emo

I’m afraid I am turning more and more into Sociology Nurse - and I can’t help myself. But when the world turns out stuff like this:

All Crying, Self-Harming Emo Children To Be Banned In Mother Russia

..it makes one stop, notice and ask questions.

But what’s the real story behind the sensational headline of Heckler Spray - whoever they are?

More gripping headlines (and my attempt to contend with E and spice up my posts with pics totally and plagiaristically ripped from the NME author-site a la Persuad) reveal:

Emo to be made illegal in Russia?

My Chemical Romance fans protest at the Daily Mail’s London office

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We’ve previously covered the subject of emo, and the various attempts to blame emo culture for adolescent self-harm and suicide. As I’ve said before, I think such criticism is entirely hysterical and wrong-headed.

And now I’m pleased to hear that an emo band has performed a gig in Bridgend in the wake of the suicides that have taken place there. The gig has been done to raise money for the Samaritans and to encourage young people to seek assistance as an alternative to suicide.

While I commend this emu band for coming up with a constructive response to the Bridgend suicides, I also can’t help but be slightly amused by the irony that that band are called…Funeral For A Friend.

Since emo has become something of a running topic on this blog, I note that today the emos have struck back at the Daily Mail, staging a protest outside their offices to register their objection to the Daily Heil’s utterly ridiculous “killer cult of emo” hysteria.

I’d like to take this opportunity to applaud the kids who did this. Well done for standing up for yourselves, and being willing to take the Mail to task over their scaremongering.

Now go and listen to some Nine Inch Nails, some Black Sabbath and some Generation Terrorists/Holy Bible-era Manic Street Preachers, you bunch of limp-wristed, middle class pantywaists.

Following on from my earlier post about emo, I think I’ve give a real-world clinical example, dealing with a self-harming emo kid.

A quick caveat before I do. Teenage self-harming is not an “emo thing”. We see plenty of cutters in CAMHS, and the bulk of them are not emos. Chavs cut themselves too. In fact, some kids cut themselves despite not being part of any fashion clique at all. It’s almost as if self-harm were a mental health issue rather than a fashion trend. Strange, that.

Anyway, let’s bring in our emo. He’s 15 years old, and in honour of My Chemical Romance, we’ll call him Gerard.
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Here in our CAMHS clinic, I’ve been having to explain to my colleagues about the differences between chavs, moshers, emos and goths. I’m fairly young (well, early 30s) so they look to me as the expert on what the hip kids are boogieing on down to in groovetown.

Of course, I’m always up for increasing my knowledge base, so I thank Mental Patient About Town for pointing out that the Daily Mail has put its finger on the pulse of emo, and has worked it all out.
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