left out. This relates to our lives because I’m sure most of us have experienced things like this and have caused negative affects around those ideas.
Physical and verbal bullying has led to dreadful results such as in-school shootings and other tragic events. Many gunmen in school shootings have often been bullied in school by other students physical, verbally and emotionally. Hurting other people’s feelings should not be something we can be proud of or to be making fun of. Imagine what you are doing to others you are bullying ending up happening to yourself, would you still be able say those words?
When I watched the CNN news report about Ryan Halligen, and disagree with what Mr. Halligen said that parents should monitor what their children are chatting about online. It would be the same as recording every conversation you have at school then giving it to your parents. I also think it is an invasion of privacy, if someone wanted their parents to see the bullying they’d shown them the chat. It is the same as with regular bullying, most victims do not tell their parents they are being bullied and parents don’t follow them around checking if they are bullied, so why do that with cyber-bullying? Cyber-bullying is the same as regular bullying just that it is verbal and not a combination of physical and verbal. I’m sure that children have wanted to die because of regular bullying too, I think that people are making a big deal over nothing new, just the part of where the bullying takes place.
The movie 'Odd Girl Out' is a really good overview about bullying in schools. I have watched part of it during synergy as we learned about bullying. I think cyber bullying is a big issue in middle school and high school, too, because they hurt more than punches during a fight. The movie also shows how people can get very upset just about what other people said, like bad comments on what others are wearing, their hair, etc. Vanessa even cut her hair when Nikki and Tiffany made a rude comment on how her ugly hair is. When they kicked Vanessa out of their group, they didn't even tell her what was wrong. However, I think Vanessa was really brave to stand up to Stacy in the end.
The video about Ryan is also a reflection on how cyber bullying can affect a person's life. When others think it's funny, the one who was made fun at may think the opposite and meanwhile, might be hurt.
I've never seen anyone been bullied physically, but sometimes people do gossip or spread rumors about others, which is similar to bullying them verbally.
Before the CNN video, I was narrow-minded about this subject, but watching the CNN report of the intriguing yet depressing story of Ryan now makes me more cognizant of the issue. For me, I never had a knowledge that someone would take it as serious as Ryan took it. I'm not against those who are literal, I was just never aware that a situation like this would occur.
I think Nimarta is right about relating Apartheid to bullying in general. Also to add a little detail, and spin to the relationship, maybe Vanessa could represent Sara Biehl, joining in with the inferior group, the blacks, and trying to stand up for them while getting bullied/criticized herself.
I agree with Joseph. Cyber bullying is not that worse than actual bullying face to face. That's the difference. Cyber bullying is not face to face. But also, if you think about it, in cyber bullying, the victim does not usually know who the suspect is. As much as what is said and done to the victim online, the person doing the action should also be taken into consideration.
"Odd Girl Out" gave me a big impact, because of the way people in movie can be changed. The main character of this movie, Vanessa Snyder was a cheerful and smart girl during first part of the movie, but she was cyber bullied and she ended up trying to kill her self. Her mother, Barbara worried about Vanessa too much and she was streesed out because she couldn't solve the problem around her daughter. In Japan, both bullying and cyber bullying are becoming common problem in schools. I was bullied in elementary school back in Japan, I did not ask my parents for help. Bullying around me gone naturally as time passes, but I became quiet and did not insist my idea too much so that I wouldn't get bullied angain. So I think people need to talk over this topic more.
Cyber-bullying is another form bullying by which the bully uses harmful words to hurt the victim’s feelings or put pressure on. Cyber-bullying can be done over a text message on the phone or while online on the computer. It didn’t seem like cyber-bullying was a big issue until Vanessa had an overdose and Ryan committing suicide.
In the movie ‘Odd Girl Out’ Vanessa was avoided and bullied by her friends. Jealousy was part of the reason for this bully since Vanessa was smart, strong, and pretty which made other girls like Stacy feel insecure. Stacy had led Vanessa to a dark side by introducing her to drugs which instead made her ugly, weak, and stupid. This shows that cyber-bullying can greatly impact a person’s life and the pressure and harm cyber-bullying creates can put a person’s life in danger.
While online, Ryan was continuously bullied by his friends. They would tease him and threaten him which didn’t seem like a big deal until Ryan committed suicide. Like Mindy said, the pressure and harm that is being created in cyberspace can hurt someone mentally and socially which was the reason for Ryan to kill himself. Unlike Vanessa, Ryan didn’t face his problems and didn’t share his feelings to his parents; instead, he chose to end this problem by killing himself.
Apartheid is like an illustration to cyber-bullying. Vanessa and Ryan resemble the blacks who were under control of the whites which made them have a very tough life and a disadvantage. Vanessa and Ryan were pressured by their friends which made them go through the dark stages of life. This had cause Vanessa to take drugs and Ryan to kill himself. The story of both people is like a message to viewers showing how harmful cyber-bullying can be and what life in cyberspace is like.
