The Tactics of Mean

 Here is another post on my Mean Girls Blog Series:

Why are you the one that the mean girl chose?

It's quite simple really, there are only three options to that question:

1. Your her rival. She considers you an equal who might at some point knock her down a notch. You might get the promotion or the man that she wants.
2. She beleives you to be somehow better than her. Either in position of power, or more smarter, or more beautiful than her.
3. She is mean for a reason. You have done something to offend her or may have been a mean girl toward her. Feeling the need to protect herself, she turn mean for a reason.

 So what is the mean girls choice of attack?
Here are some of the tactics that are famously known to be used by MG's:

• Gossip. This is most popular weapon of choice. It is what makes the mean girl feel high and mighty knowing that she is raising herself up to look good and lowering the victim down to look bad. It can bring both pleasure and pain in an easily destructive way. And the truth is, most girls gossip without even trying to hurt someone. But what else is there for girls to talk about? A lot, if you think about it, but most girls find it enjoyable to talk about other people. If you have been gossiped about, then think of this verse:

 A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent {woman}overlooks an insult

~Proverbs 12:16

•  Slander. While gossiping often starts out as what we think is the truth, slandering is what we spread to purposefully hurt someone. But the thing is, not only does it hurt the victim, but it can also have a negative effect on the perpetrator. I love the example that this book has on slander:

Scenario 1.

Eve was forty-five when she met Roger. Twenty years her senior, Roger was the man of her dreams. But when she moved into his house, a shockwave went through the neigborhood. Rumors started to spread about her supposedly gold-digging ways. Women who had never talked to Eve where telling people how manipulative and evil she was. The fear that their husbands would see Roger finding a younger woman and decide to do the same led these women to desperate measures. After all, their families had to be protected. They couldn't let that woman influence there husbands.

Scenario 2.

The babysitter, and energetic twenty-something, adored Joann's kids, and what's more, her kids adored the babysitter. In fact, maybe they liked her a bit too much. When Joann came home from work, the kids cried because the babysitter had to leave. Joann felt awful. So to correct the matter, she began to complain about the babysitter to her husband. "She's irresponsible," "I don't like the way she treats the kids", and so on. Her goal: To replace the babysitter with a woman her kids wouldn't prefer over her.

One of the commandments clearly states: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (Exodus 20:16). Many women know this yet often times goes against the word of God, and in turn, cause spiritual destruction to themselves and hurt other people in the process. The truth is, that with slander, no one wins.

• The Compliment Giver. Your so skinny! And other insults... Mean girls tend to know how to give a compliment that you know is meant to be perceived as an insult. Kind of like sarcasm. It's just another way that they can make themselves look sweet to the innocent bystander, but make you feel like dirt in the mud. 

I know that it sounds like I am pointing out all the negatives, but until we fully understand the mind set of a Mean Girl we will never know how to react. Just like you cant resolve an issue if you don't know what the issue is.

Thanks for reading this post, I hope it's leangth didn't bore you too much ;)

Have a Blessed Day!

~Miss.Adriana Castillo