The REAL Dangers of the Emo Movement

[xxlucyferxx]

Long story short, I was bored.

 

Emo. The word that sets the heart of the well-meaning parent beating frantically. Adults have always had to be alert for the signs that their adolescent children are spinning out of control, falling in with the wrong crowd, or just heading down a dangerous path in general. In the past these dreaded teenage shenanigans manifested themselves in the forms of promiscuous premarital sex, shoplifting, drug abuse and running away from home, but today’s parents must face a still more potent force that is threatening to steal the lives of their children.

 

Yes, it is true – today’s youth are indeed being tempted down the path of sin and suffering by a new fad that is fast reaching epidemic proportions.

 

The dangers of the sinister emo subculture should be apparent to any reasonable, insightful adult. However, recent media hype has been clouding the eyes of parents and carers with fears of death cults, suicide and self-harm. These hysterical and ill-founded fears have been so magnified in the public eye that it is entirely too easy to overlook the real dangers your emo teenager is facing.

 

In fact, the most immediate risk to an emo lies in his or her hairstyle. Flat irons are risky devices even when handed by professionals, and in the hands of inexperienced adolescents can lead to vicious burns, blisters and split ends. If your son or daughter is successful in their primping, and survives the ordeal in one piece, the result will be a thick, dark curtain of hair covering one or both of the eyes. The threats this poses to the physical safety of the emo are obvious. Impaired vision can lead to fatal collisions with cars when navigating busy roads. The effort of teaching children to look both ways before crossing is wasted when they have only one eye with which to do so.

 

Heatstroke is another serious risk to emo teenagers in Australia. Surprisingly, this is one aspect of the subculture that parents have yet to raise concerns over. Emos prefer to wear layered garments, long sleeves and denim jeans. In our climate this is not only impractical, but dangerous. While it has been argued that this element of emo is a positive thing for parents, that their children should be encouraged to dress modestly and shun the revealing, skimpy clothes preferred by their mainstream counterparts, it is nonetheless a serious health risk to wear so many clothes in summer.

 

Furthermore, it has been observed that emo teenagers prefer to stay in the shade and out of the sun. A pallid complexion is popular as it aids the ‘undead’ appearance many of them aim for, and so sunbathing and any activities involving exposure to UV light are considered unfashionable in the scene. By limiting their sun exposure so drastically, they risk a vitamin D deficiency.

 

Perhaps the most dangerous element of the emo movement lies in the preferred pastimes of teenagers involved in the scene. Parents may observe that their emo son or daughter shuns partying with their friends, preferring to remain at home and pursue more solitary interests. They may spend excessive time reading, listening to music, and surfing the Internet. Creativity is highly valued among emos, and many of them take up activities such as creative writing, drawing, and playing a musical instrument. The anxiety this causes their parents is obvious, as many rightly fear that their introspective, artistic leanings may cause them to fall out of touch with their more illiterate, shallow and unintelligent peers. Worst of all, teenagers who choose to dress and behave like emos turn their backs on opportunities of friendship with the in-crowd, and associate themselves only with like-minded, introverted teenagers who favour intelligent conversation, individuality and open-mindedness over wild partying, violence and the more vulgar aspects of mainstream youth society. This establishment of a close-knit, reliable friendship group, based on mutual support and acceptance, should surely be frowned upon. If parents do not take appropriate action upon the very first signs that their child is exhibiting emo tendencies, we risk breeding a generation of freethinking, artistic-minded people who wear too much black and listen to emotive music. And that would never do.