by Imogen Dalziel

Created on: February 19, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

In August 2006, Sarah Sands, a journalist for The Daily Mail, wrote an article that would send shockwaves through hundreds of teenagers around the UK, falsely worry parents and make sure Sarah Sands' name was well known within both communities.
The article was titled 'EMO cult warning for parents'. In it, Sands expressed a danger of a new stereotype of teenagers; emos. She said that children taken in by this new fashion "regard themselves as a cool, young sub-set of the Goths." However, this was not where the ruthless attack ended. Sands went on to write, "Emos exchange competitive messages on their teenage websites about the scars on their wrists and how best to display them." In fact, the whole topic of self-harm was continued throughout most of the article. But perhaps what most comes to light after you've done a bit of investigation or know a bit about the bands themselves is how poorly researched the whole piece is. Sands talked about the influences on these emos, and she claimed it stems from bands such as "Green Day and My Chemical Romance."

Firstly, I think it best to start with the term itself. 'Emo' comes from the word 'emotional', which links to the assumption of these teenagers always being depressed and wanting to self-harm. But wait a minute - there are many emotions one can feel. At this present moment, I'm quite stressed at the amount of coursework I will soon have to plough through. Stress is an emotion - does that make me Emo? If you are reading this, you will (hopefully) be happy or calm. Both these are emotions - does that make you emo?! This is simple proof that this stereotype has been dragged through the mud even by the very name it has been branded.
Secondly is the issue of self-harming. Now I myself have a few friends who you might call 'emo' if you saw them, but all of them have clean wrists. They certainly do not go on websites and compare scars and such; each and every one of them agrees that cutting yourself is for people with real problems. And I know for a fact this opinion would be shared by many teenagers, so Miss Sands was clearly wrong on that one.
Finally, onto the slating of the bands. We are now talking about one journalist who did not do her homework properly! Saying Green Day are emo is sort of like saying Metallica are about to top the R'n'B charts - they're just not in that category at all! They are a punk band, through and through, and whilst they push the fashion of wearing lots of black and red etc, nothing about

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