Armor Games

@ hokojo

Hm, that's interesting that you've looked at it that way, because it articulates something that kids are increasingly expressing, mostly, I suspect, without realising it.

Quite often, 'emo' is associated with self-harming practices and other signs of 'mental disorder' (ranging from depression to personality disorder, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders). I would actually advise caution in doing this because all these signs of mental turbulence are not at all exclusive to the 'emo' subculture.

Let's take a look at the other confounds: all these subcultures, be it emo, goth, furry, skater, metalhead, punk and so forth, happen to have a large joining rate from the teen sector. It's the time of life where you start trying to forge an identity for yourself, and trying to actively seek your own social networks. This is not an easy task and the way those in developed countries get brought up means we tend to notice adolescent angst a lot. Furthermore chances are that many of you going through this process frequently experience feelings of isolation.

But what is also important is the 'forging an identity' part. That's why all these subcultures are caught up in the expressions of being 'cool' or being 'non-conformist' fit to bust- most people within those groups are there to try and fit in and are preoccupied with notions of identity and value.

Whatever it is, the way we've defined it now, mental 'illness' is something that should be treated with a lot more sensitivity than it is now. But because it is something that has been kept in the dark for fear of shame for so long, most people are horribly ill educated when it comes to knowing what mental 'illness' actually means and how to cope with it whether you're suffering, or somebody else is.

Mental Illness should be treated with more sensitivity.

One of the things I meant by that is 'what does mental illness mean to the public'? This does actually relate to your post- you're implicitly asking the same question here:

But there are more kinds. Kinds that are not usually defined as mental illnes.

Also, by way of example, this is what I meant by the whole identity politics thing:

Being Emo is not bad. Being Emo is who you are (if you're Emo).

See, the issue with this is that you leave yourself vulnerable to contradiction, which can confuse people. Your next sentence:

Being Emo is a mental illness.

Appears to do just that. But this is merely semantic, as I don't actually disagree with the content of what you said. I'm just cautioning against using the same word in multiple senses as it's difficult to be entirely clear.

Well, here's what concerns me:

We went from "People who identify as emo are more likely to be miserable/have some kind of mental issue" to "Being Emo is a mental illness." The latter is an overgeneralisation of the former, so I would call that a misappropriation.

Because to say "being Emo is a mental illness" will confuse people who talk about being Emo as an identity (the clothes, the taste in music, the social life etc.), but it also clouds the issue of mental illness and the general population by implying a false exclusivity. Best to avoid that risk altogether.

And I really do insist: You're gonna stir up a big hornet's nest that you don't need to if you go around saying 'true emo'. In fact, you'll get people's backs up so much that you won't be able to get a word in edgeways about mental illness...it'll all be swallowed up on identity politics again.

Chances are that many of those 'Emos' who carry some kind of 'mental illness' also carry their 'Emo' identity like a front, so you will also offend them by introducing the rhetoric on what is 'real' Emo and what is not. Besides, there are more adequate terms out there to describe things clearly, so why use this one?