Exhibition on subcultures

Expert denies subcultures exist in UK any more.

Is manipulation by the media killing British youth culture?
Independent - Apr 20, 2009
The media has got excited about emos in the last few years," says Polhemus, ... "People say 'You've got to have a big section on emos', but are there really

Australia goth scene

Evolving Gothic culture still a lure in Brisbane
NEWS.com.au - Mar 25, 2009

While the clubs come and go – Warman was recently out of action for three months while he found a new venue – one thing that hasn't changed is the placid nature of the crowd.

"In 27 years, we've never had any trouble, never had the police called out," he says. "They're a polite, gentle crowd. But they can bitch a bit."

Alternative youth stopped from gathering in Liverpool

This article indicates the police in Liverpool are targeting Alternative youth just for gathering in one place....just as in Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds etc etc. As our previous articles on have shown alternative youth frequently gather together not only for social reasons but because of fear of attack:

Give us a place to go
Liverpool Echo, UK - 29 Apr 2008

Apr 29 2008 by Janet Tansley, Liverpool Echo

PICTURE the scene: a group of girls sitting on a bench in St John’s Gardens, talking, staring at boys in skinny jeans, doing usual friends stuff ...

Now, what’s wrong with that?

Apparently some people do think there’s something wrong with it because we’re no longer allowed to do it.

Every Saturday my friends have hung around at the Pier Head. We’re from different parts of Liverpool, so town is easy for everyone. One quick bus or train and you’re there, with a day to spend with your mates.

Apparently, all the teenagers of Liverpool thought so, too.

The Pier and the Courts were the places all the emos, the goths, the metal-heads – anyone of an alternative persuasion – could just hang out and be themselves.

Then, of course, the Pier had building work (or whatever’s going on) and we were left with the question: ‘Where to now?’

The Pier and the Courts were out of everyone’s way, so it wasn’t like we were disturbing people. We could hardly set up camp outside Argos, further into town, could we? Everyone started migrating to the Courts or the Gardens, so it seemed we were okay for space.

And then somebody decided: ‘Oh no, we can’t have kids having fun in a public place where they’re allowed to be.’

And suddenly the Courts always had police telling us to move on, that we couldn’t stay there. The same went for the Gardens.

Where are we supposed to go now?

We’re not even allowed to hang out outside Burger King anymore while our mates are getting food (the Burger King staff kick you out if you aren’t eating, even if you’re with people who are).

There’s a policeman threatening to arrest us just for hanging around, telling us to go to a park near our homes (even though we’d just explained we were from all parts of Liverpool), naming a load of dodgy parks and public areas and telling us that these were the places kids our age should be hanging out.

Why? So we can all be attacked and then no-one has to worry about where we are then?

Slash hates Emos? Mxico anti-emo row still going on

A classic case of irresponsible reporting.

Slash and Perez Hilton Split Votes On Emo
Exclaim!, Canada - 31 Mar 2008

And if things weren’t bad enough, guitar-master extraordinaire, Slash, has now stepped up to fuel the fire. In a recent interview with the Daily Star, the former Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist weighed into emo, and modern rock in general. “Rock ’n’ roll is so diluted in this millennium, you just don’t hear good solos. And I hate emo,” Slash said. “With the exception of Jack White —who is great — the new breed of bands aren’t bringing out decent guitarists.” So it’s official: Slash hates emo.

Look again:

A - Slash wasn't talking about Mexico
B - Or assaulting emos

He was stating he hates emo music. A fair comment. What is not fair is to report that hating emo music and hating emos is the same thing and that Slash wants riots to happen. It is not a question of taking sides on whether emo music is any good. The question is whether it is right to physically beat some one because they listen to a certain type of music or dress in a certain way. If you advocate that you are arguing against the freedom of speech and expression which is at the heart of democracy, and you are on the same side as both the Taliban and the Nazis.

You might think anti-emo riots are funny if it was attacks against Jews or blacks would you be laughing?

"At the core of this is the homophobic issue," Victor Mendoza, a youth worker in Mexico City, told Time magazine. "The other arguments are just window dressing for that. This is not a battle between music styles at all. It is the conservative side of Mexican society fighting against something different."

Conspiracy theories meanwhile are rife:
Mexico’s media spotlight youth subcultures
Daily O'Collegian, OK - 31 Mar 2008

More important posts from Daniel Hernandez. Now an academic is arguing emos are not a bonafide 'tribu urbana' because they don't have a political ideology. >

The specialist in urban groups Héctor Castillo Berthier indicated that to consider the emos an urban tribe is incorrect, as they do not adhere to the characteristics necessary to be one, and they only represent a fad.

The article "also quotes someone who says 40 percent of emos are suicidal." Once again the typical lies are trotted out. I have yet to find any academic article which shows emos are more more likely to kill themselves than other groups.

Great so its ok to beat them up if they are sucidal or part of a "fad" then? Emos are a "fad" really - the man is a fool - the original Emo music was almost thirty years ago. Emo subculture in its modern form developed in the late nineties. It might be newish in Mexico but so was punk and goth once, both of which had popular "fad" periods in the UK and elsewhere. The main anti emo site in Mexico dates from 2006 alone which means emo must have been around for a few years before that.

It’s Sex, Not Politics

Newsweek reports that Chile has problems with androgynous, gender bending, pierced teenagers having Pokemon themed oral sex orgies. True???

Chile: It’s Sex, Not Politics | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com

The teens call their public orgies ponceo. On a typical Friday afternoon in the Chilean capital of Santiago, hundreds gather in a leafy urban park for a few hours of sexual experimentation. Surrounded by passing strollers, they trade partners multiple times—mostly engaging in anonymous rounds of oral sex. When the party is over, no contact information is exchanged. Same-gender interactions are commonplace, as the lines between hetero- and homosexuality are blurred, partly by the alcohol and drugs consumed, but also by shifting social mores held by Chilean youth, in contrast to their conservative parents. "Ponceo is about having fun," says Natalia Fernandez, a 15-year-old with pink hair and a pierced chin. "This time I had seven partners."

Not true according to someone from Chile:

Pokemones Are Not Oral Sexy Obsessed, Just Kissing Crazy
Kotaku.com, NY 19 Mar 2008

Bizarre launch Proud to be Different! campaign

A fairly popular UK magazine has now leapt into this area.

Bizarre magazine which costs £3.50, has a monthly circulation of 54,571.

"Goth" murder prompts Bizarre's Proud to be Different campaign - join up!

We’re sure you’ve all read about the current murder trial of Sophie Lancaster, the girl kicked to death in Lancashire last year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7291985.stm

It’s something that’s affected us deeply at Bizarre. Our readers pride themselves on being different and not conforming to society’s norms.

Whether you consider yourself a goth, a metaller, a rockabllly, an emo kid, a retro head, a fetish fan, or whether you’ve got body mods or tattoos, at some point in your life you’re likely to have been verbally or physically abused for the way you look.

You may have had an employer discriminating against you, someone shouting at you in the street, or suffered more serious physical abuse.

And it’s just not on. We don’t want to take it any more. And we don’t want you to take it any more.

We’ve set up an online forum where you can share your experiences, show solidarity, offload your worries, and maybe come up with ideas for strategies to help stop the hate.

