Lots of Coverage, Very Little Plan for Action

The online news media has been in a frenzy this week after the fifth gay youth in three weeks took his own life. Everyone from the Huffington Post, the Advocate, to Washington Post bloggers have buzzed about Raymond Chase, the latest student to have committed suicide, often quoting the email that administrators sent to the Johnson & Wales University student body after Chase died.

In his email, JWU Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Ronald Martel mourned Chase's passing and offered condolences to the family. Unfortunately, his message stopped there. No mention of how to prevent such a thing from happening again, no mention of possible problems that needed to be tackled, no mention of anything.

But the school's vice president is not the only one - many major news sources have continued this trend, giving the issue lots of coverage with very little plan of action on how to help alleviate the environments causing these teens to turn to suicide. Even the statement issued by US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for an end to harassment and a need to speak out against such forms of intolerance. But no actual solutions towards enacting the VERY change they all call for was ever mentioned.

This spree of suicides is proof that the current system is failing. It is time to ask the hard questions to get the core of these problems in order to implement real change and prevent even more loss of life. Students on Facebook formed a group encouraging activists across the country to wear purple on October 20th in light of the recent deaths. For more information, check out the group Wear Purple on October 20th, 2010. For a country that calls itself the land of the free, freedom from harassment and bullying is still not in the cards for everyone.

So....Step up and help! Contact your local campus officials and demand them to make school a safe and friendly place to be, ask them what resources are available and if there are none inform the larger public! Everyone has a right to a bully and harassment free life.

Contact and join your LGBT group on campus. No LGBT friendly group or groups on campus? Create one! Not enough people or members? Ally with like minded groups on campus and rally for change. October 20th could be a really great day to gain attention on individual campuses and spread the word. Need help with your plans of action? Campus Pride, a nonprofit organization aimed at making colleges more LGBT friendly, offers more information on helping making campuses more open and friendly.

Remember, bullying and harassment affects everyone. While your college campus is a great place to start please do not forget about your local community. Bullying and harassment can start at a young age, use your new found club or your group of friends to reach out to near by schools and volunteer for their antibullying or antiharassment programs. Make a positive change with a plan of action.

For Equality!

Story Behind A Tormented Girl's Suicide

In late January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince made headlines when she committed suicide after prolonged harassment from classmates at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts. Six months later, the town of South Hadley and the blogging community are enthralled with the case. Media sources ranging from the Boston Globe and NBC's Today Show to lesser known sources like The Republican have featured stories about this young teen's suicide.

Phoebe Prince moved from County Clare, Ireland, to South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 2009. Later that year, she began to attend South Hadley High School where she easily made friends and maintained strong academic performance. However, her involvement with an older boy sparks harassment from her peers.

The media portrays Phoebe's story as suicide resulting from stereotypical girl-on-girl bullying, but there is more to her story than mainstream media leads us to believe. In an investigation by Slate, Emily Bazelon challenges District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel's argument by analyzing information about Phoebe Prince and the actions of the six teenagers who are thought to have bullied her. Bazelon questions the validity of the six teens' sentences which range from stalking and harassment to statutory rape and most serious, civil rights violation involving bodily injury. She suggests that the sentences against the teens could be too severe because Phoebe's cutting, depression and distance from her father may have contributed to her decision to ultimately kill herself.

While reading about this girl's story, I began to question the motive of the teen bullies. As I continued to look through articles about the case, I came across a post written by the Boston Globe that focused on the teens as "The untouchable Mean Girls." These teens definitely fit the Lindsay Lohan Mean Girls definition; vengeance-seeking, name-calling, slut-shaming, mean girls whose football player boyfriends go along with everything they say. However this article's introduction caught my attention:

Like a lot of kids her age, Phoebe Prince was a swan, always beautiful and
sometimes awkward. Last fall, she moved from Ireland into western Massachusetts, a new town, a new country, a new culture. She was 15, when all that matters is being liked and wearing the right clothes and just fitting in.

