Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Things you have been bullied or ridiculed about

209 replies

Frenchboat · 12/07/2016 21:03

My dc is starting school soon and has inherited my wild, curly hair. I'm worried she will be bullied like I was.

Having curls has made me feel ugly and ashamed all my life. I was called names and even had my hair yanked. I was called ugly. All because my hair didn't lie straight. I really hope things have moved on a dc won't go through the same thing.

So I guess I want to know what things you have been picked on about as a child or even now, as these things make you feel
Inferior, things can deeply hurt for years.How did you regain confidence?

OP posts:
Heatherplant · 12/07/2016 22:25

There were a few things I was bullied for: Overweight; bad hair cut; bad skin; made use of an acne treatment that actually stunk; cheep and nasty clothing. I also struggled to make conversation/fit in. I strongly suspect I've some kind of mild autism so I stood out as 'different' hence a target.

user1468244773 · 12/07/2016 22:26

My forehead. I have a big forehead, was told it was because I was premature. My sister used to call me "foetus face", slap head etc and at school they said the same. 😒

MarklahMarklah · 12/07/2016 22:27

Teased for all manner of stuff
Being old-fashioned
Being flat-chested
Having a big nose
Having crooked teeth
Having close female friends so I must be gay
For having older parents
For needing to wear glasses
For not wearing fashionable clothes
Being skinny
Being short
Not having a fashionable hair style
For trying to be fashionable by having the same hair style as everyone else

For knowing more than someone else

Pinkangel23 · 12/07/2016 22:29

Being too quiet, being flat chested but having bigger thighs and bum.
Not having kissed a boy at 13/14.
Then slut shamed by entire year for having sex at 15. I do regret it but I didn't deserve the smear campaign at my middle class school often recommended on MN 😡.

CointreauVersial · 12/07/2016 22:29

Being a late developer (flat-chested, late periods etc).
Being an irritating, precocious know-it-all.

Strangely enough, wearing glasses and being incredibly swotty didn't seem to attract any adverse attention.

timelytess · 12/07/2016 22:30

As an adult, including this weekend by other adults, about being fat.
By my mother from about age fourteen, for being a virgin (yes, mother was weird).
At school, for being 'rich' and 'posh'. I come from a working class background.
At school for not being good at sports.
At work - well, we won't go into that. You can read my book if I ever finish it.

I think, and always have thought, that red hair is beautiful. And curly red hair is gorgeous. My dgd has the most gorgeous curly blonde hair.

ineedamoreadultieradult · 12/07/2016 22:32

My nose (quite flat due to being badly broken as a small child)
My hearing loss
My unclear speech due to hearing loss
My brothers behaviour (he has Autism)
That my parents are posh
Because my Dad was a school governor
Because I was a tomboy
Because I fainted during assembly
Because I was friends with unpopular kids
Because I never had the cool trainers/coat etc
Because I always did my homework
I could go on...

ellie264 · 12/07/2016 22:34

I was bullied for having frizzy hair, being smart, skinny & flat chested, not being cool or having cool clothes.

I think wavy / curly hair is not such a big deal these days, and I don't know anyone who has been bullied for it. Just my awful frizz.

becciandbump · 12/07/2016 22:39

I got teased for having s flat nose, got told I looked chinese when I'm infact not. Funnily enough as an adult some people still say I look oriental but I take it as a compliment now.

Leggytadpole · 12/07/2016 22:41

For having hairy arms. Still paranoid to this day. Use home laser machine regularly.

janey77 · 12/07/2016 22:42

Being fat ( including as a 10 year old girl by 18/19 year old guide leaders who were old enough to know better), being clever, having a dad who was a bit older than everyone else's dad, being into the goth/alternative scene, standing up for other kids who were picked on and befriending them, having friends who were mainly male, having big boobs, having a weird mark on my nose ( I really haven't), having knee socks that wouldn't stay up, sucking at PE...I could really write a book!

Tabsicle · 12/07/2016 22:44

Being hairy. As an adult I've spent a fortune on hair removal because I assume if anyone sees a stray hair away from my head they will think I'm a monster.

Destinysdaughter · 12/07/2016 22:45

I wore my older sisters' hand me downs at school so pp thought we were poor and I was bullied for that. As a teenager In the Eighties had a few black boyfriends and got called " nigger lover" and nearly got beaten up for it.

Hated school.

MoggieMaeEverso · 12/07/2016 22:46

Not having any boobs.
Having boobs (I matured over the summer)
Looking like a neanderthal.
My hair.
My walk.
Being ugly.
Being a nerd.
Pronouncing words differently.

Thanks, this has been cathartic! Flowers for all of you.

janey77 · 12/07/2016 22:47

This is another one I had forgotten, but it's why I bleach my arm hair!!!!