Join us now at http://bizarremagazine.proboards88.com

And let’s go from there..."

Hopefully it will raise awareness of this problem.

Our gang - The Sunday Times on youth culture

The Sunday times reported on Hippies, Neo-indie FAUX PUNK and other unlikely groups :


Our gang - Times Online
February 17, 2008

NU GRAVE

Who they are Goths, but flamboyant ones, who exhibit the sort of confidence totally lacking in their namesakes of yesteryear. This lot aren’t outcasts from the party – theyarethey party. They love to be different and lap up the attention they get from shocked relatives. They would be devastated if a classmate didn’t throw an outfit insult or two their way.

Afflecks palace to go?

It seems likely that Afflecks Palace is like Leeds corn Exchange in serious trouble as higher rents push out alternative stalls as has been on the cards for a long time. There are last minute talks but if this is resolved favourably Manchester will have achieved something Leeds and Camden failed to do:

Afflecks talks on hold
Manchester Evening News, UK - Jan 25th
TOWN hall-mediated talks over the future of Afflecks Palace have been postponed for 24 hours - with the centre's landlords and managers holding further discussions in private.

Bosses from the shopping emporium were due to meet landlords Bruntwood in public yesterday in a bid to thrash out a deal to save it from closure.

The future of the centre - and its 100 stalls - has been hanging in the balance since the original lease ran out in June.

Traders fear a huge hike in rents that could accompany a new agreement would put them out of business. But Bruntwood wants the dilapidated building to be refurbished and insists that the costs of any future improvements should be covered by the lease.

Negotiations have broken down several times and Afflecks founder and manager Elaine Walsh warned traders they could be given notice to quit by the end of this month.

8000 behind Afflecks battle
Manchester Evening News, UK - 23 Jan 2008
TRADERS at Afflecks Palace have collected 8000 names on a petition to save the iconic Manchester emporium from closure. The lease at the shopping centre .


Smells Like Teen Spirit
Manchester Confidential, UK - 21 Jan 2008

Protesting ought to be a sport reserved for the young – they look a damn sight edgier and cooler doing it.

Hundreds of angst-ridden pubescent teenagers stampeded to the rescue of Manchester’s landmark shopping centre Afflecks Palace on Saturday. Cars beeped their horns as squeaky girls chanted “Save Afflecks” at decibels that could be heard over at Piccadilly Gardens.

The protest not only demonstrated a huge amount of support but the array of fabulously experimental and individual clobber with which the kids kitted themselves out also illustrated what a fundamental impact Afflecks has had on youth culture over its 26 years in residence.

Music legends back Afflecks
Manchester Evening News, UK - 18 Jan 2008
THE campaign to save Afflecks Palace has been backed by some of Britain's biggest music legends.

Street Culture and What is Emo?

A potentially good article on street culture in Manchester features some spectacularly inaccurate statements:

Manchester Confidential - A matter of taste…and bile:
"A matter of taste…and bile
Sian Claire Owen explores the fractured music scene and finds individuality and manipulation

Musical history is littered with bloody musical genre clashes. Skinheads hated hippies, mods loathed rockers, and punks just spat at anything that moved. Hell, the minstrels and sonneteers were probably at each others throats back in the day."...

Far from the mod'n'rocker riots on Brighton Beach in the 60s, today's musical genres have reached a Zen-like state of harmony. Either that or today's musical landscape is blander than a Barratt housing estate.

"There's no animosity between different scenes," said Shaw. "There are a lot of good collaborations. Most people at BBC 6 Music happily mix between the best of the music styles. Although saying that, as a teenager I would never have listened to Goth or heavy metal. And still wouldn't, come to think of it."

Dream on... people in Lancashire are regularly beaten up even killed for looking different.

Meanwhile another article attempts to define Emo... and works out that much of what the average person understands about the term is nonsense:

Finding emo: It eludes a real definition
Wisconsin State Journal, WI - 11 Jan 2008

They might be your kids. For sure, they know all about emo and you do not. It is a well-known and common international youth subculture, a celebration of depression that, so far, is virtually invisible to most adults.

"For me, the most disturbing part of this emo ' phenomenon is the whole I hate my life, I want to die ' part, " says Chelli Riddiough, a junior at Madison West High School. "The I want to cut myself ' joke that 's not really a joke at all. Thanks to the rejection of forthright emotions, teenage depression is being dismissed as just being emo. "

Emo is a kind of music, and a kind of fashion style, and above all a kind of demeanor. It 's so well known among young people that they already see it as cliche. It 's verbal shorthand for "emotional. " If the term had been current a generation ago, humorous depressives such as Charlie Brown and Woody Allen would have been labeled emo. Except that today it 's not funny.

"I have a lot of friends that are truly emo, " says Alex Policastro, a 17-year-old student at the Madison Area Technical College. "I think emos are people that have had a tough life, or just a tough time, and either need help or should be helped. "

Searching for emo

Finding emo is rough, if you 're older. On the one hand, it 's so well known that if you run "emo " on the Google search engine, you 'll find 50.3 million listings. Compare that to, for example, 8.16 million for "Jesus Christ " or 1.94 million for "bill of rights. "

That 's perhaps not surprising; according to a survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the average age of the most active creators of Internet-content is 25. Emo seems to skew far younger than that, reaching down even into middle school.

On the other hand, we asked adults if they knew what emo was. We asked school psychologists, area high school and middle school counseling staffs, experts at the UW-Madison School of Education, and the Madison-based Briarpatch youth crisis intervention service. Some had heard of emo. No one could even define it.

So what is emo?

"Oftentimes, emo is used as a derogatory term, a sort of grow up and grow out of it ' statement, " says Riddiough. "For the most part, the term is typified as pessimistic, angsty, self-injurious and even suicidal. And sometimes homosexual, since male and female emo styles are pretty much the same. "

"I don 't know if I 'd really classify myself as emo, " says Jennifer Wilson, age 21, a Madison sales associate. But others have called her emo. "It 's kind of one of those things that outsiders label others as, if that makes sense. Like, a football player wouldn 't label himself as a jock. ' "

"I have been called emo before, " says Policastro. "I am not emo. If you want, you can categorize me as punk, maybe. "

Says Riddiough, "Nobody I know would gladly admit to being emo. It 's become such a joking term, such an insult, even, that few would seriously describe themselves as such. "

So despised is emo that one contributor to Yahoo Answers, an advice Web site, confessed to cutting himself. But that wasn 't the problem. The problem was that friends labeled him emo as a result. He plaintively complained, "I don 't get why ur emo if u cut. It 's stupid I think. "

Emo as a demeanor apparently arose in America. It spread via the Internet to Europe a few years ago. There, at least, it has begun to receive press attention. London 's Daily Mail reported that "teenagers are less equipped to manage strong emotions and a cult of suicide could have real and horrible consequences. " Kathimerini, a Greek newspaper, warns that psychologists there are concerned. In Australia, according to the University of Queensland 's Newspace, "Emo is the new vogue. "

A musical start

At first, emo was just music. "I believe emo came out of the hardcore scene -- metal plus punk, " says Jennifer Hanrahan, a host and DJ at the UW-Madison student radio station WSUM. "However, by the 2000s, emo had become more of a fashion style rather than a musical genre. "

Hanrahan says that acts such as Fall Out Boy, Dashboard Confessional and My Chemical Romance all became known as emo, even though one could argue that there were differences in their music. Another famous emo band is the Brooklyn-based Rainer Maria, which started in Madison. The band has not responded to requests for comment.

