In my experience, at least among adults, it is rarely physical beatings and far more discounting, minimalizing, dehumanizing, insulting and generally making it clear that the victim is less-than and disposable. Still damaging and disheartening.
(BTW, just found this thread, and we need more þ! But what is þridus?)
Among kids/teens (observed and personal experience) it’s mixed. With “zero tolerance” policies in schools, the bullies aren’t leading with the physical abuse as readily. It’s there, but it’s sneakier. The sophistication of the emotional/mental cruelty has gone up as the age of the onset of bullying has gone down—my kid was in the receiving end of the title of a campaign in lower elementary school that rivaled what I experienced in middle and high school.
Among adults, I agree with @Docosc @Millie_Fink and @mindysan33
I started getting beaten up in 1st grade. So I strongly associate bullying with the beatings, and other severe violence.
Þridus = thread.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. It must have been awful and I hate that you had to deal with that.
I think that it’s a major part of bullying in general, especially at that age… for myself, I never got physically attacked, just mentally tortured through most of middle school into early HS… It’s all aimed at getting people who conform to do so, either through physical attacks or via isolation via psychological attacks. It’s all about shaving off the rough edges of people who (for whatever reason) just don’t fit the mold. I wish schools were all like my daughter’s school, and took a hardline against any kind of bullying. All it does is traumatize children and we should not let that happen.