Sexual Bullying and Cyberbullying in Jay Asher's Thirteen ..., Exercises of Literature

Download Sexual Bullying and Cyberbullying in Jay Asher's Thirteen ... and more Exercises Literature in PDF only on Docsity! Sexual Bullying and Cyberbullying in Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why Evin Demirsoy Degree Thesis 1, 15 hp English for Upper Secondary School Teachers: EXE400 Department of Social and Behavioral Studies September 2018 Supervisor: Åke Persson Examiner: Celia Aijmer Rydsjö 1 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Chapter 1- Gender Expectations and Gender-Bullying: An Overview 4 1.1 Previous Research 4 1.2 Gender Bullying 6 1.3 Gender Expectations 8 1.4 Feminism 11 Chapter 2- Sexual Bullying and Cyberbullying in Thirteen Reasons Why 12 2.1 Cyberbullying 16 2.2 Sexual Bullying 18 2.3 Conclusion 22 Works Cited 24 4 Chapter 1 – Gender Expectations and Gender-Bullying: An Overview To provide a greater understanding of my reading of the novel, this chapter will focus on exploring an overview of gender-bullying, gender expectations and feminism. Furthermore, I will give an overview of previous research conducted on the issue of bullying, as well as a couple of literature reviews of the novel that illustrate how the novel has been read previously. 1.1 Previous Research There are several studies on the topic of bullying. For instance, in their article “Best Practices for Preventing or Reducing Bullying in Schools”, Whitted and Dupper discuss different kinds of bullying in schools and explore the outcomes of bullying for the victim, the bully and the school staff. They discuss the strategies that can be used to prevent bullying in schools and argue that they should be implemented in every school so that students can feel safer in the school yard (170). The bullying prevention strategies involve parents, school staff, and other youths. Moreover, in their article “Appraisals and Coping Strategy Used in Victims of School Bullying”, Hunter and Boyle have explored the results of bullying and the strategies practiced by victims of bullying. Their research shows that students who were bullied more than once had no skills to employ useful strategies in coping with the bullying. Furthermore, as Hunter and Boyle suggest, they are usually afraid of telling about it to an adult since victims are often scared that the bully might find out about it. Therefore, when being bullied, many of them do not know what to do. Instead, they try strategies like wishing or hoping that someone will notice and help them to change things (87). By the same token, Patchin and Hinduja examine a new modification of bullying in their article “Bullies Move Beyond the Schoolyard: A Preliminary Look at Cyberbullying”, that is considered even more damaging than the “traditional” bullying. In recent years, cyberbullying has increased and become part of life. 5 The article explains the damage it can cause to the victim and discusses the destructive effects of it. Since cyberbullying happens over internet, the bully can hide his/her identity behind a screen, thus making it hopeless for the victim to find out who is targeting her/him and the reason behind it (149). From another point of view, in their article “School Staff Responses to Gender-Based Bullying as Moral Interpretation”, Anagnostopoulos et al., investigate the role of school staff members in preventing gender-based bullying. The authors argue that more studies should be conducted on how the school staff members respond to gender-based bullying since their reaction can be crucial (521). The authors present analyses of interviews they carried out with teachers and school facility. Their results have showed that, - even though the teachers felt forced to interfere when a female student is harassed by a male student, they were unwilling and doubtful about their duty for lesbian or gay victims of bullying. Therefore, the authors emphasize that the whole school community should inspect how their personal attitude can encourage gender-based bullying (522). Thirteen Reasons Why was immensely popular when it was first published in 2007, and it did not lose its popularity after 10 years, which is why in the year 2017, the novel was adapted into a Tv-serial. Some people liked the show because they thought it brought up contemporary issues, while others criticized it due to its story and its images. On account of the controversy, the producers agreed on filming a mini-documentary show called “Beyond the Reasons”, where they had the opportunity to describe and argue for the choices made. In the documentary, mental health professionals, actors, actresses and producers are gathered to discuss uncomfortable aspects of the show (such as the intense scene of Hannah’s suicide). Thus, the viewers were given the chance to ask the producers about their choice of filming, as well as their ideas about the topics addressed in the show. In her review of the novel, Tammy February states that she avoided reading it for 10 years, but when the Tv-adaptation was made, she was determined to read it before watching 6 its adaptation. According to her, by writing such a sad and heartbreaking story, the author wants to point out the acrimonious side of our society. She states that it has an important message to its readers regarding the issues it addresses and argues that, - it is a must-read book, because it makes one consider the ignorance of our society about the destructive effects of sexism and misogyny on women’s daily life. Not only February