Like individuals labeled emo, "The bands who are commonly called emo don 't appreciate the term, " says Hanrahan.

Still, emo as music was relatively non-threatening, and it therefore played on top 40-radio stations and music television channels, "and so became popular with white middle to upper-class pre-teens and teens, " Hanrahan says. It became commercial. "Due to its young and affluent audience, emo began to get a bad rap with the wider musical public, whether deservedly or not I can 't quite say. "

The music defined the message, and the message came to define a more or less uniform androgynous fashion sense. "Nowadays, emo is considered as a white teen wearing tight black jeans, heavy mascara, and a floppy hairstyle, " says Hanrahan. Every emo Web site agrees with the stereotyped portrait: bangs over one or both eyes, Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers and band T-shirts are signature emo traits. With the crystallization of outward style came a defined demeanor.

There has been teen angst as long as there have been teens, of course. We just keep coming up with different names for it; Romeo 's Juliet was only 13, after all. Before emo there were the black-clad "goths, " whose clothes and black and white make-up resembled that of television 's "The Addams Family. " Emo is very different.

"From what I 've observed, Goth is about being angry and trying to be different, " says Riddiough. "It 's about rebelling and, yes, wearing black. Emo is about being sad and emotionally weak. "

The emo world

If you 're an outsider, emo is, above all, easy to ridicule. You can visit www.TheEmoQuiz.com ( "The glass is: a) Half empty, b) Half full, c) Shattered in a million sharp pieces, d) Full of blood "). There are also online cartoons, mocking emo in an artistic style resembling the big sad-eyed kitten posters of the 1960s. One shows a weeping young man, and announces, "Emo is just an excuse for boys to act like girls. " Another shows an emo kid working on a poem, asking another emo kid, "What rhymes with razor blade? "

Another common Internet joke is, "I wish my lawn were emo, so it would cut itself. "

"As for the cutting thing, I don 't cut myself, " says Wilson. "I never have. I know people who have cut themselves that wouldn 't be classified as emo. ' I know people who are emo that don 't cut themselves. I think that it 's more of a stereotype than a fact. I wouldn 't say there isn 't any direct correlation, but then again the whole emo thing ' is a huge stereotype anyway. "

Still, sometimes emo can be a call for help.

"I have a male friend who used to be extremely emo, " says Wilson. "I once called him to ask what he was up to. He said, I 'm laying on the floor of my dark, cold basement listening to depressing music. I know, I 'm emo. ' "

"From my understanding, emo means emotionally disturbed, ' " notes Policastro. "I am trying to spread help to people who need it. "

Given that emo is most often an unfair stereotype label applied by others, is it necessarily bad?

"I think I definitely have certain emo characteristics, but overall, I 'm a happy person, " says Wilson. "The things that I would say about myself that are similar (to emo) are the fact that I love to express myself through things like art, writing, fashion and music. I dress a little less conservatively. I guess if you 're going by what emo ' is short for, emotional, ' then I suppose that could be true too. Everyone 's emotional. Maybe we 're all a little emo. "

Riddiough agrees.

"It means the manifestation of sadness and pain, " she says. "Everybody feels it. Everybody is emo. "

Leeds corn Exchange closed

The Guardian has noted the ongoing attack on diverse shops in the UK in the recent closure of Leeds Corn Exchange which is combined with demonisation of alternative subcultures from local authorities. (See previous post on this.) It doesn't mention the recent moves in Glasgow, Camden Market or Bristol though. There has been a massive protest about the plans:

Experts ask: 'Is Leeds going in the right direction?'
Yorkshire Evening Post, UK - Dec 18, 2007
"The Kirkgate Market and the Corn Exchange are both icons of the Leeds landscape, truly unique results of the city's history. The plans currently tabled for ...

Save the Corn Exchange Effectively Leeds Corn Exchange now forms part of a property portfolio of one of Zurich’s .... Sign a petition to Save the Corn Exchange in one of the shops ...


The contract by the new owners Zurich Assurance banning Goth/Metal/fetish shops is an amazing new low especially considering Leeds was at the forefront of establishing goth back in the 80s:

Guardian - Comment is free: Exchange or refund

This month's closure of Leeds Corn Exchange is the latest blow to be struck against individuality in the name of regeneration.

The shopping centre - whose independent traders specialise in alternative fashion and curiosities - is being turned into an "international food emporium" by its leaseholder Zurich Assurance and the traders have been given until January 14 to leave.

The firm has yet to secure new tenants but promises a huge range of upmarket foodstuffs, plus a branded "statement" restaurant.

It claims the changes are essential to recoup £1.5m of refurbishment costs but traders suspect their wares and clientele - students, teenagers, goths and emos - are surplus to requirements in shiny, regenerated Leeds.

Last year the youths who loiter outside the centre were threatened with dispersal orders and asbos, and shop contracts specifically ban the sale of gothic, pagan or fetish clothing or accessories.

The surrounding Exchange Quarter is the centre of the city's vibrant alternative scene - gritty, grubby and full of cutting-edge nightspots, vintage shops and tattoo parlours. Elsewhere, the bland chain stores, dull chain bars and prestige department stores reign supreme. The evicted traders are struggling to find new premises in the booming city, where rents have leapt fourfold in a few years and vacant units are in short supply. Some will quit Leeds, while others are looking for jobs.

The plans have prompted some to question the direction of Leeds' regeneration and the squeezing out of quirky, independent shops and those whose lifestyles don't fit the norm.

Similar things are happening in other cities, where individuality is being crushed by profit-driven big business, intent on sleek, gentrified spaces and products that attract the "right sort" of consumer.

Quiggins, a legendary Liverpool hippy emporium that was home to 50 stalls, fell victim in 2006 to a massive regeneration scheme linked to the European capital of culture preparations.

Campaigners in Birmingham are fighting the planned closure of the Fiveways Centre - home to a progressive publishing company and a Fairtrade music venue - by its owners Mars Pension Trustees.

The future of Manchester's bohemian Afflecks Palace is uncertain. Stallholders have been in limbo since their leases ran out in June and any hike in rents - on what is a prime site - could put many out of business. London's Queens Market is also fighting for its survival.

Critics claim Leeds is on its way to becoming a soulless "clone town" peopled by wealthy yuppies and corporations - and with few spaces where citizens of all classes, ethnicities and ages can mingle. Their fears are compounded by plans to redevelop the city's Kirkgate Market.

In an open letter, 14 academics specialising in urban regeneration warned the drive to open exclusive retail centres is stripping away its character. They wrote:

"Gentrification by its very nature actively works against efforts to narrow the gap. It also erodes what is left of the public realm.

In the obsession to compete with other cities, to go up a league and be the Barcelona of the north, Leeds is in danger of simply becoming a 'clone city', a place like anywhere else.

And a clone town promotes clone people. As the city changes shape, there is a real danger that it actually narrows the type of people that it attracts."

