Homophobic Bullying: Effects on Male Youth

            

            The resentment of gay culture in heterosexual males is a topic that has not been publicly recognized as a serious issue in our society. Although, I realize that there are higher priorities that the LGBTTQ* community is fighting for, I feel obliged to share my thoughts on this issue. I have the permission of one of my friends, who will remain anonymous, to tell their story of the verbal and physical bullying he endured when peers at school labeled him as being gay. My friends story exemplifies the oppression of gay and lesbian persons by heterosexuals in our society. This is showing that oppression does occur in peoples in everyday lives; by having a dominant group oppress a subordinate group it forms a separation between the two groups (Mullaly, B., 2007). It is important to bring attention to all stigmas against the LGBTTQ* community and to also see a different perspective of homophobic bullying on heterosexual males. I started this interview by asking my friend what his first homophobic experience was and my friend responded with this,

“When I was in grade six, I had just moved into the province and there was a group of boys that had singled me out from everyone else in my class. This particular week in school, my class was learning about sex, so the group of boys decided to start calling me gay. The group of boys would even follow me around the school during the lunch hour and would physically harass me. After a while everyone in my class started calling me homophobic slurs. I knew I was not gay but there was nothing I could do to stop them. I felt humiliated about something I could not change.”

I then went on to ask my friend how did this verbal abuse affected him at that point in time and he responded by saying “I started to believe that something was wrong with me. I started to become depressed and did not want to leave my room. I would even try to fake sick because I did not want to go to school.” This shows just how the oppression between dominant and subordinate groups keeps their relationships separate. When an individual differs from the dominant group’s norms, the outcome is to maintain their separate beliefs. In order to achieve this, the dominant group must publicly express their disbeliefs, therefore oppressing the subordinate group.   

My friend continued on telling me about how his parents figured out that he was depressed, and that he eventually told them about the bullying that was happening in his class. His parents then went to the principal and explained that there son was being bullied He was then moved to a different class room for the remainder of the school year. Although my friend eventually started to fit in at school and made friends, he has now been diagnosed with severe depression that he is taking anti-depressants for. This shows the lasting effects that oppression can have on an individual at a tender age.

After fully understanding what my friend had gone through during this time in his life and seeing how it still was effecting his life, it opened my eyes to the lasting effects of oppression on youths. When youths are faced with the oppression of gay and lesbian persons by heterosexual peers, they are increasingly at risk to develop a mental illness. Youth who are bullied for sexual orientation are likely to have more emotional and behavioral difficulties, higher symptoms of depression, more hostile peer environments, greater rates of bullying, and less social supports (Bully Free Alberta, 2005). Although my friend was not actually apart of the LGBTTQ* community he was affected by the stigmas and oppression that the LGBTTQ* community faces on an everyday basis. This shows that although our society puts labels on different groups of people, it does not necessarily mean that individuals cannot be affected by the oppressions of groups that they do not belong to. 

All in all in order for society to stop the effects of oppression on persons in general, we need to change the norms of the dominant group. This statement comes from the picture that I have attached to my blog post. The picture shows a young female who is teaching her class about a quote by Frank Zappa that says “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” This picture symbolizes to me that society needs to stop the oppression of all groups that deviate from the dominant group’s norms, starting with what we teach our youth. This is exactly what the LGBTTQ* community is fighting for, acceptance from society. When and if this is ever achieved in society other children will not have to face the same oppression that my friend has in the past, thus ceasing the mental illness that results from oppression.

-Chandra B

References

Mullaly, B. (2007). The New Structural Social Work (3rd ed.). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada.

