I know I’ve been a bit quiet on here for a while. You can’t rely on depressives to get anything done, it seems. I’m still struggling away with my damn degree, my job has taken away half my hours so I’m broke and I’m currently not getting any sleep…
Party on, Wayne…
The reason I’m writing (ranting…) is because the only thing that can get me out of depressive funks sometimes is watching DVDs which make me laugh, so I thought I couldn’t possibly go wrong with the latest Bill Bailey. Quite frankly, I think the man’s a genius and would suggest him for Prime Minister if it were possible. Which is why I now feel so disappointed that he’s chosen to make fun of people who self-harm.
In his latest show (Tinselworm) he sings a song which he prefaces as being about ‘emos’, so I thought ‘This’ll be good.’ I’m all for making fun of converse-shoe-wearing, Starbucks-slurping, smug, arrogant, teenage idiots with stupid haircuts and more belts than sense. Especially as the majority of them seem to think that living with an actual mental illness is nothing more than ‘cool’ or ‘edgy’.
However, the song turned out to be more about someone who actually self-harms than the stupid fashion trend. He sang about a boy who cuts himself, sticks pins in his hand and burns himself and the audience dutifully laughed along while I stared at the TV with increasing horror.
I know what the basic mistake is here. I hate the fact that ‘emo’ culture has become muddled up with actual mental illness, and of course with the lack of general public awareness I suppose I can’t blame Bill Bailey for being confused. However, I don’t think it’s fair to make fun of the concept of self-harm even in this context.
I know knowledge of mental illness is not exactly widespread but I would’ve thought it was obvious even to the dimmest of people that if a young person cuts into their flesh with a knife, even if it is just for ‘fashion’, then they cannot be well! I might make fun, but I don’t honestly care if someone dresses in a stupid outfit… They could be the biggest idiot on the planet but I’d never, ever make fun of the fact that they self-harmed.
This seems to be something that is not discussed much and I know that plenty of people reading this will say that I’m being too sensitive and ‘it was only a joke’. But as someone who has self-harmed for the majority of her life and witnessed the awfulness of the effect of self-harm on some of her closest friends, I cannot sit and be silent about this one. Not even Bailey’s rendition of Creep by Radiohead could cheer me up after that… Now I’m just sat here feeling vaguely depressed and despondent. Not bad for £14.95, eh?
Forget it. I’m going to stick ‘Friends’ on, pop a Diazepam and numb out.
It’s not “just a joke” shatterboxx. It’s incredibly inconsiderate and downright cruel to laugh at people who self harm. My, they wouldn’t dare to laugh at people with cancer, would they? You can file this under “mental illnesses are not real illnesses because people can always “pull themselves together” unlike when something is actually wrong with your body, in which case, you have our full support”.
I don’t think “emos” are “just a fashion”. If it were, then this would be the first time in history that “fashion” was expressed through self mutilation.
I think it gets dismissed as “fashion” because we, society, are just too scared to look and find out the truth. What the heck is going on? Why are young people are feeling SO BAD that they end up cutting themselves?
Something is wrong with our society and with the world. And emos are a symptom of this.
Hi marytracy, good to see you
I’ve been over at crazyboards.org for a while but I’m looking to get back into posting here again. I missed this site.
Emo fashion could generally seen to be defined as eyeliner, tight jeans, stripey clothes, angsty music etc what I meant was that people get this mixed up with the fact that some people who identify with the fashion also self-harm. People’s perception tends to be that anyone who self-harms or suffers from mental illness and also wears black must only be looking for attention, which is a very dangerous attitude to take.
I fully believe that the lack of awareness surrounding self harm contributes far more to the hinderence of help for people who are suffering than the so-called ‘attention seekers’ if there are any… If there are people out there who self-harm solely for attention then they cannot compare to the number who self-harm due to genuine illness (besides the fact that self-harming for attention is a pretty horrific thing to do anyway, and might signify an illness in itself).
I’m a great fan of Bill Bailey, but I must say that’s very dissapointing.
There is a trend of young teens self-harming just because it’s “cool”, and i wonder (hope?) that’s what Bailey is alluding to?? That is quite alarming in itself though, that teens would do that. It’s also “cool” to have anorexia.
I think people need to think about self-harm, and imagine themselves doing it. I say that because if a “normal” person were to try cut themselves they’d probably not be able to bring themselves to do it, or at least find it really unpleasant. And by doing that they’d see what an unnatural thing it is, and how psychologically things must be wrong for it to occur.
I don’t know if i’m making much sense because i’m half-asleep – i do apologise!!!
You weren’t the only one sitting there horrified!
I’m also a huge fan of Bill Bailey (Beautiful Ladies in Danger is my favourite comedy song ever!) and I saw Tinselworm last christmas.
I was very uncomfortable during that song (and found it very triggering because my OCD pounces on those images), frankly I was surprised he could be so callous considering the likely not-inconsiderable percentage of his audience who would statistically have struggled with either self harm or mental health issues. I reckon there must have been quite a few people that night pretending to laugh along.
I’m glad I’m not the only one… I showed it to my friend who self-harms and he didn’t seem to have any major problem with it although he was kind of quieter during that bit than the rest of the show and his parents weren’t very amused (not surprisingly). I guess I’m so disappointed because the rest of the time Bailey is absolutely spot-on, right down to his ‘This is what a feminist looks like’ T-shirt…
I am disgusted with the song about self harming on Tinselworm and I would like to let all of you know that I have posted Mr Bailey a written complaint this morning.
I totally agree, my dad was watching it on tv and i was in the room on my laptop. I heard what he was talking about it and looked up and didn’t find it funny at all. I can’t believe he was that insensetive. The rest of his stuff’s fine but I self harm and didn’t appreciate him making a joke about it. Hmmf.
Hey, i literally just watched tinselworm and as soon as it finished i had to see wether any other people were as upset or maybe just a little disturbed about the self harm song as i was. I am a big fan of bill bailey as many seem to be and i was relli suprised that he would come out with a song like that, especially as he introduced it as a ’song about an emo, who may self harm’
what was he playing at, he made it a joke and completely dismissed the idea that his audience probably contains a LOT of people struggling with that issue.
It upset me and made me more than a little uncomfortable while watching it.
i hate the way it is seen as a trend and a very small number of people who dont self harm have any idea of the implications of it and the hardships and turmoil in creates every single day.
i also didnt appreciate the whole concept of the song and would hope he’d think about his choice of topics in the future.
Hi Kit, just wanted to say thanks for the reply. I’m glad you feel the same. I recently went to see Bill Bailey live and he performed the same song. I was pretty unhappy to have to sit through it again. I’m still a big fan of his but I’m sad he hasn’t rethought that material after all this time.