Their warning should be heeded by other cities, where corporatised developments continue to suck the life from independent enterprise and leach away individuality.

The key to effective regeneration must be safeguarding a town's uniqueness, public spaces and sense of local identity - and small businesses are a vital part of that. This, surely, is exactly what makes many continental cities so special.

Leeds Corn Exchange under threat

Following the loss of Camden market and the threat to Manchester's Affleck's palace now Leeds Corn Exchange is under threat. Similar problem to the Glasgow event noted recently. Particularly interesting is the police campaign against alternative youth highlighted by this article:


http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/11/386716.html

As most people form Leeds know, the Corn Exchange plays a major part in the city's youth alternative culture and has done for decades. On any day you'll see goths, punks, emo kids and just general teenagers meeting there, making new mates, getting along and having fun.

POLICE ASBO'S DEEPER SECRET?
Just over a year ago the owners of the building (Eagle Star Life Assurance / Zurich) and the centre management (Phoenix Beard) pressurised West Yorkshire Police, who were far from reluctant to act, to get rid of this young community through months intimidation; ranging from placing dozens of police officers outside the centre each weekend, arresting people for standing in the 'wrong place' and serving Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) on kids for doing what kids do. They have also tried a smear campaign telling people that the Corn-X is a hotspot for drugs and underage drinking when this is infact far from the truth. At first the police and owners claimed the reasoning for their actions was that people gathering outside were intimidating those shopping there, but this didn't wash because it is a fact that most of the custom of shops inside comes from the youth who meet outside. Now it's appearing that the police smear campaign was just to try and get rid of the young community outside so the sale of the building can go ahead and the Corn-x can be redeveloped as a posh food emporium.


LEEDS ALTERNATIVE SCENE AT THREAT
The Corn Exchange is central to the alternative scene in Leeds due to it's high profile; it is one of the only places teenagers in the city hang out and keep entertained by friends instead of going off with a few mates and drinking in parks, or being reckless. Without it many people would lose friends they have seen on a weekendly basis; as well as the tight community where there is a large range of people from all different walks of life. If someone has something to talk about, there is always someone of their own age there who can help and even share experiences.


SMALL TRADERS WILL SUFFER
The stores inside the centre have been given until January to find an alternative premises, or face closure. These shops are small traders and cannot afford to move and pay the expensive rent for the other places in Leeds City Centre; and aside from the money aspect there is a lack of empty premises in town as they are all being bought out by large retailers - this is also another contributor to the rise in costs for renting space. Either way these shops will have to close down which will have an effect on the local economy, as well as the customers who shop there as due to many of the stores being specialist traders. Not only shops inside the Corn-X will suffer, but many of the alternative stores in the vicinity will lose a large amount of custom as they are a tight community of traders; not forgetting that there will be a lack of customers around for them...

Similar points are made elsewhere and in this protest video from 2006 which shows the feelings of locals:

Corn Exchange demonstration against exclusion order

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Youth Comment - James Roberts - 01/04/2006 - Communitycare.co.uk ...

Athens - Emos assaulted

No doubt emos in greece have faced violence before in Greece but now it is in the papers, alongside the usual anti Emo garbage. I am still amazed how much nonsense newspapers print since when is Green Day emo? Glyfada is a suburb of Athens.

ekathimerini.com | Injuries in youth culture clash
Kathimerini, Greece - 5 Dec 2007

An attack on two adolescents in Glyfada by a large group of teenagers has highlighted growing tensions between “rival” groups of fashion-conscious youngsters.

The attack, which occurred in central Glyfada early Sunday, resulted in minor injuries to one of the two victims and the arrest of three alleged assailants who faced a prosecutor yesterday. Meanwhile, police are seeking another 18 youngsters implicated in the attack.

The two victims define themselves as “emos” – code for a tribe of youngsters who wear black clothes, dyed black hair brushed over their face, and listen to an “emotional” strain of post-punk music. The pair claim to have been surrounded by a group of “trendies” – a rival band of preppy youngsters – who demanded they hand over their money and mobile phones. The victims say they were attacked after refusing to give in to the demands. They say they were targeted for being “emos.”

The “emo” trend, which appeared in other European countries several years ago, has only recently gained ground in Greece. Youngsters claiming allegiance to the clan – girls and boys alike – typically dress in black with drainpipe jeans and heavy black makeup. They tend to listen to bands playing a strain of post-punk music featuring angry and retrospective lyrics, such as Green Day and My Chemical Romance.

The tendency of some emos in other countries to intentionally harm themselves – generally minor cuts using razors – does not appear to have been embraced in Greece.

Nevertheless, psychologists are concerned that this type of allegiance is not a particularly healthy one for youngsters. “This is the first time such an emotionally charged youth movement has appeared in Greece,” clinical psychologist Eleni Kouloutzou told Kathimerini. “These children appear almost mournful but they have turned their anger in on themselves rather than against society – they don’t believe in anything,” she said.

Apart from “emos” and “trendies,” Greece also has “kangoures” – male teenagers with a loud, brash style who drive their cars dangerously.

The interesting thing is that the assault is identical to all the other attacks we have covered across the world in it has emos assaulted by trendies in large numbers. A followup article is even more disturbing...

Violence is not about style
Kathimerini, Greece - 7 Dec 2007

By Nikos Xydakis

Recent youth clashes are being seen by many as a war of stylistic differences. The «cool» kids beating up on the «emos.» Next, we will embark on an analysis of each trend or the subculture to which each belongs.

But this approach harbors many dangers. First, we begin by looking at violence as a matter of aesthetics, a lifestyle conflict. It is that, but only partly. It is like the clashes between hooligans that have sometimes even ended in death - and are not just about the color of one's jersey.

No 17-year-old living in Athens who has been witness to such incidents has any doubt about what to call those of his peers who attack emos with scissors and switchblades, hack away at their bangs and beat them in the face: They are bullies. Pure and simple.

You may even hear something about the packs of semi-feral teenagers prowling neighborhoods on their noisy mopeds until a lone long-banged kid walks by. «What are you looking at?!» That's how it begins, and sometimes it ends in a vicious beating. The pack mentality and senseless violence are characteristics of a youth that is full of rage, that lacks a smooth process of assimilation or passage into wider society. With schools degraded, a society that doles out hypocrisy and insecurity, a professional outlook that is limited to delivering pizzas or becoming a night watchman, with ideological hatred being vented on every Internet site, teenagers, and especially these semi-marginalized teenagers, are pushed to aggression, to blind competition, to the exclusion of all «others,» to forming packs within which they have an identity.

Bullies, of course, have always been around. But in cases such as these beatings, in Glyfada and Syntagma, their pack mentality puts them on a par with the lumpen hooligans. Violence is not just a matter of aesthetics.

Computer and Mobile games show school tribes

Bratz [those dolls] now have a computer game in which they solve all the high school divisions... the game is not very good apparently. Sounds like stereotype city.

Bratz 4 Real - Review

December 3, 2007 - High school. Four years of homework and hall passes, four years of teachers and friends. And four years of the same friends, too, as you're doomed to fall into the trap of joining a tight, exclusive clique and never being able to socialize with anyone outside of that small circle. That's what Bratz 4 Real asserts, as it sets up a story of four fashion-crazed friends who band together to eliminate their high school's clique system, and encourage all different kinds of students to start interacting with one another. It's an interesting premise, one that shows more promise than the storyline used in past Bratz-brand titles. But while the theme of this adventure works pretty well, its execution ends up being pretty shallow.

