Feature Coloumn on Emo's

Looking around the playground you see the usual school cliques. Preppy cheerleaders and full-of-themselves jocks, Asian math nerds, freaky fantasy outcasts...and the "Emos". Emo's are the most misunderstood clique of the playground. With their odd haircuts and weird ways of dealing with their sadness, but that's only a handful of them sometimes it may be that's just the style they like or maybe it's just they aren't as social as everyone else.

So what is it I'm trying to tell you? The social media is depicting emo's and portraying them in a negative light which causes them severe bullying. So what I ask myself is, is this why the stereotypical clique the emo's get judged more than others?

Surely it is obvious that media is what is portraying the emo's as bad kids and encouraging the teenagers of today to make them feel more and more unwanted. And it's also the social media which is providing children and teenagers with the opportunity to bully young "emo's". This is surely displayed after reading about the amount of suicides over people ridiculing young teens to the point where they entirely give up on their life. I'm sure you all heard of the sensitive Sam Leeson who was bombarded with cruel messages on the internet site BEBO all because of his dark hair, long clothes, and passion for an alternative music band (My Chemical Romance). Although just in case you aren't familiar with this story Sam was found hanging in his bedroom by his neck after months of cruel abuse. Grief-stricken mum Sally, 45, demanded a crackdown on sites that let themselves be hijacked by bullies. Yes, that is a start, but surely if we bring down these sites that's just preventing the bullying online but not in the schoolyard. The only way I believe we can stop this bullying is by bringing down the media networks that dwell on making emos look bad. From the ridiculing emo hate websites, to the meme's and even to the disgusting videos which rip apart the stereotypical emo making them look nothing but a downfall to society, which they most definitely are not.

The music video "I'm an Emo Kid" (designed and written by two teens themselves Adam and Andrew) which was shared throughout the world (by the use of the trusted old Youtube website which allows teenagers to interact by sharing videos) received millions of views most of which are from the other cliques that enjoy depicting and ridiculing the stereotype "emo's". The video pulls apart the emo stereotype and portrays it in a negative light using horrible lyrics such as. "'Cause our dudes look like chicks and our chick look like dykes, Cause emo is one step below transvestite" and "When I get depressed I cut my wrist in every direction, Hearing songs about getting dumped gives me an erection, I write in a live journal and wear thick rimmed glasses, I tell my friends I bleed black and cry during classes, I'm just a bad, cheap imitation of goth, You can read me "Catcher in the Rye" and watch me jack off, I wear skin tight clothes while hating my life, If I said that I like girls I'd only be half right". They use a white background in the music video with a stickman performing actions to the lyrics for example there is one part where red cascades from his wrist. Surely this is not creating a good reaction and surely the media isn't placing the "emo" kids in a very good spot amongst the other cliques. Yet the most alarming thing is this video has been displayed for over 4 years