What is Female Bullying?

Ever been subtly left out, hit with a backhanded compliment, or made to feel like you're imagining things? That’s not just drama—it could be female bullying, a form of relational aggression that's quiet but deeply harmful. In this video, we break down the signs of female bullying, from passive aggression to social exclusion and plausible deniability, and why it’s often missed or ignored. These behaviors may not leave bruises, but they can leave emotional scars. Have you ever mistaken manipulation for friendship?

Credits:
Writer: Michelle Rivas
Animator Sakura
Director: Michelle Rivas
Youtube Manager: Cindy Cheong
Assisted: Brisky Quach

Learn more about this topic:

Vaillancourt, T. (2013). Do human females use indirect aggression as an intrasexual competition strategy? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 368(1631), 20130080. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0080

Benenson, J. F., Markovits, H., Thompson, M. E., & Wrangham, R. W. (2011). Under threat of social exclusion, females exclude more than males. Psychological Science, 22(4), 538–544. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611402511

Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66(3), 710–722. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131945