Pick and choose your scapegoat

Tragically two teenage girls in Melbourne were found dead last week. They were reported missing after saying they were going shopping over a week ago. Sadly their bodies were found a week later, having hanged themselves in the Dandenong Ranges National Park.

Like many other tragedies people were left asking why it happened. And the answer to many was obvious - the girls were emos. They wore black and listened to depressing music so obviously that had something to do with their suicides. Anything that depressing must be evil. Case in point: another emo girl was murdered in South Australia a while ago, which shows how dangerous the subculture must be*. And don't forget we've got the precedent of the Columbine massacre - a mass killing blamed on kids listening to Marilyn Manson.

It's nice to have a handy scapegoat, isn't it?

Luckily I don't know anyone personally who has committed suicide, even though I've been a part of the goth scene and have hung out with goths for fourteen years. I do, however, have friends who have had relatives who have killed themselves - and not one of those suicides was a goth or an emo. Of course that's purely anecdotal, so it's worth looking further afield to see any worrying trends in suicide in Australia to see if there's a plague of kiddies in black netting killing themselves. Looking through news reports there is a frightening trend in suicides in Australia - in 2003 on average one farmer was taking his life every four days in rural Australia. I'm not sure what music they listened to, but since it wasn't Marilyn Manson I guess no-one thought it was a contributing factor or worth reporting.
 
Regardless of musical tastes, one significant factor in suicides is depression and depressed people are often attracted to the goth or emo subcultures. To say as a result that goth and emo music causes depression (many talk-back idiots have suggested that banning the colour black will magically prevent suicide) is like saying that fire-trucks cause fires, since you usually see them in the same place. In fact I'd argue in many instances joining a subculture gives previously alienated individuals a support network that they didn't have previously, helping with their depression, and I would venture that this prevents more suicides than it causes. I have no statistics to back that up, just personal history. I used to cut my arms up when I was a teenager, not because I was a goth (it was two years before joining the scene), but because life and its associated problems was so overwhelming. Once I was hanging out with people who I felt understood me I no longer felt a need for self-harm.

The need for a scapegoat is an interesting thing. It usually centres around marginalised or minority groups. Emos being held responsible for these girls' suicides, goth music being held responsible for the Columbine massacre. After all, the individual responsible for the Virginia Tech shootings compared himself directly to Jesus but no-one is blaming Christianity for his acts, or for the mental illness that contributed to them. Imagine if he'd said he was like Thor, Marilyn Manson or Satan - do you think the news reports would have been a bit different then?
 
 
 
 

* A father an son were extradited from Victoria weeks later, charged with her murder. No word on whether they were goths or emos, but the father was an ex army commando. For the record, the army hasn't been held responsible for the murders.