Pecking Order

Have you ever noticed how when certain groups of friends get together they have a particular pecking order? Just like any hollywood movie there are roles that have to be filled. As that orator of teenage cinema, John Hughes wrote,

You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.

Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.

But what happens when we stop seeing each other in these terms? What happens when these roles take on an aggressive or hurtful nature? Peer pressure is nothing new. Yuko likes to pressure me for tuna. I like to pressure Mark to paint my toenails. Doesn't mean it happens. Or I would permanently have red polish up to my ankles. But is this considered degrading? Besides to my ankles?

No one argues that it is fun to needle a friend. Good humour and the ability to laugh at ones self is an admirable quality. Take a lesson from Pamela Anderson, never take yourself too seriously. Giving a friend a hard time, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, is playful, but when actions starts to branch into behaviour that most Universities would consider hazing, a line should be drawn.

Picture from Flickr