You couldn’t be more right.
From observing my high school age nieces and nephews, having nerdy/geeky interests is more socially acceptable than it was when I was in high school (early 80’s). However, once you commit some socially unacceptable act, the penalties are much worse.
Sure, kids were picked on when I was in school, but it didn’t follow them everywhere through text messages, Facebook, etc. Also, the physical stuff seems meaner. I remember kids getting into fights and being pushed around, but my nieces and nephews have had classmates hospitalized due to bullying instances, and fights among their peers don’t seem to stop when one participant gives up.
My recollection (and, admittedly, I could be remembering it all wrong) is that the boys’ fights almost always stopped when one person had enough. The girl fights kept going until the teachers stopped it, but the girls when I was in school couldn’t fight for crap anyway. The girls seem tougher and scarier now!
That is probably true even today except for the girls being tougher now. Junior high and high school boys generally fight for honor with some respect for rudimentary rules. The typical fight doesn’t last very long and it is over when it is over and they just walk away. Girls of that age generally don’t fight at all until all hell breaks loose emotionally and then, you better look out. They tend to fight really dirty and it is hard to break up. I saw a lot of fights in high school and was in a few myself. The unofficial rule was that you don’t watch two girls fighting like people do with guys fights, you get away quickly because it can be completely unpredictable.