So what does sexual bullying look like in real life? Here are some sexual bullying stories depicting some of the things students have gone through.

Stories of sexual bullying

This sexual bullying story comes from a teenage girl named Hope, now age 17:

“When I was in junior high, there was this new girl that a bunch of guys liked. Two girls in the grade went around with a petition they made all the boys sign that said, ‘I will never go out with the mega whore, Lori Shore.’ After a while, one of her best friends told her about the petition. One of the girls flat out said, ‘Yeah, I did it and what are you going to do about it? The other girl was a really good friend of Lori’s and kept denying it and pretended to be her friend.” (Wiseman, 2006, p. 135)

This story illustrates the nuances of bullying. It was being attractive and being desired by all the boys that made the other girls jealous and put a target on her back. Yet two girls in the class were able to pressure these same boys into signing a pledge saying they wouldn’t date her. Imagine what kind of mind games this plays on the victim. She can’t read minds to know that the boys actually liked her. All she knows is that there’s a paper staring her in the face saying that all the boys (ALL of them!) are rejecting her! Even though she knows this stunt was orchestrated by the mean girls, the boys still signed it. Thus the pretty girl starts to think of herself as unattractive and undesirable, in direct contradiction to the truth!

Kissing the wrong boy
“Maria had been spotted kissing the boyfriend of one of the ‘popular’ girls. They retaliated by spreading stories that she’d slept with every boy in sixth grade, that she was a slut and that anyone seen with her would come under similar attack. Even her closest friends began to desert her. She didn’t confide in her mother or me or anyone else who might have been able to help her.” -Clay P. Burns (not a real name), talking about what led to a suicide attempt by his 12-year-old daughter (Burns, 2011)