has stated that Thirteen Reasons Why is a must-read novel, but also Kathryn Hughes, who writes similarly in her literature review. She states that the novel has been a great success in the United States because it manages to ask its youth readers to consider carefully how small things they do can affect someone else’s life both positively and negatively. Therefore, she argues that the novel should be read by everyone, especially by teenagers. As is seen, there have been several studies that have focused on different aspects of bullying, and some reviews on the novel. However, what I will do in this essay is slightly different. Indeed, this essay is unique because it uses the novel Thirteen Reasons Why as primary source to explore the sexual bullying and cyberbullying that the main character Hannah Baker encounters in the novel, and this has not been studied before. 1.2 Gender-Bullying Since cyberbullying and sexual bullying are the two types of bullying that I will explore, it is useful to offer some background about them. However, before that, I will present some information regarding the issue of bullying in general and the studies that illustrate how this topic has been dealt with in American schools. In her paper “Peer-to-Peer Bullying and Harassment: Background and Federal Response Efforts,” Robbins states that even though the School Commission rejects a singular description of “bullying”, units like the National Center for Education Statistics, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, have defined bullying in the following way: 9 their development of their gender roles. Especially in early childhood, parents influence their children to a great extent. In this sense, a child’s approach towards gender is related to his/her parents’ stereotypes regarding gender (1637). For example, in many cultures girls are less valued than boys and other rules are applied to them. These rules are often designed according to the gender roles and gender expectations. As children grow up, they learn about stereotypes and they learn that they must act according to their gender roles to fit in society (1638). Furthermore, parents are usually confronted with gender expectations when they want to buy an outfit for their children, as Kane exemplifies in her book The Gender Trap: Parents and the Pitfalls of Raising Boys and Girls: “Glamour Baby,” “Daddy’s Princess,” “Born to Shop,” “Diva,” “Hot Babe,” and “Pretty Girl” for the girls’ bibs and “Wild One,” “Little Toughie,” “All Star,” “Rebel,” “The Boss,” and “Trouble Maker” for the boys’ bibs (1). These types of slogans encourage gender distinctions and reflect gender as a shared classification in their choice of outfit, hobbies and habits. Furthermore, Kane states that several studies have concluded that parents usually act in ways that support gendered paradigms and behaviors. Moreover, she argues that because of the distinction, boys and girls are considered to have other types of concerns, talents and capabilities (3). As will be discussed in chapter 2, the issue of gender distinction is illustrated in the novel Thirteen Reasons Why where the boys and girls in the school are divided into different groups with different interests and tendencies. In relation to this scenario, Kane states that this kind of distinction leads to a situation where instead of communicating with each other, boys and girls assume things about one another (4). In her book Boys and Girls: The Development of Gender Roles, Beal argues that in society, we usually have stereotypical anticipations based on many different factors and that these anticipations affect how we treat people around us. Furthermore, she states that people in society label things and people based on many different factors. The label can be both 10 negative and positive, but either way, it generates a stereotypic expectation, which Beal expresses clearer: We have a stereotypic expectation about people based on many factors, including age, ethnicity, social class, the types of work we do, and so on. Yet all our personal characteristics, gender stands out as most important and most prevalent. Others notice first if we are male or female before they see whether we are young or old, whether we are dressed nicely or in worn or whether we look friendly or distant. (5) Killen et al. state that stereotypical ideas can lead to situations where boys and girls are expected to act in different ways as Grinberg and Larned illustrate in their article “This Is What Happens When Gender Roles Are Forced on Kids”. They explain that in many cultures, boys are seen as a threat to girls and therefore girls are expected to protect themselves from them. According to the authors, this belief should be avoided because it turns boys into “predators”, while girls into “potential targets”. Something similar is discussed by Kreager and Staff in their article “The Sexual Double Standard and Adolescent Peer Acceptance”. They state that boys are often expected to be sexually active, however, when it comes to girls, such behavior is discouraged because they can only have sex when they fall in love (3). As can be seen, there are different rules and expectations for girls and boys. Girls are not expected to be sexually active, while this is expected for boys. To put it differently, it is a society code that every girl and boy is expected to act in accordance with. Because they know that if they do not behave according to what is expected of their gender, they risk being bullied as Hannah Baker is, which will be discussed in chapter 2. 