Everyone has their own story as to why they are the way they are. But when someone is different people start to call names or stereotype which can be offensive and lead to deeper problems.
How do I know? Because I consider myself an Emo and I am sick of people making judgments about me and my friends. We want the stereotyping to stop.
In today’s society, Emo basically means a depressed individual, some people think. According to wiki.answers .com, the definition of Emo is “a label people give themselves for being apathetic and emotional to an extreme (usually miserable), but wallowing in it and not wanting it to change.” This is not true.
It’s a known fashion with some Emo’s to cut themselves so as if to leave marks or to wear heavy eye makeup. Their hair cuts tend to have awkward sharp angles and are often glossed. Many of the guys wear very tight jeans that are often made for women. It may be so that some Emos do cut themselves and dress differently but you don’t have to be Emo to do these things. Any teenager can cut themselves or style their hair like scene, a type of hairstyle that involves teasing and hair dye. These types of stereotypes begin to put labels on people who “act” Emo.
I feel I fit into the Emo sense of fashion, in a punk rock kind of sense. I have long hair, cut into short layers and it is dyed a pinkish-blonde. I do wear make-up because I like the way it looks on me, but not because of an Emo stereotype. Sometimes I feel like an outcast because when I see the other kids they look at me weird because of the way I like to dress: blue and white Airwalk’s painted with a skeleton face; a black-three quarter shirt with a “Noisy Toys” tee underneath; a black glove on my left hand and a winged, skull necklace.
Because of the ignorance and different assumptions towards the Emo culture many have been getting hurt. Not just emotionally but physically as well. According to https://forum.davidicke.com, there’s been uproar in Mexico on Emos recently. There have anti-Emo rallies and Emo beat downs. A movement is growing on message boards and social networking sites by non Emo youth who extremely disfavor the Emo look and attitude. These problems first stared out in Queretaro, Mexico on March 7 when about 800 adolescents went on a rampage hunting for Emos to beat them down. The next weekend it had spread to Mexico City. There have been reports of anti Emo violence in Durango, Colima, and elsewhere, according to various news reports.
Several Hartford Journalism & Media students, Sayleelove Torres, 15, David Buie 14, and Christopher Irizarry, 16, classify themselves as Emo. When asked why they were Emo each one had similar answers.
“I always was… I just never really showed it” said Torres.
Buie added “I spent my life not fitting in with any group and I finally found that I fit in with being Emo. It suits me.”
Irizarry’s response was a bit more intriguing as he explained “I’ve gone through so much that I just don’t care anymore about anything. It’s my style and what I’ve been through has turned me into who I am.”
Emo can also mean a style of rock music and that has a good melody and is expressive, often with confessional lyrics. The term Emo actually originated in the 1980’s where the music was classified as emotional hardcore or “Emocore, “according to wiki.answers .com. Emocore was nothing more than a type of style generally related to the rock fashion. Listening to music like Evanescence, Seether, Simple plan, BVB, or Escape the Fate would include Emocore.
Chuck Dillon from www.blog30x30.blogspot.com creates his own opinion of Emo people by posting stereotypes of them based on what he sees daily from teaching at the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia. He has created 20 types of students and Emo is one of them. According to Dillon, all Emo people, have piercings on every body part possible, hair that is styled for at least 45 minutes using Elmer’s glue or Vaseline, arms bandaged to cover up cutting, not sure if they’re male or female and when asked for their name it’s usually changed to something unisex or “raven wings,” something along those lines, black iPod to play depressing induced music and depressing poetry written on arm in either ballpoint pen or sharpie. Dillon did not reply to am email message sent to him by Teens Today.
After being showed Dillon’s post and a cartoon sketch on his blog that stereotypes’ Emo’s, all three interviewees became somewhat infuriated. When Torres asked how she felt about the stereotypes she exclaimed “Stereotypes on Emo people annoy me because it’s not true.”
Irizarry said “it hurts not everyone is like that…people don’t know and don’t understand what we go through so you can’t stereotype. It’s just ignorant.”
JMA student Earlene Hawkins was asked her what came to mind when she heard Emo and she said “They’re emotionless and always wear dark colors. They paint their nails black and always wear black. They also cut themselves.”
After showing Hawkins the stereotypical picture of a supposed Emo person her opinion still stood. “Half of me think that the general idea of an Emo person is true but the other half says that I know that all the stereotypes aren’t true.”
It starts with the stereotypes and the pictures. Something that’s been created over stupidity can turn into something big like life threatening situations. Stop the stereotyping now before it turns into genocide.