I have recently been interested in the idea of making bullying illegal. I look to Lady Gaga as some kind of moral icon, but she has recently proposed the idea of making bullying illegal, and even spoke to the president about it, and I can't say I completely agree that making it illegal is the best course of action to ending it. This was after the suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, a huge fan of hers.
Obviously, the issue has current relevance, as Jamey's Law is trying to be passed, beside the fact that teen suicides due to bullying have become a large topic in the media in the past year.
One reason I would be interested in arguing a side of this issue is that the public response to it is almost at stasis; I have found as much media supporting the idea as I have opposing. More importantly, I myself have not taken a side on it yet.
I saw an article a while ago that discussed why illegalizing bullying is a bad decision. And check this out. I also am generally aware of the cliche that bullies only bully because they're insecure, and the general knowledge that many bullies come from very dysfunctional households. In this Cracked article, the author, who has dealt with a history of bullying, is consistently aware that many bullies gain their physical dominance because they have to learn to physically defend themselves from their own fathers. What kind of message would it send to turn bullies who deal with such abuse into criminals? When I think about morals I always try to think about how "evil" is always more complicated then being purely bad. I think to illegalize bullying might be an insultingly simplistic way to deal with the issue.
And what about other root causes? Homophobia? Prejudice in general? Fixing these problems would certainly fix bullying. Laws already exist that ban most aspects of bullying, like assault and harassment. Bullying continues despite that for a reason.
But then part of me reminds me that fixing widespread problems is never easy, and to do so in the "bottom-up" way most people dream of would mean a complete reformation of society. I did at first wonder why Gaga would want to so simplistically victimize bullies through a law when she's all about love and understanding, but simply waiting for society to ride the tides of love won't stop the suffering of the bullied in the meantime. Laws are our "short-term" fix to such problems as murder and rape and bullying despite that they don't stop them, and they affirm that the ultimate power of the government is against them. I also view illegalizing bullying as a type of "tough love," telling society that, no matter what your pain, you cannot turn it into harm for others.
I was told by my friend who is very interested in politics that anti-bullying programs in schools are generally ineffective, so that would complicate the argument. How else should we deal with the problem if not to illegalize it? Also, many policies I view as regressive exist in some high-schools, such as the "policy of neutrality," which denotes that teachers must remain neutral in dealing with homophobic slurs because they may be part of religious conviction. Bullying is bullying regardless, and a national law would punish it when it reached a certain level of severity, regardless of whether it is of religious conviction. The law could be a way to counteract much of this bullshit.
So, that is what I understand as the two sides of the argument. I'll turn it over in my head and determine which one I figure to be ultimately true. In the end it'll be a slight but significant win and I'll be glad to portray each side as strongly as it should be.
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