March on the Daily Mail offices, anyone?!
Commenter Northern Jess informs us that fans of the band My Chemical Romance are planning to march on the Daily Mail offices on May 31st in protest at the portrayal of the band as a “suicide cult” responsible the death of 13 year old Hannah Bond. The abso-bloody-lutely ridiculous article can be found here, while a highly amusing warning to parents about the “EMO cult”, published in 2006, includes such gems as:
The Emos - short for Emotional - regard themselves as a cool, young sub-set of the Goths.Although the look is similar, the point of distinction, frightening for schools and parents, is a celebration of self harm.
Um, no. Many teenagers, especially girls, self harm for a whole range of reasons - the music didn’t make them do it, and it certainly doesn’t make anyone commit suicide. Self harm scars and marks can be seen as cool (though I think this happens in a number of subcultures), but at least this means those involved are being open about their practice and can get some help: self harm is a symptom of underlying issues, and those are what needs to be dealt with. On top fact checking form as per usual, the Mail journalist also cites mock emo websites as evidence for her view of the subculture, and lists pop punk band Green Day as emo. They really have no idea how many hundreds of thousands of people they’ve pissed off there, do they?!
Anyways, word seems to be spreading about the protest and it could well turn into an all out “The Daily Mail spouts a bunch of crap and we’re bloody sick of it” march, so if you reckon you can handle a bunch of suicide obsessed kids with long fringes and razor blades then you may want to join them! Maybe you could try and get them to shift their arses for some political protesting while they’re at it…
Posted by Laura Woodhouse on 22 May 2008, at 8:51 PM | Comments (20)
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Feeds
liz said:
Genius, I think everyone who isn't white and middle class and a man (and hetero, and able) should picket their offices every fucking day. Imagine daily mail journalists being scared to go to work....
Posted on 22 May 2008 at 9:26 PM
Jess said:
Does anyone actually call themselves emo?! I thought it was a bit of a pejorative...
Posted on 22 May 2008 at 10:03 PM
Shea said:
Green Day emo? In the same way that Coldplay are heavy metal I suppose. Doh!
Hasn't the same thing been said about Marilyn Manson and the degeneracy of youth? That and the fact he was responsible for the Columbine High massacre. Nothing to do with the availability of guns at all................(I'm stealing from Michael Moore quite alot here).
The Daily Mail make me want to commit suicide, I think that in itself might be reason enough to join.........
Posted on 22 May 2008 at 11:08 PM
Steph Jones said:
Does anyone know what sort of time this is all happening? I'm very much up for joining in on any demonstration against that anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-trans, and fascist supporting joke of a newspaper. I don't like that newspaper, can you tell?!!!
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 9:43 AM
leigh said:
Liz- I am a heterosexual, white, middle class man with no disabilities and I want to picket the Daily Mail offices everyday.
I would not want to make anybody live in fear of simply going to work, though.
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 9:44 AM
Caroline said:
Jeez... talk about a moral panic!
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 9:54 AM
chem_fem said:
Shea - wanna start a Daily Mail suicide cult? We can sharpen the edges of the paper to self harm - darm paper cuts ;)
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 11:42 AM
Anne Onne said:
Chem_fem... then the Mail will have to write an alarmist article telling its readers to stop reading, because reading the Mail causes suicidal urges! I'd pay to see that...
Media is the symptom, not the cause in this case, I think. Granted, a lot of teenagers have problems (and not everybody who looks goth/punk/emo self-harms, and many people who do look as normal as the Mail could imagine!). I'm sick of people blaming a problem of all society (and all media) on one subculture.
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 1:22 PM
Laura Woodhouse said:
Steph - I haven't been able to find a time yet, maybe keep an eye on the NME article?
Posted on May 23, 2008 1:33 PM
Shea said:
Chem_fem- yes! then we can put out a serious warning to parents about the dangers of the Daily Mail! Lol!:-)
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 2:33 PM
chem_fem said:
Sounds like a Salon article in the making - pity I'm too inarticulate to write it - or maybe I'm too depressed/apathetic from the effects of DMO (daily mail onerosity).
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 3:45 PM
Laura Woodhouse said:
Ah, here we go - it's an all dayer!
http://www.whatthefrank.co.uk/details.html
Posted on May 23, 2008 5:14 PM
Am I turning Tory??? said:
My cousin's friends are emos and proud but I don't think any of them self harm, though. The group to really worry about are those at greatest risk of poverty and its attendant dangers who tend to get labelled 'ASBO youth'. The self harm I've seen amongst such young people is far worse than any of the piddly attempts at scab-picking I've seen from generally well adjusted and embarrassingly middle class emo kids.
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 9:24 PM
Anna said:
god, I really dislike you. I dress 'emo' - god forbid I like to wear stripy things and stars, oh jesus wept I am middle class, white and my arms are FUCKING WELL HARDCORE SCARRED INNIT.
Seriously.
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 9:32 PM
batty said:
Ha, I actually just read that on another website and thought of joining the march purely on a hate the Daily Mail thing. Great minds think alike eh?
Posted on 23 May 2008 at 9:38 PM
Danielle said:
Obviously this post struck a chord with me; I had the most AWESOME dream just before I woke up, and felt that I really had to share. So here it is:
The Daily Mail had taken over our local swimming pool and made it their HQ.
So I went in, wrote insulting messages on the walls when no one was looking, then snuck into the Head Office at the top, where Richard Branson (Yes- apparently he owned the paper) hit on me.
After explaining that I was lost, and not a potential bed mate, (He actually had a double bed in his office where he and his secretary had been reclining- the less original part of my dream.) they explained that the staff mostly used a tiny ladder on the outside of the building. Apparently health and safety passed them by. So as I climbed out and they went back to work, I wrote "is a big pile of wank" right underneath the Daily Mail sign in huge letters.
Heh, heh, heh! Needless to say, it was a VERY satisfying dream!
But in real life picketing the offices is probably about as close as I'd get :)
Posted on 24 May 2008 at 7:33 AM
Laura Woodhouse said:
Was that directed at me, Anna? I don't really understand your point.
Posted on May 24, 2008 10:44 AM
sian said:
it makes me cross because people who self harm aren't necessarily emo they are every day people who most likely don't boast about it and share it with their friends, it's a serious mental health issue that is hugely destructive, and trying to blame something as fatuous as my chemical romance is ridiculous, when its causes are so much more horrendous. it makes a mockery of a serious problem.
Posted on 24 May 2008 at 12:36 PM
liz said:
I didn't wish to exclude the dominant group, would be great if we can all storm the place together... maybe not fear of going to work, fear of writing offensive horrible bullshit on the other hand....
Posted on 24 May 2008 at 2:30 PM
Deborah McAlister said:
Why isn't everyone with any sort of sense marching on the Daily Mail offices?!
We should start a concerned citizens march on their offices.
Bring me the head of Richard Littlejohn!!
Posted on 26 May 2008 at 6:47 PM