#4 2008-11-17 20:18:41
Redacted wrote:
Hat or not, when these kids grow up they'll also want mock funerals at work. Though, likely not for the same reasons. (NSFL)
Entirely different ethos. Samsung employees wouldn't understand those images, just as the majority of us don't really "get" why they conduct fake grieving rituals. To be entirely honest, I can't say I "understand" either even though I've been trained for both. False death is offensive, somehow. It belittles the real deal, but then, so much we do daily does.
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#5 2008-11-17 20:45:26
Redacted wrote:
Hat or not, when these kids grow up they'll also want mock funerals at work. Though, likely not for the same reasons. (NSFL)
Oh, goddammit. I noticed a litter scoop in the background of one of the pictures--for some reason that's what will stick with me.
Let me shoot a theory past you all. Has this anorexia/cutting bullshit always been around, or is it a modal symptom of a mental illness (child abuse, attention-seeking behavior, whatever) that changes with each generation. I mean, were depressed chicks in ancient Egypt starving and cutting themselves, or did they do some other thing to get attention? If so, what was that thing? All I can think of is corseting in the 19th century. Let me know what you think, and don't tell me that people back then weren't depressed like they are now. That's horseshit--life has always been shitty enough to cause depression.
This is an offshoot of my ""if everybody dressed like a goth, then goth kids would wear Brooks Brothers" theory.
I fully expect no reply whatsoever to my well thought out question.
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#7 2008-11-17 21:13:39
ah297900 wrote:
I fully expect no reply whatsoever to my well thought out question.
While I suspect some of this is rooted in the need for attention, I get the feeling that need is a symptom of something more because of the lengths driven to get there. Anyway, I point you here, to a poorly written compilation of self-injury through the ages and you may feel free to point out I am stupid.
fnord wrote:
Redacted, where is your sense of attention whoring? That link deserved its own topic with its own catchy title!
Consider it my own form of self-injury.
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#8 2008-11-17 21:35:29
Redacted wrote:
you may feel free to point out I am stupid.
You, sir, are an idiot.
Seriously, all of those examples are one-time shots, motivated by religious fervor or some specific event. Anorexia and cutting are habitual, compulsive acts without a specific generative force behind them. It's different when Oedipus cuts his eyes out because he fucked his mother, or an African (Papuan?) bushman cuts a finger off in mourning.
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#9 2008-11-17 22:07:28
ah297900 wrote:
"if everybody dressed like a goth, then goth kids would wear Brooks Brothers" theory.
Which explains why I started dressing preppy around 1990. When everyone dressed goth, and goth was over, Brooks Brothers was the only form of death we had left.
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#10 2008-11-17 22:12:13
ah297900 wrote:
You, sir, are an idiot.
That's true, but in my defense English is not my first language. I write paragraphs of what I think is witty insight, only to erase it for fear that it might read like something ptah wrote.
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#11 2008-11-17 22:13:46
Redacted wrote:
ah297900 wrote:
You, sir, are an idiot.
That's true, but in my defense English is not my first language. I write paragraphs of what I think is witty insight, only to erase it for fear that it might read like something ptah wrote.
What the fuck is your first language, canadian or something?
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#12 2008-11-17 22:15:47
pALEPHx wrote:
ah297900 wrote:
"if everybody dressed like a goth, then goth kids would wear Brooks Brothers" theory.
Which explains why I started dressing preppy around 1990. When everyone dressed goth, and goth was over, Brooks Brothers was the only form of death we had left.
I got it: the cure for cutting is to get everyone else in the world to start cutting. Then these kids will start expressing their angst by studying hard and getting a goddamn job, with which they will support the rest of us (who are all now cutters).
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#13 2008-11-17 22:29:11
I am unable to muster any sympathy at all for "cutters" (and very little for anorexics/bulimics). I just don't buy the whole suffering thing. I just see a bunch of bourgeois brats who've never had a real problem in their entire lives trying to get the outside world to validate their self-pity.
If adolescents with real problems were cutters--if, say, cutting was an epidemic in the ghettos, or the cardboard slums of the Third World, or, say, a correlation was found between cutting behavior and children in foster care--I might be able to take them seriously.
I think the basic problem with the overindulged little shits is that they have to create drama because they don't have anything real to be moody about.
Your mileage may vary.
