Is there really a difference? For me the only difference is how I react to it and what emotion makes people say it. If I take something seriously it is an insult for me, if I laugh it off it is teasing - for me. If they want to hurt me its insult-for them, if they just want to be funny its teasing-for them.
There is no impartial name. Whatever something is an insult/teasing are objective opinions of both people and the observers. They might agree or not.
I have two family members who often do this to me - my mom and my uncle.
My mom often insults me by calling me names, the most common one is "son of a b***h" (honestly! She is my mother and I am her daughter but she still calls me "son of a b***h", lol). It hurts but I don't let it get to me. I know she is just irritated by something so she gets her anger out at me. If it hurts too much just I tell her "Why are you so mad today? Is it the time of month?"(as a tease - not to hurt her but to light the mood so she realize there is no reason to be so angry) and she stops.
She wasn't like that when I was a kid so I guess those are hormonal changes before menopause or something.
My uncle is more of a teaser. He often comments my look, for example he says my tits are too small. But I don't care what he thinks about me so I just laugh it off by saying "As if I want to have huge balloons in front!". He just got different opinion about how a girl should look like. He was always like this. He was often commenting my look even when I was 8. I never cared.
I kinda like arguing with him. Taking his attacks is a test of character but I can distance myself and even consider them funny. We can talk like this for hours and other family members have a great time listening to us. However they often worry about me and scold my uncle for going too far. In their opinion he is insulting me but I consider a tease whatever he says about me. Simply because I don't care.
19 Nov 2014, 2:57 pm