It's a constant string of short conversations. As you control one of the four Bratz friends, you run around their high school, the local mall and an adjacent park talking to non-player characters, then talking to more non-player characters, then going back to the first character ... and so on and so forth. The plan the Bratz have concocted involves bridging the gap between different social groups, none of which is comfortable with talking to any other. So your character is constantly serving as the messenger, moving from the nerds to the jocks, from the punks to the goths, from the populars to the preppies and every other combination in-between.

It's interesting from a plot perspective. You see the popular girl in charge of costumes for the school play reach out to a punk chick with clothing design experience for help. You see a preppy who loves to proofread manuscripts assisting a nerd with his latest anime fanfiction. You see bright, cheerful cheerleaders come together with drab, gothic girls and find common ground, and it's all very heartwarming to see....

Meanwhile in Australia:

Aussie game creator blasts sex critics | NEWS.com.au

Screenshots ... scenes from the game Coolest Girl In School / Supplied

AN independent Adelaide game developer has hit back at claims her upcoming mobile phone game encourages teen pregnancy and drug use. Coolest Girl In School, a role-playing game designed for mobiles, recently gained international notoriety after the Australian Family Association blasted it for being "grossly irresponsible".

The game's creator Holly Owen was "surprised" by the attack, but has revealed that none of the game's critics speak from experience. "We were really surprised at the lengths people went to condemn the game when no-one has actually played it yet," said Ms Owen, creative director of Champagne For The Ladies.

"I believe it was even accused of causing pregnancy, which I find hilarious," she said. "Someone hadn't had enough sex education to realise that you can't get pregnant from a mobile phone."

Coolest Girl In School is based around a high-school theme that, according to Ms Owen, justifies the controversial content.

"If we left out things like sex and drugs and rock n' roll... then it would really be a game about teachers and homework and pimples, which would be boring and not represent the whole theme."

The game uses multiple-choice questions, which Ms Owen describes as "the type usually found in teen girl mags".

"The strategy lies in making as many friends as you possibly can, which means that pleasing one subculture of people (like more reckless types) isn't necessarily going to do you any favours," Ms Owen said.

Players can customise their characters based on social stereotypes of different youth subcultures.

"You choose from a very extensive wardrobe that contains outfits from subcultures including emos, fashionistas, nerds, etcetera and then you go out into the world and encounter non-player characters," she said.

"Essentially they ask you questions or things happen to you and you've got three choices in terms of how you respond to their question, or the event."

One scene from the game shows an "emo" character asking: "Wanna bludge and fake our own suicides?" The response options vary from "Sure! Can it be suicide by chocolate?" to "Teenage suicide don't do it!" and "Can't sorry – I'm already failing"....

Glasgow "goths and neds"

I belong to Glasgow ( photos) - 27 Nov 2007 - NZ Herald: Travel News and Information from New Zealand and around the World

A New Zealand reporter gets an interesting view of Glasgow and local divisions from talking to local teens:

The younger folk, teens still at school and wishing they weren't, loiter about on the sidewalks down by the River Clyde. There are two distinct groups; the neds (non-educated delinquents) and emo-following goths.

A goth, explains Fiona, 16, wears skinny-legged black jeans, T-shirts of bright colours and heavy black boots. Hair must be dyed jet black, bleached blonde or coloured pink. The neds have short undyed hair, wear baggy, low-slung jeans, hoodies and sports shoes. Neds are apparently doomed to trades whereas goths will likely attend Glasgow University when they finish school. These smoking, swearing youths are the city's future engineers, doctors and economists.

Stately George Square, in the city's heart, is another loitering place for goths and neds. It's fronted by the grandiose City Chambers built - no expense spared - in 1880, in the days when Glasgow was the trading, shipbuilding and textile hub of the Empire. ...

The riverside goths say architecture is one of the things they love about their city, along with its cheerful accommodation of drinking and carousing. Chances are, in a decade, these dishevelled youths will have finished university and will be designing more impress-ive examples of Glas-wegian engineering and the neds will be muscling-up on build-ing sites rather than slouching about in hoodies.

Sikh, Goth and Chav

BBC - Devon - Community Life - Sikh-ing his Britishness:

Ineresing project here and poem.

Goth & Chav

How long before
they see me as a Sikh
they realise I'm not unique
they treat me like a human
someone cries "Is this true man"
they see that inside we're tougher
we don't have to suffer
they realise?
they start to sympathise
they realise the power to touch
they realise it means so much
my love turns to hate
you become my mate
we get noticed
we stop getting dissed
I've got nothing to fear
They get me out of here

Mix it up Day - USA

It was Mix It up day in the States yesterday an attempt to break down divisions between racial and social groups, including subcultural ones. It is a long standing idea in the States starting in 2002. Now more than 10,000 schools are involved.

ABC News 4 Charleston - Mixing Up Racial And Social Divides At Hanahan Middle School
Tuesday November 13, 2007 5:40pm Reporter: Renee Williams

Hanahan, S. Carolina - Hanahan Middle School participates in Mix It Up at Lunch Day, a national social experiment aimed at teaching students tolerance.

Think back, way back to your middle school lunch time. You’re sitting with the same friends, day in and day out and being a part of your group. Now imagine this- taking all of that and turning it upside down.

“Students are going to come in. They're going to take the initiative to sit with someone they don't know well,” Elizabeth Scarbrough says.

She’s the one who organized the school’s Mix it Up at Lunch Day. In other words, they’re mixing it up and changing who they talk to everyday. The students are also making new friends while breaking up old cliques.

“Some kids are left out they don't have many friends and then you have some groups who are friends with everybody,” eighth grader Nick Zerbst says.

Mix it Up at Lunch aims to break the harsh social divide of middle school.
The experiment tries to melt the jocks with the goths and the popular kids.
It’s not always easy to just strike up a conversation with someone you don't know. To help break the ice, the kids came up with questions to ask each other like do you like Clemson or Carolina or do you play sports? Even with the ice breakers the nerves are obvious.

“People are trying to be popular. People feel left out they can't really make friends because they're all shy,” adds eighth grader Kenneth Spear.

Whether they’re shy or not, more than 200 students pledged to give it a try. “Here's the 6th grade doing it. It’s really working well. Maybe someone in a higher social status can bring them up,” Zerbst says.

Middle school kids typically divide themselves along gender, racial and economic lines. They learn those divides early on. So these kids are pledging and promising to cross age old boundaries, if only for one day. “These prejudices and these cliques actually start to form at age three to its very important that we catch them at the middle school age,” adds Scarbrough.

SPLCenter.org: Millions take part in fourth annual Mix It UpDecember 2005

Fourth- and 5th-graders in Sweetwater, Texas, embrace the spirit of Mix It Up.
(Bruno at Holly Kuper Photography)
SWEETWATER, Texas -- When 350 intermediate students Mixed It Up here, spirits rose as high as their red, white and blue helium balloons

"That's what I love about 4th- and 5th-graders," said school counselor and Mix It Up at Lunch Day facilitator Melissa Howard. "They are still so into everything."

