Bullying Is Still Bullying, Even When You're a Grown-Up

So I am part of a well known fetish social networking site. I generally like being part of it and am proud to be part of the fetish community, but recently I've started to feel like there is some kind of horrible culture of bullying going on...and I don't want to be any part of it.

When I was a kid I was bullied. I was bullied because I was bookish and kind of chubby and a bit weird and didn't like other children and had frizzy hair and no other kids could ever understand anything I said because I didn't talk like a normal child. Now I know that at least two of those things are inherent in my nature and I am proud of them.

When I was a teenager, I was bullied because I was interested in my lessons, because my skirt wasn't so short my arse hung out the bottom, because I didn't pile my makeup on with a trowel (well...until the rainbow eyeshadow stage...) and because most of my peers still couldn't understand a word I said. And I was still weird.

I've been bullied in the workplace on more than one occasion, from management level down. I've even had things thrown at me in the street, which amounts to the same thing.

It's therefore not completely surprising that I have a very strong objection to such a culture which would single out an individual as a target simply because one or two people find them distasteful. Especially when each and every person involved in the drama is over the age of 10. It would seem that no matter how old people get, there are still those that feel the need to shit in each others' breakfasts and that is really, really sad.