In schools, the community, and the adolescent citizenry, the “emo” group is one of the most notorious and unique groups known to them, distinguished by the icons of their hair, clothing, mood, and style of music. The culture of emo started out with the musical branch of “emo” from punk rock music in the 1980s (refrence: Associated Content). Emo music is distinguishable by “introspective and emotionally fraught lyrics” (refrence: Merriam Webster Dictionary), and when people noticed that the mood of the music matches the image of the people who listens to the music, the emo group was born. Based upon the image and stereotypes of the emo culture, people see those who pertain to the emo group as unhappy, depressed, or suicidal. This idea reached the ears of parents in the community, and they believe that the emo culture may be a problem to other children. They believe that emo culture possesses negative effects on the community based on their ideals or images, however, their ideas are incorrect. The belief that emo groups may lead to problems and negative effects in the society based on their image or mood is an argument that is prejudiced, unjust, and invalid.

“Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.” This quote from E.B White (American writer, 1899-1985) clearly shows us the situation we are dealing with and the topic of this article. Prejudice is basically what inspired the topic of this article (and some of the writers of this article as well), and it is what inspired parents to believe that the emo group is causing negative effects in the youth citizenry. In schools and the youth citizenry, people may join the emo group by making changes to their personality, wardrobe, or hairstyles, or there may be people that become depressed or possibly suicidal. However, to place the blame on the emo group entirely for these actions that are occurring in schools and the youth citizenry is basically prejudiced, and it is no different than placing blame on African American, Hispanic, Jew, or homosexual cultures for negative situations or problems that may occur in a school or the community as well. Therefore, the argument that negative effects are occurring because of the emo culture is invalid.

Probably one of the problems that is most frequently spoken of is the fact that emo groups are growing, however, emo groups do not have the blame that their groups are growing. Changing fads and opinions or ideals of popularity are the true perpetrators of this phenomenon. Based on an article from the news from Associated Content, memebers of the emo group have stated that their group is counter-cultral, which basically means that they see something in the fads or sub-cultures of other people that they may see as inconsistent witht their own ideals or lifestyles, and they decide to create a counter-culture to their by “[manifesting] itself in extreme behavioral differences and radically different dress from that of their peers.” The emo group is basically a culture expressing individuality in the form of dress, hairstyles, moods, and/or choice of music. However, changing fads by the opinion of other adolescents have decided that the emo culture or lifestyle is intriguing or “cool,” so they decide to be part of that group as well. When parents see that the emo group continues to grow, they place the blame on emo culture, when it is actually the blame of the opinions of fads and popularity expressed by adolescents.

Another one of the problems that is most frequently spoken of is the portrayal that people from emo groups are depressed or suicidal, and they may cause negative effects to their peers. Once again, this is a problem that is mainly fueled by prejudice, since this is implying that all people who pertain to the emo group are people who are depressed, which is not truly the case. There are people who see emo culture as intiguing or interesting, which makes them want to join their culture, and there are also truly depressed or suicidal people who dress to match their personality or mood (which is basically what most cultures and humans do to express themselves). Additionally, there are also people who do not dress like emo groups, and they are also depressed or suicidal, which further proves that the ideal that all people who belong to the emo group are depressed. There may also be people who are depressed in emo groups, but it truly causes negative effects to resent them and blame them for potential negative situations. People who are depressed-regardless of whether they are in an emo group or not-are people who require psychological assistance, not people who should be resented for their problems, for this will cause an amplification in their depression.

The emo culture is another culture, regardless of what others in the community may think or speak about them. It is a culture that should be respected, not blamed or resented, for this is merely another form of prejudice. The topic of this article is prejudiced and invalid. I, therefore, write against this topic.