The first thing that bothers me about this is the emphasis that the author puts on her appearance, comparing her to a swan. Secondly, the author suggests that a 15-year-old girl only needs to worry about the superficial. These two issues bring to mind society's obsession with appearance and how much popular culture has sexualized women and girls because the harassment that Phoebe faced was related to her brief relationship with a football player who immediately returned to another girl and consisted primarily of slut-shaming in the forms of internet bashing, name-calling and taunting.

In general, the media's reinforcement of hegemony often leads to internalized sexism, racism and homophobia. Because the media sexualizes women and girls while also shaming women who enjoy sex, women who are subject to internalized sexism often bash other women for being "slutty." In addition, the sexualization of women and girls has influenced teen girls' body image and self-esteem, leading to their emotional vulnerability and even attacks on other girls who are considered attractive.

I seriously wonder if these types of unfortunate events would happen as often if women and girls were not so sexualized... I am curious as to what everyone's opinions are on this subject?

Photo Credit: Brisbane Times

To Write Love on Her Arms Day is Tomorrow!

To write love on her arms is a non-profit movement aimed at helping those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.

The vision includes statements like:
+ You were created to love and be loved
+ Rescue is possible
+ Pain is real but so is hope
+ Community is essential, that people need other people

The goal is to reduce suicide, depression, addiction, and self-injury around the world by encouraging people to seek help towards a better, less destructive end.

The movement began as one person's way to help a friend in Spring of 2006 and has grown into a global movement. The facebook group "To Write Love on Her Arms Day" has over 937,000 members and counting... all working to spread the word so people know there are others out there struggling with similar problems and that there are people supporting them with LOVE.

So join me and thousands of others and write LOVE on your arm tomorrow letting others know that there is hope, that there is support, and that there is love.

This post is dedicated to Jim <3.


Photo Credit: ERIKA B on flickr.com

Has Ira Glass wire-tapped the FMF headquaters?

While on my morning commute, ( which still involves zoning out to Ira Glass.) I noticed that he and the show have, yet again, picked a show subject that matches up perfectly with my life at FMF.

Yesterday I talked about the documentary Hell House and critiqued the moral-based Haunted House on its extreme scare tactics used to convert it's "Hell bound" visitors to the other side.

Today, I discovered that the PRI radio show This American Life had interview the film's director and Hell House's actors for this weeks show!

For a real Halloween spook tale, you can listen to the show here.

photo credit: sean dreilinger from flickr.com

Ditch the candy, this Halloween sign yourself up for some good ol' fashion fear mongering!

Everyone has their own Halloween traditions. In his documentary Hell House, director/ producer George Radliff shows the not-so-common Halloween traditions of a town on the outskirts of Dallas, where the production of "Hell House" is annually held.

Hell House is a haunted house-style play focused on decisions that will exempt a person from the pearly gates. Teens and parents alike try out in large numbers, hoping to play "rave master" or"school shooting kid."

During Halloween season, "those who dare enter" watch a series of five-minute skits, showing what each character did to get in Hell. There's the boy who "chose the gay lifestyle" and became HIV positive; the woman who cheats on her abusive, alcoholic husband; the girl who took the abortion pill and died from blood loss, the boy who was so fed up with teasing that he commits suicide in front of his class and (can't forget this one!) the girl who goes to a rave, gets drugged and raped and commits suicide because of her guilt!

After seeing the characters tortured and burned in the final "Hell" scene, the audience is taken to calm room. Here, a person asks the group if they know where they would go if they were to die that night. Those who would like to go to heaven are offered entrance into a room where they can pray with church members.

This is where I sat on my couch, watching and thinking "WHAAAAAT! WAY TO BLAME THE VICTIM!"

This movie put things in the most disgusting terms: It's not the rapist who goes to hell, its the poor survivor. It's not the abuser or the mean students, it's the abused and the taunted.

It's time to identify this as what it is: fear mongering! They are showing extreme situations as scare tactics to sway their audience towards their unrealistic cause. To find out more about Hell House, rent it!