JE678 · 12/07/2016 22:49

Being ginger. My youngest has inherited it and my heart breaks when I think what he may have ahead of him. It was unrelenting and destroyed my self esteem.

triathlon · 12/07/2016 22:49

Being posh (I'm not)
Wearing the "wrong" clothes, not interested in fashion
Being "square" and "boring" e.g. not getting drunk/smoking/swearing
Liking the "wrong" sort of music
Wanting to learn, in a school where you were only cool if you didn't want to work or learn
Being a churchgoer, which is totally uncool
Being oversensitive and easily upset
My accent (nothing wrong with it, just wasn't local to where I lived)
Not achieving my potential for various reasons
Jealous competitive people resenting when I did well
Being stuck up (I'm not, I am quiet and introverted)
And most of all, for no reason at all.

AWaspOnAWindowInAHeatwave · 12/07/2016 22:59

Anything and everything Confused

In primary school - for not having the best branded clothes/track suits/shoes (no uniform).

In secondary school - for being too quiet, so I got louder then was bullied for being too loud.

For being an easy target - so I toughened up a bit then was bullied for having a temper.

For opening my mouth to speak.

For sitting quietly with a book, pretending I wasn't too scared to speak.

For being polite to teachers - so I started smoking/bunking off/mucking about, then I was bullied for "trying too hard to be bad".

For being shit at PE - the PE teachers used to join in with that as well - throwing netballs and footballs at the backs of my bare calves when they were stinging with cold and rain, telling me if I was running faster they wouldn't be making contact.

For being fat/ugly/unfashionable - yeah I probably was a bit, but perhaps this was all due to the self-confidence issues I had as a result of being bullied...

For not being attractive/slim/fashionable enough to attract any of the boys - so I put out, and was bullied for being a slag.

For self-harming (apparently this was nothing to do with all the bullying - I was "attention seeking").

I remember one of the bullies leaving in the first year to go to another school - the feeling of relief was immense but short-lived as one of the other bullies said there was a new boy starting in her place, and they would tell him from day one that if he wanted to be on the football team he'd have to bully me too (so, of course, he did...)

In adult life, work and relationships... For setting a precedent by trying too hard in the first instance, burning out and being unable to keep up the ridiculous level of effort I try to put in, and subsequently being branded as "lazy" because I just cannot keep up the pace (which, I might add, is significantly more than the majority of people could ever manage on a good day 😒).

And sometimes I wonder why I feel angry, frustrated and useless...

BigDamnNCFail · 12/07/2016 23:00

For:

being English (we moved to Scotland when I was 10)
my name
wearing 'half mast' trousers when I had a bit of a growth spurt
being 'posh'
my clothes/style
playing the 'cello

To be honest, I think of it all as being bullied for being autistic (now I realise I am autistic). Basically, they knew I was 'different' in some way and that's why they picked on me so anything about me that stood out was used.

JanetStWalker · 12/07/2016 23:25

Bushy red hair, goofy teeth, big hooked nose, tall, skinny....yeah, you get the picture. School was pretty bloody hellish back in the 80s, regular taunts and the butt of many 'jokes', I even got egged on the way to school once - I was 9. I've noticed a massive shift in the last few years, young people seem generally kinder and more accepting, to your face anyway.

PS I discovered hair straighteners, had a nose job and 3 years of braces and I'm almost a swan now Grin

honeylulu · 12/07/2016 23:26

OP I was teased for having straight hair! How I longed for waves. My hair was very long, dark and poker straight. The boys at primary called me "Neil" (from The Young Ones).
Being (relatively) poor at private school. My parents scrimped to send us and we got teased for not having a swimming pool!
My mum being overweight. The other mums were glamorous trophy wives.
Being a early developer. Bra at age 9. Mortifying.

honeylulu · 12/07/2016 23:30

My husband is ginger as are his siblings. Interestingly he says no teasing but if a group of them got into trouble the teachers would always notice or hear about the ginger kid being involved!
Our daughter has beautiful titian golden red hair. I hope no one teases her about it when she goes to school.

awishes · 12/07/2016 23:37

I work in a school and I hope to give you some assurance that I don't hear much of this name calling going on. 💐

2016Bambino · 12/07/2016 23:37

Being fat.
Having a tin of mandarin segments in Home Economics class that were purchased from Aldi. I was scum of the earth for my parents shopping at Aldi and I was picked on for weeks about it. Seems so ridiculous now and also how did they know they were from Aldi unless they'd been themselves Grin

pleasemothermay1 · 12/07/2016 23:46

My inability to spell of use grammar I have always felt ashamed but since I used this site it has become worse tbh it's really effected me

People pretend they don't understand what your writing when they clearly do

People have also told me I don't get to have a view on education because of my spelling

Or be attacked on that instead of my point because they don't like what your saying