[Ammi]

..I also think that there may be good reasons that Ashleigh does things the way she does and doesn’t get into confrontations with Helen as she has already said that she was badly bullied and I think that has made her tougher in some ways but she must still feel a lot of emotions and lack of self esteem associated with that ( ..it can’t have been that long ago considering her age now..) and maybe Helen with her behaviour in the house, represents someone/people that have made Ashleigh quite fearful so it’s understandable that she would ‘shy’ away from that in a way and yet still have a very strong feeling of ‘justice’ against someone like Helen...I think a poster said earlier with Pauline’s bullying behaviour that there’s this thing that we have to see victims as quite mild/more submissive people and if their bullies don’t ‘beat them’ into that persona which people can relate to more easily, then there is a tendency to not feel any empathy and especially as Ashleigh has been shown in a very ‘hard’ one dimensional way....I do think though that she does see what a lot of people see which is a very mean and spiteful and slightly bullying personality with Helen and how she’s been mean to people/bitches about people/calls them derogatory names and I think everything about Ashleigh goes against that but yeah, I don’t think she can maybe take that step of ‘confrontation’ especially as Helen tends to ‘run with a pack’ and be part of a clique, she would find that quite scary....I also think it’s really harsh for people to have any empathy for Helen and her life that may have contributed to how aggressive and defensive she is now but then to have none at all with Ashleigh and her unfortunate experiences and just think of her as a bitch and nothing more....