Meaning of 「振り回される」 and 「身になる」in this sentence

Question

I usually do not like to ask a simple meaning question, but I have serious doubts if I get this sentence at all.

(It is uttered pretty much without any context)

「個性的な友達がふえたのは嬉しいけど、振り回される方の身にもなってほしい。」

(The parts in bold give me the most trouble in this sentence)

From what I was able to find out to find out on the internet 「振り回される」 is often translated as being wrapped around someone’s finger, however, the explanation here says the following:

https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%8C%AF%E3%82%8A%E5%9B%9E%E3%81%95%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B

https://thesaurus.weblio.jp/content/%E6%8C%AF%E3%82%8A%E5%9B%9E%E3%81%95%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B

In my opinion they slightly differ and the Japanese to Japanese explanation is easier to apply here, especially taking into consideration that other people or rather at least one person is negatively affected by that.

I understood as　「方の身にもなって」as similar to 「 相手の身になる」explained here:

https://thesaurus.weblio.jp/content/%E7%9B%B8%E6%89%8B%E3%81%AE%E8%BA%AB%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B

All in all I understood the sentence as the speaker being on the one hand happy about having gained a lot of individual friends, but on the other wanting them to be a bit more considerate about the people (or the speaker) being (negatively) affected by them. As mentioned above I am very unsure about whether this understanding is correct or not; therefore, I checked the English translation of the sentence that says:

“I’m happy to have gained so many close friends but I want people to have me wrapped around their finger!”

I am not a native speaker of English either (and used this explanation as reference: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/to-have-someone-wrapped-around-ones-finger.55250/ ) and have to admit that I do not get the sentence in English either. I am totally aware of translations being able to be incorrect or somewhat off (from the original meaning); however in this case, my understanding and the English translation are completely different.

What is it that I am getting wrong about the sentence?

Answer 1

I am not native speaker of English too, so I don't know the idiom "wrapped around someone’s finger" and let me forget the idiom at first to explain it.

• 振り回される is the passive form of 振り回す. 振り回す literally means "swing" in a sense of trying to rotate some objects with your arms.

• (方の)身になる means "to be/as one's standpoint/perspective". (It seems without 方の does not change the meaning here)

So, 振り回される方の身にもなってほしい would mean something like "I want you to be my perspective which is swung to and fro." I am not sure without context 振り回される方 in the sentence would mean as strongly dominated/controlled/influenced as "wrapped around someone’s finger".

If the agent is happy to be have the friend who is one of a kind, 振り回される would mean "being confused/slightly annoyed" or something like that.