I'm not a mean person, either... I've never bullied anyone in my life, and have stood up for those that were being bullied, multiple times.

But if you present as a victim, natural victimizers will victimize you... because that's just what they do.

It's their nature, born out of a self-imagined status of victimization, because they see themselves as "less than".

They're gimpy punks.

Trust me; it'll only take one incident in which you collapse a bully's trachea with a well timed and placed throat punch, and it'll all be over.

Maybe, in your case, it won't require that amount of immediate physical action... but it won't hurt your case, either way.

Aggressive humans require an overwhelming response to their aggression to be neutralized.