In this post I brought you a short, animated movie on bullying, named:
are you okay?
This story tells a bullying incident from a girl's, Raquelle's perspective on witnessing real-life bullying which later becomes a humiliation on the internet: first they bullied a boy named Noah, then took humiliating pictures of him and posted them online. When the girl went to the principle to report it, they took a picture about her too and uploaded it on the internet, just like they did with the boy before... everything turned really bad for her just because she helped him... the turning point came when the girl asked the bullied boy if he was okay...
This short movie clearly and understandably depicts a huge problem that pops up when trying to defend a victim... a reason why a lot of people do not stand out for someone even though they are against the bullying act...
In my opinion the creators did an amazing job also by showing the audience how a short question like "are you okay?" can have a positive life-changing effect on the victims. They finally feel themselves seen and cared for, feel that they have at least one person to rely on when there is no one else there for them.
They also showed a really important negative aspect of handling the bullying situation as an adult: when the parent just does not pay enough attention to their child who has been cyberbullied and tells them that they can just block the person and not pay attention to them anymore. It is a huge mistake to say to your child because even if they block them, the invisible wounds the bully or the bullies had caused for them will stay with them even after blocking them on every social media site. Instead, parents should pay close attention to their child, ask them about their feelings, the things that have happened and try to find a solution, not just trying to cover the problem.
In the whole animation there is something I would really like to highlight: it is the purple jelly which has a huge and very important meaning: in my point of view, it represents the shame, guilt, loneliness and somehow the feeling of "dirtiness" that haunts bully victims. Another meaning of it is loneliness: they clearly show us that one way of fighting loneliness is by making friends, maybe with other victims or other people who try to really help us. This process from "being lonely to NOT being lonely anymore" is represented by the slow absence of jelly when the two victims made friends with each other.
Overall, the whole video shows us what devastating effect cyberbullying can have on people, how lonely it can make them feel and how the simplest acts such as asking the other "are you okay?" can have a life-changing effect on people suffering. Not to mention that reaching out for the victim or two victims making friends with each other has a huge social support effect which is also a protective factor in cases like this.
If you want to remember at least one thing from this post, that should be that being there for someone who is in the most need of it is one of the best things you can do for them! <3
Thanks for sharing us this short film. It's moving to watch a representation that actually seems to understand and care for the underneath pain that bullying causes. The purple jelly thing also caugh my attention and I found very inspiring how you used the words "guilt" and "shame". Sometimes they're difficult to find but they absolutely describe that feeling... Animation, art and metaphores are clever and interesting ways to bring up discussions, to expose questions, to search representation... and this film was a perfect example.
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