Via Shakesville, I stumbled across this powerful and insightful article about bullying among school kids.  As somebody who grew up bookish, queerish, funny-looking, and with poor mastery of social skills and “appropriate” gender performance, this totally resonated with me.

The furthest I have come is to accept that I have both been bullied and a bully, both oppressed and oppressor, and that I have thoroughly soaked in a definition of “normal” that I am still trying to undo, day by day. Some of that “normalization” has been enforced by other marginalized people, too — even my own friends — which makes it much, much harder to unlearn.

That is why it’s been tempting for me to just keep doing “normal.” I couldn’t when I was a kid. But I have since learned how.

I’m just not sure that’s such a good thing.

Go read the whole amazing, painful, honest, powerful piece.