Comments on Overcoming Life's Obstacles: Fashion Bullying - You Aren't What You Wear...

I agree bullying, and even fasion bullying has alw...

2007-11-01T01:50:00.000+13:00

I agree bullying, and even fasion bullying has always been around and yes sometimes the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. "Relational Aggression" (female bullying) among women has changed the culture of sisterhood and we've (girls/women) become our own "best enemy" instead of BFF. Girls can be catty, form social alliances and have "fashion rules" that totally go against what we are all created for and that is connection. Change begins in the heart and an ability to emapthize with others( wheather they choose to dress differently or can't afford to dress "right" ). Together we can begin to help one girl at a time to step it up and stand firm for the sisterhood, after all "everyone else is taken, work on being yourself!"

Allyson Bowen, LISW-CP
Co-Author of "Mean Girls: 101 1/2 Creative Strategies and Activities for Working with Relational Aggression."

Bunnygirl:You're absolutely right - this isn't a n...

2007-10-31T09:35:59.732+13:00

Bunnygirl:

You're absolutely right - this isn't a new phenomenon by any means. Lately, though, it seems that the dollar amount of "fitting in" has become astronomical. I couldn't afford to dress like this even if I wanted to!

And you are also correct in that we need to be really careful as adults what message we are sending by our own "snobby" ideas.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Nancy

I'm glad to see this topic come to the fore, but p...

2007-10-31T07:25:00.000+13:00

I'm glad to see this topic come to the fore, but puzzled why it's being treated as something new. Fashion and brand bullies were common in my teen and pre-teen days and I'm almost 41!

These girls learned to behave this way from their mothers, who shunned the girls who shopped at Sears and K-Mart and ridiculed the ones who didn't wear Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and Candie's (around 1980), or didn't dress in Izods and Bass penny loafers ('82-'83).

And it goes back farther than that. I remember my mother being furious that I refused to wear a JC Penney brand polo with a fox on it (I would've been crucified!) when she herself told me of walking the halls of her high school in the 1950s and having girls sneak up behind her to turn down the collar of her sweater to make sure it was the "right kind."

This kind of behavior goes way back, especially in urban areas where advertising has always been most pervasive.