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Sofia Sanchez

Professor Sabina Erickson

ENGL 115

23 October 2022

Bullying Hurts

Throughout Gabi: A Girl in Pieces written by Isabel Quintero, there is a recurring theme

of bullying, usually brought upon from Georgina, typically, Gabi and her friends tend to be the

topic of most of her insults. This theme is displayed in a number of other ways. These insults can

range from body shaming towards Gabi, to making jokes about Cindy being pregnant, to even

insulting other students. Bullying is a huge issue in the world, but specifically higher with the

younger generations. Bullying can really take a toll on someone's life and their mental health. No

matter what form of bullying is being portrayed and executed on a person, they all can be really

harmful to the individual in the long run.

Bullying is something that a lot of children experience, have seen it in action, or know

someone who has been bullied. Gabi, sadly, ended up being one of those teens who have been a

victim of this harmful activity. There are many different “issues” that could cause someone to

end up being bullied. Some common examples include, individuals making fun of someone's

weight, looks, living situations, being “poorer” than others, family situations, sexuality

preferences, grades, and so many more unmentioned issues. Many of these problems are

presented in Gabi: A Girl in Pieces. Georgina ends up gossiping about Cindy's pregnancy to

other students, “She also said that we’d been in the pharmacy lots of times, getting tests and

condoms,” (Quintero 28). Gossiping is possibly the worst form of bullying. This is extremely
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hard on people who receive the treatment of bullying because this is behind the individual's back.

According to Cynthia Marie Ganesh from the Delicious Malice: Envy and Gossip in Relational

Aggression published in 2014 In other words, it is the intentions of the gossipers and the

consciousness with which information is distributed that distinguishes innocent bonding from a

malicious attack,” (Cynthia Maria Ganesh). Some people who may not be directly involved in

gossiping, might get some satisfaction from being involved in the form of bullying because they

might get on the person who is spreading the rumor's good side to seem “cooler”.

Bullying does not always mean that someone is specifically bullying an individual in a

direct way. Most students have been involved in a form of bullying, whether it’s formally

bullying, not speaking up about witnessing bullying, entertaining gossiping, and other forms.

According to Justin W. Patchin from the Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice published in 2018,

“Of note, even though only one-fifth (20.3%) of students reported they had “taken part in

bullying another student or students at school,” 27% said they had “called other students mean

names, made fun of, or teased” someone else in the last 30 days,” (Justin W. Patchin). Georgina

was a large advocate in bullying a lot of students in their high school. Not only did she gossip

about individuals, she also called students names, made fun of them, and even teased them to

their faces.

Georgina has no mercy when it comes to finding victims of her next bullying act. From

the novel, all of the individuals who have been put through the horrendous act of Georginas

bullying have come from different backgrounds and have been teased for different unique traits.

Georgina has gossiped to Gabi about some students before who were “different” to other

students, “Look at those two retards. How nasty. People like that should never ever make out.

It’s so freaking gross,” (Quintero 17). Usually, students who end up being bullied in their life are
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seen as weird and not normal to some students. Being seen as “different” gives bullies the

opportunity to use that trait about that person and use it against them to make them feel very

insecure about themselves. According to Julian J. Mendez from the Hispanic Journal of

Behavioral Sciences published in 2012, “Other studies are consistent with this notion, showing

that students who are dissimilar from their peers in any way are frequently the victims of

bullying,” (Julian J. Mendez). Being bullied for being different from others can really cause

someone's self esteem to go down and cause them, to possibly, become depressed. This can also

cause individuals to have this bullying take a turn for the worse and could end up with the person

inflicting self-harm on themselves or even possibly suicide.

