Since my last piece on the cyberbullying taking place through Facebook, other sites targeting girls for their alleged flaws have been found.  One identifying young women not considered  “marriage material”.  Another naming and shaming ‘12-year-old sluts’.  Another for girls labelled “bitches”.  British girl Poppy Bracey recently took her life  as a result of a cyber bullying campaign against her.  Poppy was 13. She was harassed for being “too pretty”. (Some commenting on the story said girls like this just need to toughen up).  It seems no girl can ever be good enough. She must grow up trying to shield herself from virtual darts and real-life abuse, coming at her from every direction.

The piece below by Melbourne blogger Elizabeth (left) at My Spilt Milk  (whose comments I have valued on my  posts), is a passionate exploration of these online monuments to cruelty. Elizabeth nails the hypocrisy of Facebook in banning breastfeeding images while allowing sexualised depictions of women, harrassment and abuse to flourish on untold numbers of sites.

“Relentless in their efforts to demean her.”

“Persistent and vicious.”

“Aggressive and intimidating.”

These are some of the descriptions of the physical and emotional bullying Brodie Panlock was subjected to by the four men convicted and fined for their role in her suicide.

That’s them (clockwise from top left): Marc Luis Da Cruz, Nicholas Smallwood, Rhys MacAlpine and Gabriel Toomey. I described what they did to her in my last blog. It is a harrowing list which includes putting rat poison in her bag and telling her to take it.  Four men acting in a pack against a vulnerable teenage girl.

As Brodie’s  mother said today, “They drove her to the edge and they pushed her over.”

For this they were fined a total of $115,000. It doesn’t seem that much really, for what happened to Brodie.

I can’t stop thinking about Brodie Panlock.

Brodie was 19 when she took her life following unrelenting bullying at the Melbourne café where she worked as a waitress.

This is what the men at her workplace did to her:

• They poured fish oil into her bag and in her hair and clothes.
• They called her fat and ugly.
• They spat on her.
• They gossiped about her.
• They excluded her.
• They mocked her for a previous suicide attempt.
• One put rat poison into her bag and told her to take it.

This is one of the four men who did this to Brodie. His name is Nicholas Smallwood. What a man is Nicholas Smallwood, so bold and brave to torment a teenage girl.

A former barista at Café Vamp said Brodie “had no confidence in her beauty or worth…I have never seen anything like what those…males did to Brodie,” Meghan Chester said.

And no one – not one person – intervened to help her.

This excessive cruelty – by grown men – led Brodie to jump from a building. Adult men bullying a teenage girl who turns up to work everyday to serve coffee and do her job. Ground down so she thinks she’s worthless.

How does something like this happen in Australia, in the 21^st century? What is this, Lord of the freakin’ Flies?

Thinking of you Brodie, and your family who have lost you. Wish we could have done something to help you.

If you are reading this and are a victim of bullying, please don’t hide it. Get help. It’s against the law.

And if you have been bullied, I’d like to hear about it. Please post a comment about your experience. What happened? Did you get help? If it stopped how did it stop? Do you have advice for others who have been targetted by bullies?

Lifeline: 13 11 14