Both the clips of ‘Odd Girl Out’ and the video about Ryan referred to the same problem, bullying. In the movie ‘Odd Girl Out’, verbal bullying was presented and in the news report about Ryan, cyber bullying was the topic. I agree with what Christine said about the cause of the bullying. It is easy for people to hate each other over the simplest things and it is also easy for people to spark hatred in others. The movie shows that jealousy can be a cause for bullying as well. The news report about Ryan shows the consequence of bullying. It is possible to kill a person with continuous bullying. Both verbal bullying and cyber bullying can hurt a person emotionally and mentally and the memories of the bullying can haunt a person forever. I learned from the movie and the news report that we should think before we criticize others knowing that the consequence may not be what we wish to see.
Watching these two videos after learning about apartheid that took place in South Africa, I realized that apartheid was simply people bullying each other because of their difference in skin colors. The cause was rather insignificant and petty. If only people thought about it more, apartheid would have never taken place.
I was blown away by Ryan's, in a sense, extreme reaction to the cyber-bullying he suffered. I had never imagined that cyber-bullying which may seem quite petty at first, could have such grave consequences. Simple teasing that could have started out as a joke, eventually led to suicide by a boy. Like others, I believe that cyber-bullying is a very cruel form of bullying because it is very hard to avoid and can affect you 24/7, which contrasting to physical bullying. It is more harmful and offensive than physical bullying because malicious words can have a much bigger impact than say, punches or other forms of physical bullying. Also, cyber bullying is more dangerous because by using the internet, a person can be insulted not only in front of the people they know, but people all around the world can have access to offensive content against a person. I have also noticed that cyber-bullying a major issue with mostly teenagers and a major cause for it is jealousy. Some people are more sensitive to bullying than others, like Ryan, and can take things quite literally. Unlike a direct confrontation, it is hard to predict how someone a victim may react to cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying can have a long-lasting and devastating impact on people's lives, but unfortunately it is a problem hard to avoid.
I found the fact that the bullying that Ryan and Vanessa (in ‘Odd Girl Out’) faced, was from the very people that they called friends, quite sad and shocking. Certainly, something mean coming from your own friends hurts much more than from someone else. I also feel sorry for Ryan because he was an innocent victim to the jealousy of others, he never did anything wrong, and his parents describe him as a boy who had many friends and loved making people laugh, and still he was driven into a suicidal state by constant bullying. Similarly to Win, Ryan’s parents remind me of Amy Biehl’s parents because they didn’t condemn the cause for Ryan’s death, instead accepting it as a fact. Contrastingly to Win though, I thought that both the Biehls’ and Ryan’s parents fought to prevent such events from happening in the future, after their children’s deaths. The Biehls did this by their foundation in South Africa to eradicate poverty, and Ryan’s father did this by raising awareness about cyber-bullying. I also agree with Nimarta that bullying connects to apartheid, because it was basically the whites ‘bullying’ the blacks for their land, resources and power, even though the blacks weren’t to blame for anything. What I’ve learned is that bullying is a cruel way for jealous people to humiliate or offend the people that they are jealous of, and though bullying may not seem a big deal, it can have major consequences, so we should always think before we say something about others, even it it’s a joke.
Cyber bullying is a serious problem for teenagers. It damages someone's mind and it can kill someone. It is very serious problem that 77% of American teenagers have been threatened or bullied online. What is dangerous is that you can get bullied by people you trust, like Vanessa bullied by her close friends. I also think that the teenagers' parents have to take care more of their children because in CNN news report, some students are discussing about bullying, and what they said is that most of parents don't seem to care about cyber bully. I think it is a serious problem because so many young students are getting hurt, and some kill themselves.
I think that cyber bully is the worst bully because it doesn't hurt you physically, but hurts you inside which takes long time to cure.
After I watched the movie “Odd Girl Out” and CNN report, I felt that the cyber bullying is big problem especially for teenagers. Cyber bullying is the bully someone online and make and spread bad rumor about someone. In addition, I think that do gossip about someone and spread rumor is same as bullying people or maybe these are the part of bullying. Not only the cyber bullying, bullying happened between many teenagers According to the video clip “CNN report,” almost 80% of teenagers threatened or bullied online. Bullying can make victims feel lonely, gloomy, intimidated, and it also can make victims suicide. During watching the movie “Odd Girl Out,” I thought about biggest happening in Korea when I was elementary school student. In that time, there was a girl who was really selfish and not even listened anything what other people saying. And one day, she fought with her friend and bullied by them, after she bullied by them she fell down from the rooftop of our school and luckily she survived. No one know that why did she fall down from the rooftop but everybody guessing that she might tired to suicide or something. That happening freaked me out and everyone in our school shocked about that. The movie “Odd Girl Out” helped me to remind me the shocking happening and how serious and scary to bully someone just because of small thing, like took his/her boyfriend in the movie “Odd Girl Out.”