In 2005, the number of participants also rose -- dramatically. Across the nation on November 15, and estimated four million students at 9,000 schools took part in the fourth annual Mix It Up at Lunch Day. That's a 50 percent increase from 2004, when 4 million students took part nationwide.

Mix It Up, part of the Center's Teaching Tolerance program, asks students to swap seats in the school cafeteria -- one of the most self-segregating settings in the nation. Football players sit with football players; cheerleaders, with cheerleaders. Band members at the table in the corner; Goths at one table; Spanish-speaking students at another.

Consider how a high school senior from Phoenix described her school cafeteria on this year's Mix It Up at Lunch Day: "That section over there is where the jocks usually sit, and this part by the benches is where the skaters are, and then the gangs are all along the walls."

A 9th-grader from Oregon took part in a discussion about school cliques on Mix It Up at Lunch Day and came away with a deeper understanding.

"I learned they (various school cliques) don't really talk to each other," she said. "It's important to get groups to mingle. In the real world, you have to mingle whether you want to or not."

On Mix It Up Day, clearly, some do not. In Philadelphia, one high school student called it "annoying." In Florida, one student called it "childish," labeling participants "losers."

"The resistance is a clear sign of why the program is so important," said Tafeni English, director of the Mix It Up program. "Mix It Up is about social boundaries, and those boundaries don't dissolve in a single day or a single moment. But every time we get some students talking and thinking about the boundaries, we're taking steps in the right direction."...

POEM: Vegetable Soup

April 19, 2006 -- Two students at King George High School in Virginia write about the various social cliques in their school.

by Katie Newton and Laura McKinnon


King George High School is full of cliques

"The Wall," the Goths and the hot chicks.

It's hard enough to be a teen

Without having to deal with these kids - they're mean!

First of all, you've got "The Wall"

A sea of darkness, always having a ball.

Getting their kicks from picking on us

They laugh and they point, and they even cuss.

I know the teachers aren't hearing impaired

But they won't say anything 'cause they're too scared.

The Goths are the next crowd; they stay to themselves

Some dress like vampires, and some like dark elves.

They hate their lives, and the world, and us,

They won't be happy until their wounds seep pus.

The hot chicks are last because they're the worst

If you're not skinny and blonde consider yourself cursed.

Malibu Barbies with their fake tans

Always succeeding in stealing our "mans."

I want to break free

And then there are ones like me.

I have a friend in every group,

Like a giant pot of vegetable soup.

Carrots, peas and noodles, too,

I like being vegetable soup.

What kind of soup are you?

Some interesting comments from kids involved in the past. Lots more here:

Don't hate what you don't understand
Keala

Every one knows how the "goths" and the "preps" have hated each other for so many years now. I am considered a goth at my school, but I have friends from virtually every clique. I hate how people think if you are a certain way, you have to be friends with just that group! I dislike how the jocks make fun of my friends and how they torment us because we have an opinion. Most people think "goths" are suicidal, and that they worship Satan. Satanists worship Satan not "goths." I judge people but it's because when they hang out with others they become like that friend. I just hate how everyone hates "goths." Just because we are different doesn't mean you have to hate us. A great man once said "To be great is to be misunderstood" (Ralph Waldo Emerson) just as being different is to be great!

Another way to Mix It Up
Lindsey
It is true there are many cliques at our school, like the so-called 'gangster table' or the 'nerd table', but our lunch is only 25 minutes long, so one day would not create friendships. If it were my idea I would have it happen at least one Tuesday a month because once a year really wouldn't cut it, if you think about it. If it was held every Tuesday, then you would be forced to talk to them or exclude yourself, which shouldn't happen by the way. But instead of sitting at a new table every Tuesday, you could sit at the same color table and create friendships with those people, and after like 3 months they switch everyone, something like that.

Mix doesn't work
Bob
I HATE MIX IT UP DAY! ITS STUPID AND IT NEVER WORKS!

It was hard, but I did it
Jackie
Today at my school we had Mix It Up Day. It was very fun because we got to meet new people! Usually, I sit with my best friend, Marilyn. We always sit at the same table. It was very hard to do this but I did it. I am proud that I was brave enough to sit with totally different people whom I didn't know. Thank you for making this day exist!

Being judged sucks
Kim
In my school, people judge you by one thing: where you shop and what you wear. It's not, oh, you are so nice, or eh, you're really mean to everyone, or, you annoy me on purpose, it's that you shop here. I for one, shop at Hot Topic, a store that has been deemed rather "Gothic," but yet, has more leather alternatives than places like Wet Seal and Mervyn's, and most of the makeup in there has not been tested on animals. I am a vegetarian, in case you were wondering why I am talking about that sort of thing. People think I'm Gothic just because I shop there.

Most cliques in my school, really aren't defined by a name, it's just certain people. There's the normal people, who are more often than not popular; the freaks, who are just plain rude to everyone; the loser/skaters who made do good in school, but half of them are just, well, rather, odd; there are the skaters, the people that I hang out with some; the preps, the people who will do anything to make themselves look perfect; the potheads, people who do drugs; the sugar junkies, people who are just plain crazy; there's the jocks, who are obsessed with any kind of sport; fashionistas, people who love clothes; and then, there's what I've been defined as, a Gothic. Really though, I am a punk rock enviro skater. These cliques, aren't people I have judged. It's just where they fall in my school according to what they wear and how they act. I wear bondage pants (the big pants that have D-rings and straps on them) and because of that I'm Gothic. If you noticed, I put nothing down on Environmentally Conscious people, that's because I'm really the only one who cares about that in my school. I'm just me, and being judged differently sucks. It sucks hard.

Don't make us do it again
Damien
I'm using this little thing to tell you what I think about Mix It Up. I think its a waste of time and is not going to do anything but cause more problems. NO student I have talked to bout this said it was a good idea. There is talk of skipping lunch to avoid having to participate and also talk of deliberate defiance. I am one of the students who will NOT participate. I won't be forced to sit with people I don't like. I don't like people, not because of their differences, but because of their personality. If I was someone who sat by myself at lunch I wouldn't want people to sit with me because they had to, rather because they want to. I know I speak for a good 75% of my school when I say this is lame... don't make us do it again.

Lowest social group
Brittany
Mix It Up Day was ok for some students, but let me tell you, Mix It Up Day at Lunch did not go so well for me. I tried sitting with the "preppy" kids. But they just made fun of me and told me to go away. It doesn't matter how much you think it's a good thing, when a "goth" sits with a "prep" it doesn't go over very smoothly. It was a success for the older kids to sit with freshman and everything - kids sitting with other kids that aren't really different than them. But this was just... yeah. When the lowest social group sat with the highest at my school, it was not a good lunch.

PeaceJam brings food to Mix
Cornelia

I go to school at Tohatchi High School in New Mexico. I am in 11th grade. My group, PeaceJam, brought food for the people to eat in the classrooms. The students said it was nice to meet different students at our school. We got all the athletes, skaters and Goths to sit with the people they don't know. We had a good time with the students. But some of the students said they were shy because they don't know the students they were sitting by.