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#14 2008-11-17 22:41:47
George Orr wrote:
I am unable to muster any sympathy at all for "cutters" (and very little for anorexics/bulimics). I just don't buy the whole suffering thing. I just see a bunch of bourgeois brats who've never had a real problem in their entire lives trying to get the outside world to validate their self-pity.
If adolescents with real problems were cutters--if, say, cutting was an epidemic in the ghettos, or the cardboard slums of the Third World, or, say, a correlation was found between cutting behavior and children in foster care--I might be able to take them seriously.
I think the basic problem with the overindulged little shits is that they have to create drama because they don't have anything real to be moody about.
Your mileage may vary.
Well... they are suffering in their own way, as there is no validity in the lives that they are leading, or have been brought up in.
I once worked with a young man who was constantly angry, and who acted out in the weird-ass way of a lot of 20 somethings back when (he'd be around 38 now)... I asked him why he was so angry, knowing that he'd been brought up in a life of absolute privilege, in a town that was lilly white except for the grounds keepers and nannies... He could never answer. The problem is people haven't the language to articulate their artificial individualizations...
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#15 2008-11-17 22:55:48
Dmtdust wrote:
they are suffering in their own way...The problem is people haven't the language to articulate their artificial individualizations...
In my head I know you are right. I also know that evil shit goes on in the most privileged enclaves and that rich children can suffer the same horrors as poor ones...But my gut pulls the other way; the whiny little bastards disgust me. I was often miserable as an adolescent; I think that's true of everyone. But judging by the cutter demographic/social stratum, it seems that three squares a day and ample wardrobe options are needed to cultivate this particular brand of angst.
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#16 2008-11-17 23:17:49
I spent some time in the enclaves of Belgravia and Bel Air, being someones wicked secret, so I got to see this sense of disease up pretty close. It is hard to be sympathetic when there is so much genuine misery going around in the rest of the 96% of the world population. Yet, (I promise not to go all Buddhist on ya) one does have to have compassion when actually confronted by it. Compassion, and Disgust is an interesting combination.
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#17 2008-11-18 01:09:32
George Orr wrote:
Dmtdust wrote:
they are suffering in their own way...The problem is people haven't the language to articulate their artificial individualizations...
In my head I know you are right. I also know that evil shit goes on in the most privileged enclaves and that rich children can suffer the same horrors as poor ones...But my gut pulls the other way; the whiny little bastards disgust me. I was often miserable as an adolescent; I think that's true of everyone. But judging by the cutter demographic/social stratum, it seems that three squares a day and ample wardrobe options are needed to cultivate this particular brand of angst.
We all create our own acceptable form of suffering. For certain African women it was to be locked up until they were fattened. For some Nordic types, I suppose, it is to be bled silly. I tend to the side of the incredulous when it comes to absorbing how people react to dearth. Is it time to kill yourself partway? Is it time to remove part of yourself from the equation? She or he who destroys themselves for the sake of self image have the worst perception of themselves one can have. I leave it at that.
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#18 2008-11-18 13:38:49
Can't we just go back to a simpler time when young people had simpler afflictions and our wise medical forefathers had the tools to work cures with impressive sounding names like hysterical paroxysm?
Auto-edited on 2020-08-02 to update URLs
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#19 2008-11-18 14:54:58
I ride with Dusty on this. I knew a girl long ago who was incredibly smart. She also liked to slice her arms and legs, and maintained the physique of a concentration camp inmate by running constantly. I assume she ate occasionally. She died of heart failure in her mid thirties. Her parents were flat-out creepy to be around. The mother very submissive and quiet. The father's voice sounded like Truman Capote, he looked like he was a hundred years old even when he was middle aged, and he never seemed to look you in the eye.
Although I never knew exactly what had gotten into her head, I did feel very sorry for her.
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#20 2008-11-18 19:39:07
I shouldn't do this, but . . . I found mental relief from self-injury back in the day (20+ years ago). For the record, I was not raised in privilege, and ate like a horse (but stayed skinny due to a fabulous metabolism that has since begun to slow down). I'm not going to go into my family dynamics, but suffice it to say that years of therapy have helped tremendously.
Anyway, I honestly had no idea it was a "thing," and felt a little sad when I learned that other people cut themselves; I thought it was something I had invented just for myself. Nowadays, every little emo shit who shops at Hot Topic and reads "Twilight" proclaims to be a cutter, which really disgusts me. Maybe some of them are actually in pain but I suspect most of them are just being trendy.
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