These types of harmful acts such as bullying, can be more harsh for individuals who are a

part of the LGBTQ+ community. In Gabi: A Girl in Pieces, Sebastian had a very hard time with

coming out to his parents. Both his parents could not come to terms with their son being gay. His

father is very homophobic and his mother would rather do anything else than look at her son, “ I

wonder how it it must feel to have disappointed your mother so much she would rather kill

herself than look at you,” (Quintero 22). Bullying does not always mean it's coming from other

students, some individual parents might speak and treat their kids poorly. Individuals who are a

part of the LGBTQ+ community tend to feel like when they keep it a secret, their family will still

accept them in their family, but if they do not have supporting parents, they might get disowned

or looked at differently within their family. Individuals who are a part of the community,

sometimes, tend to feel like they are not being themselves and will never be accepted because of

their sexuality. According to Sherice Gearhart and Weiwu Zhang from the Social Science

Computer Review published in 2014, “Spurred by the number of suicides in late 2010 among

youth in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community (GLBT), this issue has
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increasingly become a topic of public debate,” (Sherice Gearhart and Weiwu Zhang). Sebastian

ended up having parents who were not accepting of his sexuality and he ended up being one of

those individuals in the LGBTQ+ community who were disowned and kicked out of his house.

Another reason a lot of individuals end up being bullied is because of their weight or their

body type. People who experience bullying for their body type might end up being self conscious

with their body and become insecure or even experience body dysmorphia. There can be

numerous ways someone can bully someone about their weight, some ways are verbally,

mentally, physically and more. According to Jacqlyn L. Yourell and Jennifer L. Doty from The

Journal of School Health which was published in 2022, “Weight-based bullying involves

unwanted words or behaviors directed at body weight or size verbally, relationally, physically, or

online,” (Jacqlyn L. Yourell and Jennifer L. Doty). Gabi was self conscious in her body type

because Georgina and every Gabi’s own mom would make Gabi feel bad about her shape. When

Georgina went up to Gabi about finding out who was pregnant, she said “Well, Gabi, I know this

isn’t for you. No one would be fucking your fat ass. So, I guess, the winner is…Cindy!”

(Quintero 15). When she was talking to her, she did not need to mention her weight at all since it

had nothing to do with the topic she was on about, but somehow she managed to find a way to

bully and be rude to Gabi.

Personally, I have witnessed/become aware of bullying that was occurring with a close

friend of mine. My friend Tyler is gay, and he is very scared about coming out to his parents

because he does not think that they will accept him for his sexuallity. Some students in high

school were rude to him when they found out that he was gay. This was really taking a toll on

him and he did not feel accepted for who he was. As a friend, it is extremely difficult to see him
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struggle with being able to be himself. It is important that I support and be their for him to help

him through his personal struggles.

In conclusion, Georgina seems to have targeted a bunch of different students for various

different reasons that make the individuals “different”. Bullying in schools and in the younger

generation are very common, yet, should not be something that still happens. These actions

might cause people to feel bad about themselves, just how Gabi felt bad about not being as

“skinny” as other girls and how Sebastian was terrified about coming out to his parents. Bullying

seems to be something that everyone has experienced within their lives once before. This can

mean formally engaging in bullying, not saying anything about someone bullying another

student, engaging in gossiping and more. Gabi: A Girl in Pieces written by Isabel Quintero has a

lot of different themes that many different people can relate to, especially students growing up

during high school.

Works Cited

Ganesh, Cynthia Marie. Delicious Malice: Envy and Gossip in Relational

Aggression. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2014.

Gearhart, Sherice, and Weiwu Zhang. “Gay Bullying and Online Opinion

Expression: Testing Spiral of Silence in the Social Media Environment.” Social Science

Computer Review, vol. 32, no. 1, 2014, pp. 18–36,

https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439313504261.

Mendez, Julian J., et al. “Bullying of Mexican Immigrant Students by Mexican

American Students: An Examination of Intracultural Bullying.” Hispanic Journal of

Behavioral Sciences, vol. 34, no. 2, 2012, pp. 279–304,

https://doi.org/10.1177/0739986311435970.

Patchin Justin W, and Hinduja Sameer. “Deterring Teen Bullying.” Youth

Violence and Juvenile Justice, vol. 16, no. 2, 2018, pp. 190–207,

https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204016681057.

Quintero, Isabel. Gabi, a Girl in Pieces. First edition., Cinco Puntos Press, 2014.
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Yourell, Jacqlyn L., and Jennifer L. Doty. “Associations Between Weight‐Based

Bullying, Developmental Internal Assets, and Perceived Social Support Among Youth.”

The Journal of School Health, vol. 92, no. 1, 2022, pp. 42–51,

https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.13101.