Bender is so horrible towards Claire!

My God, who does he think he is!

Bollocks - She is SEVERELY judgemental and in doing so she bullies all those she judges as beneath her - People like Brian, who are absolute geniuses. Some kids never get over that kind of treatment, when their peers perpetually put them down and walk all over them. Bender was just giving her a taste of her own medicine.

Worse still, she mainly does it at the behest of her own friends, further perpetuating the cycle.
Bender was very kindly forcing her to examine herself and buck her ideas up - Very kindly by using words, as there would be plenty of other people who'd use other means to put her in her place if she continued like that later on in life!!!!!

Bender is harsh on her, but the majority of the time he is simply calling her out on her own BS. With the one exception, when he is under the table hiding from the principle, I do not think he was horrible to her.

Claire was the typical rich popular girl in high school, we all know someone who was just like her. She felt entitled, looked down at people, thought she was much better looking than she really was.

Bender made her realize that she is really no different from anyone else there that day. I thought it was great when he screamed that she was a b--ch when she said come Monday they are not going to be friends.

Some of the things he says to her are kind of disturbing in this day and age, but then again, it's nothing that a guy like Bender wouldn't have realistically said to a girl like Claire.

I've seen guys say and do worse to girls sadly.

Claire is a snob who talks sht about people. I agree that Bender was trying to give her a taste of her own medicine, but at the same time he's also attracted to her. So pushing her buttons and trying to get underneath her skin is how he interacts with her.

Bender comes into the detention with the idea that everyone in the room thinks they are better than he is, so everything he says and does to them is his own way of bringing them down a notch. I would imagine that it's nothing worse than what people have said to him all of his life.

He was "negging" her, and it worked, unfortunately.

Though I get he comes from a rough place, a "few" of the things he said and did to her were undeniably inexcusable. But as others have said, I wouldn't deny the notion that he gave her some constructive criticism and consequently made her rethink several things about her; and let's be fair, Claire shows a slight interest in Bender's bad boy ways throughout the movie. But, yeah, while both had their problems and all, ultimately Bender was the one who constantly wanted to get a rise out of Claire when she, as snobby as she was, just wanted to be left alone. Granted, she could have said nothing when Andrew told Bender who he thought he was to shame others, so... whatever.

Anyway, I'm not against Bender. Apart from naturally being a pain in the ass, he clearly had a thing for Claire and I suppose he had his own way of showing it. Sure, he may very well be nothing but a punk who isn't nearly as tough as he wants everyone to believe (evidently all the others weren't what they seemed either), but I can still empathize with his character given his home life had a negative impact on him. Besides, he does have his many funny moments and is oddly the life of the party.

Hey, I'm not fond of snobby, popular, rich girls either, but he was a complete jerk to her. She was just being honest when she said they probably wouldn't be friends and she was right he would also be embarrassed to be seen with any of them.

COMPLETE misreading of this movie!