Mix was awesome
Kileigh

Mix-it-up-at-lunch day was awesome at my school. We each got a buddy to walk around with, and to hang out with in different groups. It was so fun. Everyone crossed the boundaries of preps, jocks, Goths, geeks, African Americans and those types of things. I met new people and have so many new friends now that I will never forget. I met some awesome people I would never have had the guts to go up to, and hang out with, on a normal day. It makes school such a better atmosphere when you know more people. I learned that all these people are so cool in their own ways and they all have their own types of fun. I hope this day becomes a tradition for my school district. I'll never forget this day! Thanks so much for the great idea!!

Racism and Religious Bigotry
By J.S.

I am a daughter of a United States Marine and because of that I have moved around the country a lot. I have seen and experienced many different things.

I have experienced racism, not from my white classmates, but from my black classmates. I have seen people blamed for things that are not in their control like a Wiccan at my school, who is harassed not only by kids, but in less obvious ways by teachers.

Right now my worst battle is not with anyone I know from school. It's from my mom. She thinks some of my friends are devil-worshippers just because they are goth, and when I told her some of them are actually Christians, she acted surprised!

When I told her that goths are actually some of the most tolerant and peaceful people I know because they don't care what religion, color, sexual orientation you are, she told me to shut up.

How's that for tolerance?

By C.

In my school there aren't many different groups such as freaks, geeks and wannabees, but there are some such as myself, a goth, and preps and the "in betweens" who really don't care. But even though there aren't that many groups there are A LOT of coflicts between us.

For example, when everyone found out I was a goth some preppies wanted to fight me that used to be my friends. I'm the only goth in my school and it's not surprising considering it's unfortunately a Catholic school. The reason that I go there is because I live with my aunt and uncle.

People are getting used to the idea, but I'm still hated by many people but I learn to ignore it!!!!

I'm a Pagan
By M.

I'm a Pagan. I live in a small town in Wisconsin. Everyone in my high school knows I'm pagan. At least the people who know who I am do.

I've gotten a lot of guff for being the religion that I am. I've been called devil worshiper, blair witch, Mrs. Cleo, etc... I've had people walk around me singing hymns from the Bible just to make me angry.

I believe they make fun of me simply because they are afraid of what they believe i stand for. None of them actually took the time or effort to understand what my beliefs were. I can't even count the times I've told the same people that I can't worship the devil when I don't believe he exists.

I try to explain to them what I am, but it just goes in one ear and out the other. All I want is to go to school not having to wonder what new name they're going to come up with, or what new plan they have to try and humiliate me with.

I don't think asking for the ability to go to school without having to defend my religion to everyone I meet is too much to ask, do you? I just want to make some people aware that pagans aren't bad, sure we have some people calling themselves witches who give us a bad name, but if you talk to a pagan -- a true pagan -- you'll find out otherwise. As our creed states "an it harm none, do what thou will." Thank you for reading my story, I hope you come away with a different point of view.

Don't judge lunchmates by their appearance
Amber

Everyday is a new experience for me! I used to sit at the same old lunch table day after day, but now it's a whole new change! I sit with a girl I met in named Kiritie, who now I am really close with. It's a Goth table with lots of unique people — very friendly — and I feel happy to sit and make new friends. I always look forward to sitting there. They make me feel at home! It's not all what you look like on the outside, it's what you have on the inside that counts. So don't just judge people and not consider sitting with them just because of the way they look and dress.

More details here at website which organises it.

Hate Crime Petition

The subcultural hate crimes petition is continuing to grow. It now has 1,308 signatures making it currently about number 160 out of 8491 active petitions. It will get an official response from the Prime Minister's office when complete in March. If it continues to grow at this rate it will have around 6000 signatures by then which would put it in the top 40. Interesting that there is still much discussion posted online about this. It is good that it is debated and this shows alternative people do not leap into things without considering them as shown in the strong points raised against the idea in I noted in the Hate Crime and Subcultures - the debate post. I still have some reservations about hate crimes legislation, but it is an idea people need to think through for themselves.

It may be the type of awareness raising and education the SOPHIE campaign is involved in is more useful in the end, but signing will not do any harm and will hopefully raise publicity and importantly awareness from the authorities. Yet there is no hope being too optimistic after all the recent Camden petition with 36,000 signatures had no effect. The real danger however is apathy though suggesting nothing can be done at all. Action needs to be taken and this petition is part of that.

Hate Crime and Subcultures - the debate

As mentioned before on the Epetition the idea of "Hate Crime" legislation being applied to subcultures arose quite soon after Sophie's death and aroused strong opinions for and against. See the debate at this site: Gothic.net Community - Change the UK Law - Goth Hate Crime - lets try anyway. The points raised against the idea of hate crime legislation for subcultures which are noted below come from there. [Note they are talking about an earlier petition not the UK specific one].

Many points are very good and entirely valid. I think it is very interesting to note the reluctance of many to immeadiately endorse the idea, which you might think from an emotional and purely tribalistic perspective might seem very attractive given the strong feelings Sophie's death aroused. Does this mean goths think too much as some people have suggested? Or that goths actually are as individualistic as they often claim to be? Is dealing with goths like trying to herd cats as I myself have observed?

Whatever you conclude this is why I think it is important to emphasise as well education and awareness - the ideas pursued by the SOPHIE campaign, rather than necessarily wage a battle over whether this a hate crime or not? Trying to reduce negative coverage of subcultures in the media is a key element in this I think.

Some of the key points and ideas mentioned in the debate against the idea of redefining Hate Crime are:

A) subcultures choose to be different unlike gay or racial minorities:

IsolatedReptile: What I said was, it's a fashion thing. Fashion is a choice. If you feel threatened, don't dress that way. It's not a hate crime because you wear black. It's just a crime. It's a hate crime if you are black. You can't help that.

Beneath the Shadows: As far as I'm concerned, the only things that should be considered hate crimes are crimes against people who were born certain ways, ie because of sexual orientation or ethnicity. Those people cannot help what they are, so any crimes against them just because they what they are are hate crimes. But just about everything else is a choice.

Don't get me wrong, I still think that it's tragic that someone will get beaten up for how they vote, or what god they worship, or how they dress. But those are all choices.

Captain Stern: What people are proposing here is we be put on the same level as jewish people who have their synagogues burned and covered in swastikas by skinheads, that we get equal protection like blacks who are hung for dating white women , like other minorities who really have had, and still have atrocities forced upon them in todays society.

Althought I'm sure the founders of the movement have nothing but good intentions, goths have by no means suffered as much as the groups above, or any other minoroties who have been targetted in such a manner.

If we try to compare our plight, which so far is limited to a single incident where a group of random yobs beat up a couple goths in the middle of the night, to these other groups, we will look very petty and small.

B) Where do you draw the line? If Hate laws are extended to some subcultures where does it stop?

CptSternn: Every person beaten is a hate crime. If the kids were wearing glasses and a pocket protector, would we include geeks as a hate crime? If they were wearing tie-dyes would we add in hippies? If they were wearing ren-faire outfits, would we protect people in medieval garb as a hate crime?

What if they wore chicken suits and had gotten beaten up? We going to make Disneyland a protected sanctuary for people in cartoon suits?

Every crime is a hate crime. People get beaten for many reasons. Beating someone because of something they cannot change deserves to be a crime enforced but adding every little fashion change to hate crime laws doesn't help us.

