Another week and another group of upstanding citizens join The War On Emo.
This week we've stumbled across the What Is Emo? website which was set-up to warn teachers and parents about the potential dangers of emo.
"The emo subculture seems to have caused an epidemic of self-injury," reads a blurb on the site's opening page. "Also at issue, is the glorification of suicide in emo music. The emo fad is different than the others that proceeded it because kids in this subculture are scarring themselves, and in some cases, dying."
"Look at our section on 'What Can I Do?'," the blurb continues. "You will find suggestions that concerned parents, teachers, doctors, therapists and school administrators can use to help children avoid or overcome the apparent destructive influences of this subculture."
The site also boasts a "Tragic Examples Page" that lists "the names and stories of kids that were involved in emo and suicided" including a write-up of 13-year-old Hanna Bond whose death inspired the Daily Mail's latest bout of moral outrage, demonising bands like My Chemical Romance and Green Day.
"I tend to take issue with any people blaming music or any kind of media because it just ends up camouflaging the deeper issue underneath it," says Tracy Carghill, a representative of SOPHIE - Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred & Intolerance Everywhere - the campaign set up in memory of Sophie Lancaster, a rock fan who was beaten to death by thugs simply for looking different. "It doesn't get anything done, it just ends up making things worse. It's encouraging people to get this negative image of emos, and that's the kind of thing that leads to things, worst-case scenario, like Sophie Lancaster."
Check it out for yourselves here and speak your brain below.