Also in CNN report I really surprised that almost 80% of teenagers bullied online. I also bullied online before but I didn’t expect that there are 80% of teenagers bullied. This result is little bit scared me and I had a question that why do the people bully someone just because of small happening between them. And I also want to know why do the people bully someone not just leave them alone or just try to understand them a little bit.
Cyber bullying is like normal bullying but the nation will know about it unless it is by private messaging. Also, cyber bullying reveals personal information into the public which causes embarrasment and therefore there is a possibility of suicide. The worst part about cyber bullying is that anyone could be targeted and the bully doesnt need to be known. If the cyberbully knows the victim in school he can target personal information. The cyberbully can target personal information that is most vulnerable to the target. Cyber bullies can blackmail victims to say or do something by saying that if they dont do what they're asked to do the bully will reveal information of somekind.
The movie "Odd Girl Out" showed the harshness of caber bullying and how it can destroy ones soul.Vanessa got bullied because of jealousy from Nikki and she always got set-up which always made her feel devastated. I could not believe when i saw a shocking 77% of the teenagers that have been threatened or bullied online. It is amazing how words can really damage ones mind and soul and drive them to suicide. I think parents should install systems like Net Nanny so that their children are not doing anything bad on the internet.I would encourage my kids not to stay on their computers for the whole day and do something where there is a lesser chance of getting bullied like sports. Cyber bullying is a very dangerous form of bullying in the world right now.Words hurt more than bruises.
Cyber Bullying is a form of bullying that affects people mentally. The news report stated that a boy, Ryan, who was my age, committed suicide. His parents soon realized that he committed suicide as he was depressed over the things his friends told him on the computer. His father stated that if parents wanted to keep their children safe from being cyber bullied, they should keep track of what their children do online by checking their email ad going through their friend list. As a teenager, i would think that this was absurd and that parent would be be invading my privacy. But, when I look at it from the perspective of the parents, I realize that this is maybe a solution to preventing their kids from getting hurt.
In this generation, with all the different chatting sites such as Facebook, MySpace, MSN and others, I think that being you are at a higher risk of being cyber bullied. So, it would be very wise to maybe take care of what you put up on these pages. Things like your personal information should be kept to yourself. Once you have posted something, it is impossible to take back.
Well as other people said before, both kids have been bullied by their own friends. Maybe they were joules at the person as Emilie said to Vanessa “the troth, you know you are strong, pretty and you are smart, and they hate you for it, it makes them insecure. But if you cut off your hair and destroy your body and go down with school work all you’ve done is become weak, ugly and stupid.” After a while Vanessa thought the same thing and was not afraid to stand up for herself. I think that if someone is being bullies they need to tell it to someone right away! Ryan didn’t tell anyone and I bet that if he was alive now he would regret this. It connects to apartheid because during apartheid the balks were bullied by the whites a lot.
After watching the CNN news report about a boy named Ryan, who was cyber bullied to a point that led him to kill himself. Cyber bullying is worse than physical bullying because physical bullying is just temporary but cyber bullying is permanent. What you post on the internet or the phone can be seen by other people for ages. As a facebook user, I have experienced cyber bully and have cyber bullied some people, but I never knew that cyber bully can affect one’s life so badly. Also in the movie, “Odd Girl Out,” the main character, gets bullied because of ‘Jealousy’ from her best friend. After being cyber bullied, her life was completely destroyed until she realized that fighting back to the bullies is the best way to prevent them to stop. Therefore, she fought back to Stacy, her best friend who cyber bullied her, and finally was able to continue her life normally. I have learned that cyber bully is deadly and dangerous because it can take one’s life away. I also learned that once you start the cyber bully, it is very hard to stop it because the internet news travels very fast.
Cyber-bulling is one of the things that could make people melancholy in a short period of time. Cyber-bulling doesn't only affects teenagers. It could affect any kind of person. In my country, South Korea, lots of showfolks sucide because of Cyber-bulling, which is mostly from thier anti-fans. Also the assaulters of this act, don't feel guilty. They just write what ever they want and enjoys it.
This cyber-bulling thing have to stop. like the CNN video, people die from it. When this doesn't stop huge amount of people will comit sucide from it.
After watching the CNN news report on cyber bulling I think that its is just amazing how the people you think are you friends can turn around and attack you through the computer. I also am astonished to find that only 77% of teens have been bullied online, because everyone is at least once called a name or teased about something over facebook, myspace, or some form of instant messaging. Also one thing they do not mention is the new generation of text messaging and cellular communication. It is a one way connection to the bully and the victim because everyone carries there cell phone one most of the time, making it an easier target to bully someone.
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