Violence against kids in subcultures

Mods, feel absolutely free to lock this one and wipe it off the face of the planet if you don't feel it needs to be discussed.

A friend just posted this in a MySpace bulletin, and it made me think a little...



Now, I don't want to open this topic to just 'emo abuse'. I want to dicuss and get people's thought on violence, bullying, or other forms of abuse against teens, committed by other teens.
For instance, 'jocks' bashing 'nerds'. Cheerleaders and the 'cool kids' getting picked on for being 'slutty' or 'Barbie dolls'. 'Preps' being made fun of for doing, well, whatever it is 'preps' do (I don't know, 'prep' is a term I never came across in school). 'Goths' and 'emos' being picked on by 'preps' and 'jocks'. You get the idea.
Why are cliques so separated from each other in schools, and outside of schools? Why do groups of kids who dress the same and listen to the same music get together in their little circles and shut out everyone else, and at the extreme, victimise people in other groups?
Surely the more intelligent among us should realise that, no matter whether we play football, date cheerleaders, wear black or spend our recess in the library, we are all going through the same issues as our peers? Sex, drugs, alcohol, divorce and family breakdown, physical, mental and sexual abuse, peer pressure, experimentation, sexual orientation issues - these aren't things that are common to one or two groups of teenagers - we all go through this angsty period in our lives, and we choose to express it or deal with it in different ways.

As I said, if the mods feel that this topic is valid, I don't want it to be all about the 'emo kids' banding together to hate on the 'Barbie Dolls' and complain about how their lives are so hard because they like to wear black and listen to The Used. I want us to take a closer look at ourselves and our behaviour, and ask why it is that we feel it's necessary to vilify groups of other people, because I know full well that 'emos' make fun of other kids, whether it be directly or behind their backs.
Is it possible for us to break these clique-y ideals and be friendly towards those who don't dress like us or listen to the same music or have similar hobbies? Can we have the insight to realise that, just because somebody's not crying and cutting constantly, they might have problems and need a friend? Or is this a behaviour related in some way to homophobism or racism, in that no matter how open-minded we claim to be, we'll always be prejudiced against other people because it's human nature?

i find this subject really sad, because we can't be who we want to be anymore.
because if we are, we will get picked on or even beaten up!
and i find that completly stupid because the people who are doing the beating up are so boring and they are such stereotypes, and they just want every body to be like them!

mmm, i read that in the paper the other day. i felt awful for the girl who has a lump in her lung as a result of emo bashing. its absolutely ridiculous, and it makes me sick. i mean, i hate the whole "emo" trend, but can't we just leave everyone alone? everything around us is so judgemental. especially of those kids at flinders street station, thats emo central. everytime i'm there they get picked on. i don't care about emos anymore, i thought they didn't exist but i guess they do.

and if they're happy with this label, i guess we just leave them. shit, i feel so bad for them.

can we all be friends in the adolescent world? whats so wrong with that? we're all kids, we're all going through the same thing

i think its ridiculous that because you like a certain type of music you get loads of negative attention from people who like other music

i mean in my opinion rock is the music genre that creates the most negative reaction, because i guess its really obvious - generally - when someone is in to rock because of the way they dress. But come on! why the hell does that mean the person deserves to get beaten up. It's ridiculous everyone should be allowed to express themselves however they want, wear what they want, listen to what they want without being afraid to walk around, because of fear of attack

[[ i think this deffo needed a topic of its own so muchos respect to you! =) ]]

even if nobody agrees with each other for goodnes sake cant we leave each other a lone?

I don't get it. There are a lot of different "subculters" yet the emo kids get the harshest treatement. Why? When you think about it, a lot of subcultures are the same. Just a group of people that listen to the sam emusic, probably dress and act the same, and probably share similar views and morals. Why are these kids being the main target?

^
Well, my guess would be that 'chavs' are more gangy, and would fight more than 'emos', well, at least here, the chavs tend to beat people up for more or less no reason, and being 'emo' is just the reason they would look for.

It's disgusting that people can't even be themselves without being hurt. People are like "Omg, I hate preps/emos/jocks/nerds, let's go beat a few up and make fun of them because they are stupid/attention-seeking/dumb/geeky!" Sad.

Not to be a cow, but I think Resurgam and maybe a couple of others were the only people who either read the whole post, or understood what I intended the point of it to be.
I don't want everyone here whining about how it's 'emos' that get picked on. I want us all to discuss why different groups of teens are always at each others' throats - the jocks hate the emos, the emos hate the preps, the punks hate the cheerleaders, the cheerleaders hate the nerds, and so on and so forth.
Emos aren't the only groups of teens that get targeted as far as bullying goes, I was just using this article as an example of the level we've lowered ourselves to.
Admit it, you've all bagged out on someone else for being whatever their 'label' is - you've called people 'preps' and 'jocks' and made fun of pretty popular girls for being 'Barbie dolls'. Why do you do this?
Do you find them threatening?
Are you jealous of them?
What is this hating on each other really about, at the core of it - not just the shirt on your back?

I agree with Resurgam on the statement about sticking with groups because of a fear of the unkown. When I was in school, I was what could have been labelled as 'goth' (our school wasn't big on labels, if someone wanted to pick on you, you were a 'slut' or 'fag' or something along those lines, not 'emo' or 'prep'), and I mixed with people from all groups - I dated a couple of the popular guys, hung out sometimes in the library with the geeks, skipped class to get high with the outcasts, and basically became one of the most hated people in my entire year. Whether that was because the 'cool kids' had the power to destroy my rep when a boyfriend and I broke up (because as I said, I dated a couple of the 'cool kids'), or because people were threatened by the fact that I had a friend from this group, a friend in this group, and a friend over there in that group, and mingled freely with all and sundry, I'm not sure and I guess I'll never know.
But why do so many teens find themselves under attack from others outside their group, to the point of being bashed or forced into something like suicide or changing schools to escape the ridicule? I ended up changing schools to get away from the endless taunts, sabotage and rumours.

