cutting self mutilation?

Question

Has anyone heard of a new craze among teens that involves EMO, self mutilation, and dressing goth? Any insight would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Self mutilation is very, very old. This is not a 'new craze' at all. People are just much more open about it. Emo (short for 'emotional') aren't the only ones that do it, by the way. It is used as a coping mechanism for some people. Nearly 20 years ago I did an article on therapeutic self-mutilation for a small, subculture-type mag. It was my first paid article! People who do this kind of thing are considered "SI" or "self-injurers". You can read their Bill of Rights here ---->http://www.recoveryourlife.com/Self_Harm_Information/Articles/9280.aspx There is more good information on self injury on the same site if you care to educate yourself further. It's an interesting psychological phenomena IMO.

"Goths" are just another little subculture. They don't all dress all in black (I wear almost exclusively black, and I am NOT 'goth'. It just happens to be my favorite color.) and there are several subcultures within the subculture. Fairy Goth, Punk Goth, Metalhead Goth, Romantic Goth, etc, etc... Wiki has a decent description of the goth subculture here ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goth_subculture You can also check out the Dark Side of the Net here ----> http://www.darklinks.com/ which has links to many sites dealing with 'dark' subject manner. It's a bit 'goth heavy' but also covers several metal genres, horror and dark art.

Oh, and congrats on trying to educate yourself on this. I always feel it's a shame when someone makes a snap judgment about another culture, even if it is a subculture, and never bothers to truly LEARN about that culture.

~Morg~

Answer 2

sorry fredo,
This is nothing new. This has been going on for years, at least a couple decades. I think it started with the beat poets. They were just called a different name through the times. It's all about being dark and depressed and insightful or just plain stupid. nothing new at all. oh yeah, self mutilation....those are for people who are really disturbed.

Answer 3

has anyone NOT heard about it? i think they should face the problem head on instead of trying to cover it up with a different kind of pain. the way they dress is just their personality, so i dont really see anything wrong with it. i think they would enjoy life much more if they werent so negative all the time.