The Warring States of NPF - Are you emo? Don't travel to Mexico.

The Warring States of NPF (http://www.nuklearforums.com/index.php)

- Dead threads (http://www.nuklearforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=91)

- - Are you emo? Don't travel to Mexico. (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=28104)

Are you emo? Don't travel to Mexico.

http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/35463
http://www.time.com/time/arts/articl...725839,00.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kcYt-AYRXg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJPeffMSzVA

Quote:

The trio of long-haired teenagers grasped the plaza wall to shield their bodies as hundreds of youths kicked and punched them while filming the beating on cell phone cameras. "Kill the emos," shouted the assailants, who had organized over the Internet to launch the attack in Mexico's central city of Quer�taro. After police eventually steamed in and made arrests, the bloody victims lay sobbing on the concrete waiting for ambulances while the mob ran through the nearby streets laughing and cheering.

The ugly scene, which was aired on TV news bulletins, is part of a new wave of violence against this urban tribe that has sprung up in Mexico in the last decade. The emo subculture probably existed in your high school before the term even bloomed, the latest movement on a continuum represented by goths in the '80s and alternative rockers in the '90s. In yearbooks, they're the kids who wear exaggerated haircuts and immerse themselves in moody music. In short: the kids jocks have been beating up for decades.

Emos are just one of the colorful youth cultures popular in the U.S. and Europe that have swept over the R�o Bravo as the nation opens up its economy and politics and a new generation grows up with the Internet and cable TV. Punks, goths, rockabillies, rastas, breakdancers, skaters and metallers all now pace Mexican streets, adorn its plazas and spray paint its walls. But while most of the trends have met with a begrudging acceptance, emos have provoked a violent backlash. As well as running riot in Quer�taro, a mob also attacked emos in the heart of Mexico City this month. Furthermore, emos complain they are being increasingly threatened and assaulted by smaller groups on the streets on a daily basis. "It's getting dangerous for us to go out now. We get shouted at and spat on. We get things thing thrown at us. There is so much hate out there," said Santino Bautista, a 16-year-old emo high school student sitting in a Mexico City plaza alongside other teenagers in tight black jeans and dark makeup.

The attackers, catalogued as "anti-emos," include some from other urban tribes such as punks, metallers and cholos but many are just ordinairy working-class teenagers and young men. They deride the emos for being posers who are overly sentimental and accuse them of robbing from other music genres. With roots in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s, emo bands play a style of rock that borrows much from punk and indie rock. They focus on exploring their emotions (hence the name) with a particular dwelling on typical teenage depression.

Most of all, however, the assailants target the emos for dressing effeminately, still a provocative act for many in a macho Mexico. "At the core of this is the homophobic issue. The other arguments are just window dressing for that," said V�ctor Mendoza, a youth worker in Mexico City. "This is not a battle between music styles at all. It is the conservative side of Mexican society fighting against something different."

The emos make a soft target for the aggressors. The vast majority are teenagers, often just 15 or 16 years old. Most are from comfortable middle-class backgrounds with little experience of the street battles in Mexico's hardened barrios. And by its nature, the emo scene attracts followers who prefer intellectual indulgence to fistfights. In the lead-up the mob attacks, there was increasingly aggressive talk against emos in online forums and TV music shows. Blogs raved about "killing emos" and showed cartoon drawings of decapitated long-haired heads. Internet writers called on anti-emos to "take back" public spaces such as the Plaza de Armas in Quer�taro, where the black-clothed teenagers sit around.

Emo kids are getting beat in public by Skaters, Punks, and Metalheads. I had always known a lot of folks in Mexico who felt that the emo culture needed to get its arse kicked, but somehow it just escalated to one of the stupidest things I've ever seen happen in this country (and believe me, I've seen a lot). Things like these make me very sad for what the youth of my homeland has become.

Quote:

"At the core of this is the homophobic issue. The other arguments are just window dressing for that,"

Wait, what? I don't think it's this at all. Not to offend anyone here, but a lot of the hatred that I've seen and heard that's been directed at the emo culture is that most of them are depressed about a lot of stupid things, when:

Quote:

The vast majority are teenagers, often just 15 or 16 years old. Most are from comfortable middle-class backgrounds with little experience of the street battles in Mexico's hardened barrios.

Seriously - you're fifteen or sixteen years old, coming from a comfortable middle-class background; what do you have to be depressed about? If you're going to go to a "hardened barrio," which suggests there's probably poverty, hunger or abuse going on there - then complain about how mom and dad don't understand you?