People just don't like people who are different then them. It's human nature to fear people who are different, because you feel they "threaten your existance". So people act on impulses which are usually verbal, physicall abues, etc.

Sometimes if something is different it is considerd evil or wrong. For exsample
most jocks and preps will think that goths are all evil, most likely to shoot up a school, get hard ons for vampires, lonely, depressed etc.

I don't know if that 's the best answer for this, but I did my best to anser it.

And Resurgam, thanks for clearing up what a 'prep' is. It must be an American term or something, because I'd never heard of it when I was in school.
Then again, when I was in school, anyone wearing black with a funny haircut was automatically 'goth', because 'emo' was still just a word to describe Dashboard Confessional, not a person.

From what I'd picked up, I assumed 'prep' was something like a rich, well-dressed version of a nerd. But yeah, your definition helped, thanks for the enlightenment

That's what I'm curious about. Why do we hate the kids who dress differently or listen to different music, when there must be some part of us deep down inside that knows we're all really the same?
To some extent, I can understand, say, assaults against gay people (by that I mean straight guys bashing gay guys), because they have the excuse (however lame and unfounded it is) of they're 'scared the gay guy is going to hit on them/touch them/rape them'... That's not saying I condone it at all or believe for a second that the straight guys involved aren't uneducated morons, but they find it threatening because they feel vulnerable to another man's potential advances.
Why, in Teen Land, is a popular, pretty girl with long blonde hair and a miniskirt automatically a 'slut' or 'easy'?
Why is the kid who seeks refuge in the library during recess automatically obsessed with sci-fi novels and TV shows, and expected to be quoting 'Star Trek'?
Why is the captain of the football team always assumed to be half brain-dead, loud, obnoxious, and arrogant - and why does he only ever date girls on the cheerleading squad? What's wrong with the cute, quiet girl in the back of his science class?
Why do the kids wearing skinnys and their fringes in their eyes always sitting in corners or at the back of the class, with their shoulders slumped, and why do the other kids make fun of them about 'cutting'?
My point is, we're all guilty of it in some form. I remember being such a total cow to the 'popular' girls because of the way they treated me, but I never knew what I did to cause them to dislike me.
I just want to know what reasons we come up with to justify such behaviour - as I said, assault against a homosexual is usually (tried to be) justified by, 'He could have/did hit on me/touch me/say something flirtatious to me' etc. It's threatening, and I can understand it, because I think we've all had (or imagined we've had) amorous advances from somebody we're not interested in (whether the same gender or not) - not that I'm saying it's okay to hurt them for it.
How is having a lip ring threatening to other kids? 'Emos' aren't going to hold you down and smear eyeliner all over your face.
Why does everyone enjoy picking on the nerds? They keep to themselves, study hard, and you hardly ever see them. Is it that others feel threatened by the fact that they get better grades and don't seem interested in the local soap-operas of dating, parties and bitchfights?
What's wrong with wearing sparkly makeup and 'cute' clothes? And even if your clothes cross the line between 'cute' and 'honey, keep your legs closed', how is that a guarantee of the wearer's behaviour? I myself went through the miniskirt and exposed midriff phase in school, and I wasn't screwing anybody so I couldn't have been a skank.
Why are stereotypes, trends and the like the sole indicators of a certain person's personality, behaviour, and attitudes? Why do we feel compelled to hate kids who look different to us, when back in elementary school we all wore the same shirts from department stores and hung out on the playground? What changed?

^ thats what i'd like to know. honest to god, my BEST friend of 7 years decided
that i was too "emo" to be her friend anymore. i go to school with kids i've known for sooo long and now they look at me like i might kill them. im compelled to ask "why did we change?" but theyd give me that crazy look and run off

sad clown lady:

its pretty appalling if you ask me, the thought that there are people willing to attack you for the way you dress!

and yet for years people were bashed because of their color.
this isnt racism, but its def. its best friend.
all this is is ignorance. bullying in its most golden form- hurting others because of their fashion, music, personality
its ridiculous and disgusting
and i personally want to see the people that are doing the attacking and find out what "stereotype" they fall under.
i dont see how, in this day and age, this is still happening in the world.
with all the violence and hate, i would hope that the youths of our nation could ban together and try to get along--asymettrical haircut or not.

it's horrible that the whole world is full of people who will shun and hurt others because they are different - different clothes, skin etc. It's just disgusting.

the other side of this 'emo' debate horrifies me as well that there have been increasing incidents of teenager suicide and murder and all the media seem to say is 'they were emo, they worshippped something called emo (this made me laugh actually to think they thought it was some kind of god!) it seems to be the new thing or the new group to blame all horrible atrocities on.

i just worry because emo gives kids what they have been longing for, a chance for expression and to be themselves and everyone tries to hurt them for it.

cigarettes and suicide - you make a very valid point with the sci fi geek classification.

My parents are into sci fi and i have always watched it too and i know it well, when others find out they laugh and call me a geek but, i work in an IT company and they tell me that i'm no where neer geeky and i'm one of the cool, popular people....huh?? lol it's just so silly it seems that i'm too geeky for some and too cool for others

i don't really care i just wanna be me, and if that means i read books, watch sci fi, watch footy, shop with my friends and fit in no where, then that's fine with me.