“I don’t think you understand what imbalance of power means. All things being equal, there is no opportunity for bullying.”

Yes. When bullying starts it starts out in a situation where everyone is, ostensibly, equal and most parties are sane. But at a certain point, it appears that neither the bullies nor the victim have much agency, and both are behaving in ways that only escalate the situation or that demonstrate learned helplessness.…

I don’t think you understand what “equals” means here. Yes, when someone bullies another person they create a situation of inequality. But bullying does usually take place between equals. We talk about kids bullying kids. Or mean girls. (A sexist trope, granted.) Or workplace bullying. Or even academic bullying.…

Yes! The fantasy that conservative European Americans have that their great grandparents all learned English over night, and spoke it well is just... so wrong. One of my weird college jobs was reading immigrant testimony for a visually challenged American Studies professor. Most of those people, be they Italian,…

Thank you. I am also a TA (three weeks away from my doctorate) and I have taught college classes for years. “I feel like” is merely an expression. It means, “I think.” Just as “I was like” is an expression that means “I said” or “I felt.” People (mostly men) who pretend that they don’t understand these phrases, or…