Laugh when you're bullied.
You know that saying, "Laugh, and the world laughs with you"? It's true, and it also has the effect of people laughing *with* you, and not *at* you... unless you laugh like a horse with one tonsil detached, of course.

I was bullied through most of my childhood due to having eczema, glasses, red hair, asthma... the whole lot. I had a nervous breakdown when I was 9, and couldn't make it through a day without bursting into tears from someone's comment. A teacher took me aside one day and just told me to laugh. And it works!

It's incredibly difficult at first. If someone's bullying you, if someone's trying to make you look bad, find the humour in the situation. It could be irony, something funny about the way they speak, something they say that's just plain ignorant... but something will be entertaining about it. Focus on that, not on what they're trying to demean you with. And laugh.

Laughter is a simple gesture- we all do it- but it's actually quite difficult to place. People don't know if you are laughing at the joke, at yourself, at them... and it doesn't matter. When you start laughing, you automatically feel better anyway. And with most bullies, laughter isn't the effect that they want anyway. They will go away, or stop bullying you.

It took about three years, but it worked. :-)
(Sivvus trolley collision in the fruit aisle led to a jam, Thu 20 May 2010, 13:19, 8 replies)

Alternatively...
A course in kick-boxing might have served you better here ;)
(jimwon, Thu 20 May 2010, 13:36, closed)

I'm going to teach my son
both ways. For when one approach fails.

Ghandi I believe;
"Talk softly, carry a big stick."
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Thu 20 May 2010, 16:11, closed)

Haha, that was Theodore roosevelt...
(Hippo_of_Doom, Thu 20 May 2010, 18:29, closed)

Thanks!
I had my doubts about it being Ghandi!
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Fri 21 May 2010, 9:35, closed)

Hmmm
You went to a different school to me. Laughing at a bully? Yeah, they like that...
(robbersdog, Fri 21 May 2010, 12:00, closed)

Yeah, I tried the "laugh at them" tactic
Got my arm broken as a reward.
( Proboscisface wrong sounding muppet, Tue 25 May 2010, 8:24, closed)

Junk
I find a swift kick in the pills usually isn't the effect they're looking for either, they will also go away and stop bullying you.
(The Cosmic Fool Became aware that the bird is indeed the word on, Fri 21 May 2010, 13:14, closed)

I just got myself a pair of steel toe cap boots
and made sure the bullies saw me kicking dents in the walls.

The bullying stopped after that.
( Crap Little Monkey Deathstar, so good they built it twice, Thu 27 May 2010, 10:00, closed)