11 1.4 Feminism From a general point of view, feminism is based on the awareness of society’s unequal treatment of women. However, Beasley argues that feminism has various definitions, and that its essential meaning is controversial. Dictionaries generally describe it as the encouragement of women’s rights established on a belief in the fairness and in the equal opportunity of the genders. Furthermore, it refers to people that are conscious of the inequality between the sexes and look to stop women’s subjection for any possible reason (27). Feminist intellectuals consider feminism as presenting a dispute to a male mindset, since it contains a critical view of masculine supremacy and focus. As Theile puts it: “it is common knowledge among feminists that social and political theory was, and for the most part still is, written by men, for men and about men” (4). It also struggles against the kinds of sexual harassment that women and young girls experience in society, but that people choose not to talk about. Whisnant argues that all feminists agree on the idea that rape or other kinds of sexual abuse are serious crimes which should be fought against both legally and socially (5). He argues that people need to break the silence about these difficult topics and talk about them. Moreover, he adds that sexual abuse is a significant issue in contemporary society and therefore needs to be addressed. In this chapter I have highlighted important aspects of gender-bullying, gender expectations and feminism as it is relevant to my reading of the novel. Moreover, I have pointed at some previous research on the bullying issue, as well as some reviews of how the novel has been read by others. In the next chapter, I will explore the attitudes and the behaviors of the characters that are involved in Hannah’s bullying and discuss their actions in relation to the topics highlighted in this chapter. 14 her differently in school and called her “slut” behind her back which she expresses in the following words: Eventually as they always will, the rumors reached me. And everyone knows you cannot disprove a rumor. I know what you are thinking […] A rumor based on a kiss made you do this to yourself? No. A rumor based on a kiss started a reputation that other people believed in and reacted to. And sometimes a rumor based on a kiss has a snowball effect. A rumor, based on a kiss, is just the beginning. (30-31) In the mini-documentary “Beyond the Reasons”, Langford, who plays Hannah Baker’s character in the Tv-serial of Thirteen Reasons Why, explains the importance of reputation in high school. Hannah’s reputation was destroyed when Justin had spread the false rumor about what occurred the night he met Hannah. According to Langford, it was an unflattering story because it caused a rumor that had a snowball effect for Hannah. She adds that it was the beginning of the end for her since that rumor had a permanent damage on Hannah’s reputation and she could not get rid of it. It caused her to become an object rather than a person in the eyes of the boys in school (3:40). Justin was a popular boy in the school and he needed to remain so. He played in the basketball team and was usually hanging out with the “cool” boys from his team. When Justin went out on a date with Hannah, he was excited because it was a good thing for his reputation to go out with the new girl in school. Even though they only kissed on the date, he spread a whole new story around the school which built up Hannah’s reputation. Justin’s behavior can be related to gender expectations where he felt the pressure to have done more than a kiss. As mentioned above in chapter 1, boys and girls have different values and the novel illustrates that in Hannah’s case where her first kiss meant a huge moment for her, while for Justin, it 15 meant nothing but a factor that he could use to make a show of to his friends, to fulfill the expectations. After the rumor was spread, Hannah was called a “slut” while Justin was considered “cool”. People changed their views about Hannah and I would suggest that this was the starting point of her reputation since all the boys in school started to see her differently at that point. Alex Standall comes next in line, - he was a close friend of Hannah’s. He, Jessica and Hannah were usually hanging out together, but when Jessica and Alex started to date, Hannah was left out. Even though Alex was a friend of Hannah’s, he is responsible for the sexual bullying Hannah faced in school. It started when boys in the basketball team hand out a list of Freshman Class titled “who is hot/who is not” where each one voted for the best part of girls’ bodies. When the list reached Hannah’s class, everyone started to stare at her and whisper things to each other, but Hannah did not know what they were talking about. However, it turns out that they were talking about Hannah and her ass, “you bet it is” (38). Because of Alex, who voted Hannah “best ass” in the Freshman Class, “you probably think you did a good thing right? How could anyone be angry at that?” (37). Hannah was objectified for sexual appraisal. Nevertheless, Alex had no idea that he was contributing to the sexual bullying of Hannah by putting her in that category. He did not think that it would influence her in this way. However, his action had a snowball effect for Hannah because after that day, boys started to check her back when she was walking by them in halls. Even Clay admits that later that day he checked out her back when passing her in the