Talapus wrote:And it doesn't have to be rugby players, or even large people. It is amazing how well a group of 30 or 50 nerds can defend themselves. Although having a few friends who are willing to get into fistfights on your behalf doesn't hurt (I fell into the group of swimmers somehow). Bullying is mostly a problem in elemtry and middle school (it mostly goes away by highschool, although is not entirely gone), and I had the good fortune of being quite tall. I don't understand it, but even the bullies seemed to by intimidated by me (no matter how weak I was at the time) just because I was 15-30 cm taller then them.
Very true!
I was made fun of and bullied quite a bit in elementary and middle school, and even in to high school. Funny thing, though, once I got to late middle-school and shot up a foot and a half, people stopped bothering me physically

Even now, although I'm a pacifist and really quite wimpy, people tend not to bother me because I'm 6'4".
As far as why people make fun of other people, they do it for a variety of reasons. I do it to show affection, as strange as that sounds. My closest friends and I are absolutely horrible to each other, as far as the things we say to and about each other to our faces. We don't mean any of it, of course.
I actually have had people think I was being horribly mean to them and hated them, when in fact I was just kidding around with them and was actually fairly fond of them.
Apparently bullying is in the eye of the beholder sometimes.
I'm not dead; I'm dormant.