Why is it that I find myself blogging most when I have uni assessments due?
The UK tabloid media have gone all-out on Hannah Bond's suicide. The Sun: Suicide of Hannah, the secret "emo". The Telegraph: Popular schoolgirl dies in 'emo sucide cult'. Even the more upmarket Times is in on the act: Girl, 13, hanged herself after becoming obsessed with 'emo'. I think it's only that last article which points out that the suicide actually happened in September last year. I wonder why it's suddenly news now? Was the inquest into her death only just now completed?
Hannah's profile is no longer on Bebo. Someone else has put up a memorial page using her former username: http://www.bebo.com/LivingDisaster. Looks like the 4chan people have decided to have some fun in the comments section recently. There are other memorial sites there, such as http://www.bebo.com/RIPhannahxXx. Most recent commenters, those who were genuine friends of Hannah and aren't just there for the lulz, are really pissed at the recent media coverage. Unsurprisingly.
In spite of the ludicrous claims of the media that members of the so-called emo "cult" spend their time "talking about death and the glamorisation of hanging and speaking about “the black parade” - a place where “emos” believe they go after they die", none of that appears anywhere in any of the comments left by any of Hannah's friends. Unsurprising, since the whole idea of it is complete and utter crap. The phrase "black parade" does appear in the comments of the 4chan people who are mocking the death, though. Over and over again. So I expect the mainstream media to do what it does every time it discusses emo, and utterly fail to make a distinction between the genuine and the mocking commentary on emo. I fully expect to see "in-depth investigations" from the mainstream press, which will say stupidity such as "we investigated Hannah's bebo profile and were shocked at the number of times the 'black parade' was mentioned and glorified".
Looks like the emo kids are going to be the targets of a full-blown moral panic yet again. Pity.
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2 comments:
I bet you're a dirty emo too, I hear they all stick up for each other. Quite sick if you ask me.
Fascinating. You don't know enough about emo to be able to tell who is and isn't involved with it, but you've been taught to hate it anyway.
I left youth subcultures behind a long time ago. Grew out of them long before I'd ever heard the word "emo". I've long learned how temporary such subcultural labels really are.
I'm interested in this because I don't think 13-year-olds killing themselves is a good thing. You're free to disagree with that of course. I also think that the way the papers are going about the reporting of the death now will result in more teenagers killing themselves rather than less. You're free to view that as a good thing rather than a bad thing as well if you like: more deaths means less emo kids around to offend you just by existing, right? Personally, I don't see it that way.
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