C) You might undermine the importance of existing legislation:

CptSternn: It lessens the effect of real hate crime legislation. If everyone goes asking to be included in 'hate crime' laws, in the end they will just raise the penalties for all beatings because everyone wants to be listed as their own group.... I think even trying to get this put into legislation is a bad idea. It makes goths look petty, and ignorant. It also makes real hate crimes look less important, considering we appear to want protection like minorities or foreign nationals, and we are normal people, average citizens, mostly from affluent areas, who merely choose to wear an outfit.

D) Hate crime is an incoherent and unjust idea anyway. All crimes should be punished equally. This is a longstanding argument against hate crime legislation and comes down to the question of why should crimes against a black/gay/disabled person be treated differently to that of a white person:

Drake Dun: I think we should just extend hate crimes to cover all types of crime. So then it would be "hate murder", "hate aggravated assault", "hate grand larceny", "hate intentional misrepresentation with intent to defraud in connection with interstate commerce" and so forth. So then, see, they would all have "hate" in front of them, so it would be redundant, and we could drop it, and set all the sentences back to where they were to begin with.

Then we could erase all record of the entire process, and quietly pretend that we never went through this ludicrous phase of thinking that beating someone up because you don't like their clothes is somehow worse than beating them up for their wallet.

E) New laws won't change anything it is a wider social problem:

Stephanie: I'm not trying to make light of these situations but you have to be realistic, there are 'twats' out there that commit these crimes regardless of who/what the person is, usually they are bought up with very little discipline/or too much, violence in the home, violence on tv, drug/alcohol problems within the home, the list goes on and on.

'Thugs' know that they will generally get a slap on the wrist whenever a crime is committed and minors know this also, children aren't as innocent as society makes out!!

I understand that your heart is in the right place with wanting to get 'hate' crimes recognised but it would be more constructive to try and get sentences increased, mental/drug/alcohol/social problems looked at as this is where these crimes usually start. We need more information distributed within schools etc.

Epetition at Downing Street website against Subcultural Hate Crime

This epetition was set up about ten days ago.

“Widen the definition of 'Hate Crime', to include crimes committed against a person or persons, on the basis of their appearance or subcultural interests” Ade Varney
Set up on September the 28th.

Note that petitions held at this site always generate an official response from the Prime Minister’s office when complete. You have to be a British citizen to sign the petition. Please use your real name as this a grave issue and the more real signatures attached to this the more seriously the issue is likely to be considered. The petition currently has 1036 signatures making it the 199^th most popular petition on the site out of 8261 live petitions. The Liberal democrat MP for Colchester Bob Russell has already said he will approach the Home Secretary to discuss the issues raised by the attack and the petition.

There has been much online discussion about whether attaching the name hate crime to these type of assaults is in fact valid. Whether or not you agree with the idea of the petition, and of hate crimes in general it should be recognised that this petition does represent a chance to get the government to actually consider the problem of physical attacks on people from alternative subcultures and it can be used to generate media and police interest in the problem. If all that means in practice is that one goth, punk, emo kid or metaler somewhere in the UK gets a more sympathetic hearing from the police next time he/she has been attacked, I think it would be worth a few moments of anyone’s time. I myself changed my mind on the question.

[see the later Hate Crime and Subcultures - the debate post.]

Fear of the Other - the Purpose of this Blog

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. Alterophobia is the term for fear and hatred of the Other, which is Fear of the the Strange, the Unknown. This hatred of the Other, is the basis for all kinds of fears and hatreds: hatred of foreigners, hatred of those of a different sexuality or gender, hatred of those of a different religion, hatred of the disabled, or hatred of the young or old. To fight against these prejudices to respect other people and to tolerate diversity is a keystone of modern Western society.

One area of intolerance which is little appreciated is the lack of respect shown towards members of alternative subcultures across the world. So I think alterophobia is a convient term to use describe this kind of prejudice. Often these subcultures arose in youth movements, but with time they have grown to become permanent part of the diverse web of organisations and people which make up modern life. These groups have frequently become targets of moral panics, their members turned into folk devils responsible for all the ills of society. Exaggeration, distortion and prejudice have made them convenient media scapegoats for tragedies like the Columbine shooting (see Columbine - The Legacy of Hatred ). These media distortions then support and reinforce existing prejudices.

Subcultural groups from hippies, punks, metalers, goths, skaters, emos, mods, rockers, New Age travellers, ravers and others all have suffered from these perceptions. As a result members of these subcultures often feel isolated and under attack. They receive not just verbal abuse but even physical violence which this blog has documentated in a number of posts There have always been those who are ready to turn to violence because of prejudice, ready to attack those who seem different. It is particularly bad for teenagers in school who are bullied simply because they listen to a different kind of music or dress alternatively. Many of the reports we have dealt with underline that school is a key location in these problems. Yes indeed some members of subcultural groups are criminals, or indulge in bad behaviour, but the extent of this is exaggerated along with other media distortions simply because it is easy to pick on them as scapegoats rather than o explore the complex social issues surrounding problems like violence, suicide and self-harm. There are cases like the West Memphis Three where being part of subculture has led to a miscarriage of justice and has further blackened the reputation of the subcultures involved. The vast majority of members of these groups are law abiding citizens of wherever they live. Indeed they often unnoticed perform good deeds. We must not forget to condemn equally the long-standing rivalries amongst subcultures, which when taken to extremes support exactly the sort of hatred and prejudice we are against. These feelings have contributed to violence in Mexico against emos for example.

I believe that this prejudice against these subcultures feed into creating a wider sphere of discrimination and hatred. If you cannot tolerate someone from the same nation as you, but who has a different hair style what chance is there you can tolerate other differences? By teaching tolerance for everyone we can create a better society.

This blog was motivated by the death of Sophie Lancaster, only twenty years old but murdered because she choose to dress in a goth style in August 2007. Yet Sophie's death is only part of a wider wave of prejudice which chooses to attack or abuse members of subcultures simply for the crime of existing and going about their daily lives. Look at the earlier case of the death of American punk Brian Deneke in 1997 in Amarillo, Texas for another example. Ten years on the case of Brian Deneke's death still arouses deep feelings amongst punks but there is no sign the issues of school and teen divisions it highlighted have been dealt with.

If Columbine High School had solved in 1999 the similar social divisions between jocks and alternative people in their school, exactly the sam divisions as there had been at Amarillo, would lives have been saved?

In the UK the death of Sophie has resulted in a Epetition at Downing Street website against Subcultural Hate Crime which is drawing attention to the issues and created a debate. This led to a poltical movement which may lead to a change in the law in the UK see post on the Early Day Motion.

Are these attacks at the same level as in earlier periods or are they getting worse? Without statistics it is difficult to say. Certainly it might seem we are just seeing what is an age old story but if you take the example of the fight which ended with the death of Dele Little that gives you two deaths as a result of subcultural differences amongst teenagers in the UK in 2007. There are worrying indications the problem may be getting worse. Since starting this blog I have documented a number of attacks and other issues which have effected emos, goths, punk, followers of Heavy Metal and skaters.

This blog will try to keep track of these problems, in the UK and across the world, and by highlighting them hopefully go some way to showing the problem exists and start to combat them.