The film Bully proves the USA has a problem. And Jiu-Jitsu may be the solution http://www.graciemag.com/2012/05/the-film-bully-proves-the-usa-has-a-problem-and-jiu-jitsu-may-be-the-solution/
If schoolyard bullying is a disease, cinema may be the cure. That’s the idea behind film director Lee Hirsh’s latest work, Bully, in the US box office right now. The movie is overpowering, a punch in the gut to anyone who felt the problem was merely a rite of passage kids have to go through to mature. Through scenes capturing violent assaults and reports of suicide, the movie stirs the emotions and proves once and for all that bullying, at least in the USA, is a serious social and public health problem. They’ve tried everything. But how about Jiu-Jitsu?
In a recent article in Brazilian weekly magazine Carta Capital, the psychiatrist Gustavo Teixeira, a professor at Bridgewater University in the US state of Massachusetts, defines school bullying as follows: “when there’s an relationship of power between two individuals and a child or teenager suffers frequent physical or emotional violence.”
In tackling the problem, the solutions so far come up with are equal parts utopic and confusing, like “awareness building” for inexperienced parents, the meanies themselves, and teachers and school superintendents who are often at a loss when it comes to how they should proceed. So far, though, there’s been little discussion of spreading an individual and direct remedy: protecting the victim by teaching martial arts like Jiu-Jitsu.
Ever since the days of Grandmaster Carlos Gracie, a lot of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academies have understood the solution to be injecting confident and self-defense techniques into the youth, who are helpless by nature. Nowadays, the role of Jiu-Jitsu schools extends even further, as it serves to unite boys and girls of different age groups, parents, educators and experienced black belts within the same environment. By sowing the seeds of mutual respect and self-confidence, Jiu-Jitsu sprouts friendships, thereby leaving bullying no room to flourish.
If schoolyard bullying is a disease, cinema may be the cure. That’s the idea behind film director Lee Hirsh’s latest work, Bully, in the US box office right now. The movie is overpowering, a punch in the gut to anyone who felt the problem was merely a rite of passage kids have to go through to mature. Through scenes capturing violent assaults and reports of suicide, the movie stirs the emotions and proves once and for all that bullying, at least in the USA, is a serious social and public health problem. They’ve tried everything. But how about Jiu-Jitsu?
In a recent article in Brazilian weekly magazine Carta Capital, the psychiatrist Gustavo Teixeira, a professor at Bridgewater University in the US state of Massachusetts, defines school bullying as follows: “when there’s an relationship of power between two individuals and a child or teenager suffers frequent physical or emotional violence.”
In tackling the problem, the solutions so far come up with are equal parts utopic and confusing, like “awareness building” for inexperienced parents, the meanies themselves, and teachers and school superintendents who are often at a loss when it comes to how they should proceed. So far, though, there’s been little discussion of spreading an individual and direct remedy: protecting the victim by teaching martial arts like Jiu-Jitsu.
Ever since the days of Grandmaster Carlos Gracie, a lot of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academies have understood the solution to be injecting confident and self-defense techniques into the youth, who are helpless by nature. Nowadays, the role of Jiu-Jitsu schools extends even further, as it serves to unite boys and girls of different age groups, parents, educators and experienced black belts within the same environment. By sowing the seeds of mutual respect and self-confidence, Jiu-Jitsu sprouts friendships, thereby leaving bullying no room to flourish.
