Bullying in Sports

The locker room is the heart of high school sports, its where the drama happens, the tea is spilled, team bonding occurs, and  it is an unique environment that stems off of the world of sport. The locker room is a key aspect of the world of basketball, its where the team gets ready together and hyped up for games and it is also gossip central. During my freshman year of basketball, we, the freshman team, were all hanging out in the locker room either before or after practice and the gossip started up. This one girl, Emily, got everyone's attention and showed the group a comparison picture of one of my closest friends, Kaelyn, and her brother, which is who Emily was dating at the time, and was questioning how the same parents could have made such an attractive son and then have 'that'. Emily was bullying my friend behind her back on the basis that Kaelyn does not look like the stereotypical 'it look' of an attractive high school girl. Emily probably did not know it at the time, and neither did I, that she was imposing the "fit look" mold that is forced onto every female athlete through society as Shultz discusses in her books. Emily was degrading Kaelyn solely based on her looks. During Emily's mockery of Kaelyn I sat there quietly while one of my closest friends was bullied behind her back. At the time I was a small freshman with low self-esteem, confronting issues, and was terrible at standing up for people and even myself. Emily was one of the popular, it girls of my class and I did not have enough confidence to stand up to her in front of the whole freshman basketball team to defend my friend. I still regret not standing up for her then. Within this incidence the imbalance of power was in Emily's favor, in high school the popular kids always had the advantage with social power compared to someone who was not popular. My friend's power was being chipped away before my eyes and I did not have enough power within myself to stand up to someone with greater power. If I would have spoken out and told her to stop making fun of my friend she might have and I could have saved my friend from more of Emily talking sh*t behind her back. Later, I did tell Kaelyn what happened so she would know the type of person Emily is, so she can prepare or guard herself from Emily's hurtful stabs. The feeling of disappointment in myself for not being strong enough to defend one of my closets friends to this day still haunts me and the next time one of my friends is being mistreated, mocked, or anything that stems from bullying, I will not just sit there quietly and listen to it.