corridors and thought that she totally fit in that category. According to Hannah, when Alex put her in that category, he put a target on that part of her body as she states in her tape to him: “Every single event documented in here may never have happened had you, Alex, not written my name on that list. It is that simple.” (41). That list gave the boys an excuse to treat Hannah as a thing rather than a human being, especially after the false rumors about her sexual activity with Justin. She 16 later mentions Bryce, but refers to him as, -”one of many jerks I have run into over the years” (46). When Hannah comes across him in the store, he grabs Hannah by the ass and says, “Best Ass in the Freshman Class, Wally. Standing right here in your store” (48). Here it was, the beginning of various types of sexual bullying that Hannah was about to face later in the novel, and Alex had contributed. As Hannah explains it: “Alex, am I saying your list gave him permission to grab my ass? No, it gave him an excuse. And an excuse was all this guy needed” (52). As mentioned above in chapter 1, the concept of feminism is founded on the perception of society’s harsh treatment of women. When Alex voted Hannah for “best ass” in the freshman class, he objectified her for sexual appraisal which is against feminist ideas. I would argue that the novel constitutes a critique of society by problematizing the consequences of objectifying girls for sexual appraisal. It shows that such behavior can have serious affects for the victim, as it is for Hannah. Alex had no idea that his list would have such destructive affects for Hannah, since he only wanted to give her a compliment. However, the list added to her reputation and gave the boys an excuse to treat her as a sexual object. By voting her “best ass”, Alex unintentionally put a target on that part of Hannah’s body and he was not even aware of that until he listened to her tapes. He did not understand how it could affect her which can be connected to what is mentioned in the previous chapter about society’s expectations of boys. Society expects boys to be “troublemakers” as we have seen Kane state in chapter 1. As is seen in Hannah’s case, such expectations can become true, as it was for Alex where he caused big trouble for Hannah by categorizing her in that list. 2.2 Cyberbullying Tyler is the character that started the cyberbullying that Hannah has encountered. He is a student photographer who is socially isolated from the students in the school. He had a secret 19 you have never gone alone… But if you go, and you do not order anything, everyone’s going to think the same thing about you that they thought about me. That you are waiting for someone” (138). When Marcus showed up, he was not alone. Hannah later discovers that the actual reason why Marcus came to see her, - was not because he wanted to talk to her. He started to touch her on her knee which made Hannah feel as humiliated as she felt when she was assaulted in the store: ”There was your hand, on my knee. From out of nowhere. The same way I was grabbed in the liquor store” (141). It later turned out that the reason why Marcus came was to show off to his friends that he could get Hannah since she was “easy”. His friends were sitting behind their table, and neither of them did anything to help Hannah when they saw her concerned face. Because they were there for one purpose, which was to see whether Hannah would go home with Marcus, since she was a “slut” in their eyes. But it did not turn out as they expected. Hannah pushed Marcus off the chair because he did not stop harassing her. Before he left, he called her “easy” (158) and thus, Hannah realized that she was a “slut” in the eyes of the boys in basketball team. After the incident, she states: “my heart and my trust were in the process of collapsing” (159), and therefore stops trusting in boys. Marcus’s behavior makes her realize that her reputation would never leave her alone and that people would always react to it as he and Bryce did. As Beal argued in chapter 1, we have stereotypical anticipations about people based on different factors. In Hannah’s case, people had an expectation of her based on the reputation she was given in her school. Marcus had an expectation of Hannah because of her reputation, which led him to think she was “easy” to get. He expected that she would sleep with him. However, when things did not go as he was expected, he got angry. As seen, Hannah refused to live up to the stereotypical anticipation that people had of her based on her reputation, but this did not stop the boys from assaulting her. 20 All the incidents mentioned had a snowball effect for Hannah, and this is the point where she began to think about suicide. She started to think about how people’s lives would be if she was not around and whether people would attend her funeral. However, she could still not let herself go completely, until she was raped. When she went to the party, she met Bryce, and she knew that something bad could happen, but did not care anyway. She wanted to let go entirely, and Bryce could make it possible for her to do that. This is the reason why she let herself be raped by Bryce, because thus she thought she could find the courage in herself to commit suicide. As she puts it: “Not once had I given in to the reputation you had all set for me. Not once…Even though sometimes I found myself attracted to someone who only wanted to get with me because of what they had heard. But I always said no to those people. Until