Bully Free Alberta. (2005). Homophobic Bullying. Retrieved from:

http://www.bullyfreealberta.ca/homophobic_bullying.htm#4

           

Image retrieved from: http://i.imgur.com/zkOaM

            

A Canadian Neo-conservative Prison System

            When looking at the video attached to my blog post, you can imagine what it was like for Erika Roach to be put in solitary confinement with her mental illness. Roach suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and had been neglected and mistreated by the Canadian prison system. From having her water shutoff for four days and being forced to drink from the toilet to failing to receive psychiatric therapy and medication. Roach later on developed another mental illness called dissociative disorder, which is similar to schizophrenia. It is difficult to comprehend that these types of abuse can happen to people with a mental illness and are going on within the Canadian prison system. The treatment of individuals with a mental illness within the Canadian prison mirrors the neo-conservative ideologies beliefs towards associating people with a  mental illness with the undeserving poor.     

The neo-conservative ideology evidently shows prejudices against people with a mental illness, they are looked at as undeserving of help from the government. Mullaly, B. (2007) writes “even if people become ill and cannot look after themselves, the judgment is often that they should have made arrangements to cover such contingencies and it is up to the family to look after them in the first instance” (p. 83). This statement is displaying how the neo-conservative ideology does not care for the people that struggle in society due to a mental illness. The neo-conservative ideology has two groups for people in need of help from the government, the undeserving and deserving poor.

In order to be apart of the deserving poor group, individuals would need to show that through no fault of their own they attained their condition that is impairing them to succeed in society. When looking at the neo-conservative perceptions of people who have a mental illness, we see they are shockingly biased because of how they blame the victim for their condition. This would therefor make them apart of the undeserving poor group, and they would not receive any help from the government. Through a neo-conservative lens the undeserving poor do not work, are irresponsible, and not honest taxpayers (Mullaly, B., 2007). The neo-conservative ideological beliefs are that by helping the undeserving poor they are reinforcing idleness and dependence on the government, and does not promote these individuals to support themselves. With this view, the deserving poor would only get a limited amount of help through residual welfare system, and this group has always been under represented. Roach was with out a doubt treated as if she was the underserving poor as an inmate inside the Canadian prison system, and this lack of adequate care results in the worsening of her mental health.

In the video attached to my blog post, Kim Plate discusses the problems between the Canadian mental health care system and the prison system. Plate describes a vicious cycle of neglect and mistreatment because of how people with a mental illness struggle to receive help for their condition. Being shutout by facilities because there is no room, there is a waiting list or they failed to meet requirements, leaves people with a mental illness neglected. With limited options for people with mental illness out of desperation many of them end up out going to a place where they can not be rejected, the Canadian prison system. Although they have a place to stay, they will be put in solitary conditions and be further neglected because of their condition. This ironically, only exacerbates the mental health issue and can lead to the developing of multiple mental illnesses. Plate even goes on to say that “If they start with mental health issues, there is virtually no chance that they won’t get worse in prison.” This shows the reality of the abuse the Canadian prison system puts inmates through.

There was a slide in the video attached to my blog post from 3:15 to 3:24 that reads “The mentally ill are further abused by a vengeful government…a government determined on building more jails while cutting funding for mental health.” This statement exemplifies just how our conservative government is continuing to keep this vicious cycle of mental illness in the prison system functioning in our society.  

All in all this video with Roach’s story of her time as an inmate in the Canadian prison system and the explanation made by Plate shows how it is possible for this abuse to happen. This video opened my eyes to the role that the Canadian government played in the neglect of their inmates mental heath and that without a doubt mirrors their neo-conservative incentive. The last slide in the video attached in to my blog post from 3:57 to 4:06 reads “Correctional Officers across Canada have repeatedly asked governments for special help to care for the mentally ill, governments continue to refuse them.” This statement challenges my thoughts on how Canada can be the human rights protector of the world but can continue to treat their citizens with mental illnesses as undeserving of their help. Obviously what the Canadian government is doing now is not working, so there needs to be rapid change, not slow or evolutionary change like the neo-conservative ideology believes.         

    

-Chandra B

References

Mullaly, B. (2007). The New Structural Social Work (3rd ed.). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada.

Video retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MS1sUMrEV0