I'm not saying that they deserve to be beat up by a mob, and again, I don't want to offend anyone... but you have a comfortable middle class American go into a hardened barrio in America, and someone else would have his car before he got out of there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seil

Wait, what? I don't think it's this at all.

Mexico isn't exactly famous for its openness toward homosexuality, especially when it comes to gay men. From what I understand, anything even remotely effeminate coming from a dude down there is pretty heavily frowned upon.

RT could probably weigh in on the nuances of Mexican culture better than I could, though.

Quote:

Not to offend anyone here, but a lot of the hatred that I've seen and heard that's been directed at the emo culture is that most of them are depressed about a lot of stupid things, when:

...

Seriously - you're fifteen or sixteen years old, coming from a comfortable middle-class background; what do you have to be depressed about? If you're going to go to a "hardened barrio," which suggests there's probably poverty, hunger or abuse going on there - then complain about how mom and dad don't understand you?

Because they're teenagers. You know, hormones going crazy, difficulty dealing emotions, etc. To borrow a line from The Simpsons: "Depressing teenagers is like shooting fish in a barrel."

The kids may not actually have anything to be all moody over, but it's kind of a natural thing for them to be moody. The rest of it is just a fashion trend, which is an absolutely ridiculous thing for anybody to be angry or violent over, at least in my opinion. Furthermore, the angsty depressed emo kid is a caricature. For the most part, it's just normal kids dressing a way they like and listening to music they like. You don't actually have to be in a crappy mood all the time to be part of the emo crowd. Most emos aren't, in fact.

Quote:

I'm not saying that they deserve to be beat up by a mob, and again, I don't want to offend anyone... but you have a comfortable middle class American go into a hardened barrio in America, and someone else would have his car before he got out of there.

And then way to make a sweeping, exaggerated generalization about somebody else's (unrelated) country. Thanks, buddy. How's life in Canada's ghettos, by the way?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seil

Yeah, and money equals happiness, right? Gimme a break. The problem itself doesn't matter as much as the effect it has on a person. You'd think a lifetime of disney movies would teach you that, even if you didn't bother to learn anything about psychology.

"KILL THE EMOS!" - I like that~

I'm partially inclined to side with the agressors. God I hate Emo-kids and their constant banter about how the world doesn't care about them. World doesn't care about me or the next guy either, why should you be any different. Then those who aren't emo but dress in the punk-gothic-emo-manner to look cool really doesn't help. Making yourself look like something stereotypical is really only gonna get you hurt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaeta

Dude, thats sick. Does it not occur to you that emo kids are people too? They could have been killed for DRESSING differently. I'll not say too much more because a comment like that can get me quite upset, but seeing people say and do things like that makes me hope to God that karma is a real thing.

As part of our "you have to be a human being capable of feelings for other human beings" policy, which according to my definition doesn't involve justifying a hundred people beating up three other people for any reason at all - or let's not mince words here and just say we don't allow justifying fucking lynch mobs - Xaeta is hereby banned from Discussion forever and banned from the forums for a week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaeta

I don't like emos very much either, at all, but they're just people who made a differant choice than I did. I would never base killing someone on a small choice of what to wear, or what music they listen to. While reading this article I felt a feeling of pity for them and sided with the emos. I feel violence is almost never the answer and especially not when it's just about what they wear or how they dress. It's true the world does not care about you, me, or the next guy, we all have our ways of handling it. I just laugh and agree saying things like "At least when I fuck up no one will care overall." If they choose to wear black clothing and put on dark make-up that's their choice.
I find it rather pathetic that these "Macho-men" have to beat up three teenaged self-described "Weaklings." If they want to feel strong they should have a little punching contest between themselves, I mean, which is harder, Beating up a teenage emo, or beating up a "Macho-man"?

sorry about another quote from seil, but..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seil

Umm, ya, not neccesarilly true. Like is said, money doesn't really make happiness.

Take our town for example, many of the crazy depressed emo's really do make stuff up for attention and such, but theyr'e are others that have abusive parents, dead siblings, suicidal friends, diseases and such. For them it's more than reasonable. And on top of that, our town in pretty much well to do, so even if they are middle class, evreyone still has way more stuff than them.

I agree with the anti-emo = anti-gay theory.

Quote:

Originally Posted by POS Industries

Mexico isn't exactly famous for its openness toward homosexuality, especially when it comes to gay men.

The majority of the world isnt. Hell. Harper's trying to make Man-Marriage illegal again.

Regardless of my distaste towards emos, they sure as hell dont deserve to by lynched, especially over somethign as trivial as clothing and hairstyles.