Bryce. So, congratulations, Bryce. You are the one. I let my reputation become me-with you. I was not attracted to you, Bryce. Ever. In fact, you disgusted me…You were touching me, but I was using you. I needed you, so I could let go of me, completely.” (264-65) As mentioned previously in chapter 1, any kind of sexual harassment should be problematized and fought against. However, although these issues are highly topical in today’s society, people choose not to talk about them, as we have seen Whisnant state in chapter 1. Therefore, the novel implies that society must break the silence about these hard topics and problematize them in other ways, or they will continue to happen. Hannah’s experience with sexual assault can be connected to the #MeToo movement that was spread virally in 2017, and thanks to this campaign, we have finally seen people talk more about the issue of sexual harassment, sexual assault and sexual abuse. The campaign began as a hashtag on twitter and became a global phenomenon. It supports the victims of sexual violence and inspires people to share and, speak up about their experiences of sexual harassment and sexual abuse (Shugerman). Thus, 21 by sharing their destructive experiences, women as well as men from different parts of the world, have shown that sexual violence is a major problem, which concerns everybody- Therefore, as the novel implies, the issue needs to be addressed and problematized in many ways. In this chapter, I have discussed the attitudes and the behaviors of the five characters that Hannah mentioned in her tapes. Justin and Alex were the ones that contributed to the bullying Hannah faced in school, Tyler was the one that started the cyberbullying and Marcus and Bryce were the ones that assaulted Hannah sexually. I have discussed their actions in relation to the topics highlighted in chapter 1 and stated that, - Hannah represents the victims of bullying in American schools. In the next page, I will sum up the main points of my discussion and formulate a final statement. 24 Works Cited Primary Source: Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Razorbill, 2007. Print Secondary Sources: Anagnostopoulos, Dorothea, et al. “School Staff Responses to Gender-Based Bullying as Moral Interpretation: An Exploratory Study.” Educational Policy, vol. 23, no. 4, (2009): 519–553. Beal, R. Carole., Boys and girls: the development of gender roles. New York: McGraw-Hill. (1994). N.P. Beasley, Chris. What Is Feminism?: an Introduction to Feminist Theory. SAGE Publications, 1999. N.P. Biedenharn, Isabella. “Q&A: 'Thirteen Reasons Why' author Jay Asher on bullying and teen suicide prevention” Entertainment, 21 April 2015. Accessed 22 October 2018. N.P. Carroll, Brian. “13 Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons, Season 1”. Netflix. 2017. February, Tammy. “Book Review 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher”. W24, July 2017. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018. N.P. Grinberg, Emanuella, Larned Victoria. “This is what happens when gender roles are forced on kids” CNN, October 2018. Accessed 26 October 2018. N.P. Güder Yağan, Ata Seda. “Father Involvement, Gender Perception and Children's Gender Stereotypes”. Universal Journal of Educational Research, (2018): 1637-1638. 25 Hunter, C. Simon, M.E Boyle. Appraisals and coping strategy use in victims of school bullying, The British Journal of Educational Psychology, (2010): 83-103. Hughes, Kathryn. “Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher” The Guardian, 23 January 2010. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018. N.P. J. New, Michelle. “Sexual Harassment and Sexual Bullying” Nemours: TeensHealth, October 2014. Accessed 23 October 2018. N.P. Killen, Melanie., et al. How children and adolescents evaluate gender and racial exclusion. Boston, Mass.: Blackwell Pub. (red.) (2002). N.P. Kane, Emily W. The Gender Trap: Parents and the Pitfalls of Raising Boys and Girls, NYU Press, 2012. N.P. Kreager, Derek A and Jeremy Staff. “THE SEXUAL DOUBLE STANDARD AND ADOLESCENT PEER ACCEPTANCE” Social psychology quarterly vol. 72,2 (2009): 143-164. Accessed 22 October 2018. Lee, Chris. Preventing Bullying in Schools: A Guide for Teachers and other Professionals. London: SAGE Publications, 2004. SAGE Knowledge. Web. 12 Oct. 2018. Lorber, Judith. Breaking the Bowls. New York: Norton. 2005. Patchin, Justin W., and Sameer Hinduja. “Bullies Move Beyond the Schoolyard: A Preliminary Look at Cyberbullying.” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, vol. 4, (2006): 148–169. Robbins, Audrey. Peer-to-Peer Bullying and Harassment: Background and Federal Response Efforts. Nova Science Publishers, 2015. N.P. 26 Ringrose, Jessica, Rawlings. Victoria Posthuman performativity, gender and ‘school bullying’ : exploring the material-discursive intra-actions of skirts, hair, sluts, and poofs. Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics, (2015): 80-81. Shugerman, Emily. “Why are women sharing stories of sexual assault and how did it start”, Independent, October 2017, Accessed 10 November 2018. N.P Thiele, B. Vanishing acts in social and political thoughts: Tricks of the trade. Routledge as part of the Taylor and Francis Group, 2013. Whisnant, Rebecca. “Feminist Perspectives on Rape”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.) 13 May 2009. Accessed 12 October 2018. N.P. Whitted S. Kathryn, Dupper, R. David. “Best Practices for Preventing or Reducing Bullying in Schools, Children & Schools” Volume 27, Issue 3, (2005): 167–175.