| 
|
Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
| Total Views: 4,940,741
|
Article: 15383
[Culture]
Date Posted:
4/27/2006
10:37:12 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 8,050
RSS: 13,734
Comments: 23
|
Goth Culture Defended In Wake Of Triple Murder
Author: CBC News Source: CBC News (Canada)
Title: GOTH CULTURE DEFENDED IN WAKE OF TRIPLE MURDER
A 12-year-old girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend are facing murder charges in the deaths of the girl's parents and younger brother in Medicine Hat, Alta.
Reports have linked the girl to goth culture and goth websites.
Meaghan Allen, a 20-year-old Winnipeg woman who goes by the name Creepie Kitty, feels she has been receiving more hostile glances on the street since the murders.
"We feel there's a lot of prejudice involved," she said. Goth culture, she said, is about music, dress and for some, witchcraft and devil worship.
| Options: [Read Full Story] [Comments Locked]
[Email to a Friend]
|
|
Community Thoughts: There are 23 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| ... | Apr 29th. at 7:19:46 am EDT
|
Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
*looks at some of the posts*
I've said it a billion times before and I'll say it again: Not all Goths are under 18. Goth has been around since the late 1970s in England, and there are people in the Goth scene in NYC who have been in it since the early 80s. Don't assume the guy wearing all black is a teenager simply because you can't see his receeding hairline under that spooky hat he's wearing.
Find More info -- HERE
|
| People Are Stupid | Apr 28th. at 3:08:36 pm EDT
|
Mysteries Child (Garfield, West Virginia) - Email Me
"Foster said instead of blaming goth culture or the internet for the Medicine Hat deaths, people should be looking at why a 12-year-old girl was involved with a 23-year-old man and surfing on adult websites."
Say it again, sweetheart. Say it again.
A 12-year-old dates someone theoretically old enough to be her father (yes, it's possible) ...
...and people find the time to be concerned because of the music she listens to and the clothing and makeup she wears??
Goth can be an outlet for the pain of the kinds of life-nightmares and mental illnesses that lead people to do things like this.
So can almost any other cultural subset.
No wonder this world seems to be headed down the crapper.
|
| Hmmmm | Apr 28th. at 12:23:48 am EDT
|
Shortcake (Sullivan, Missouri) - Email Me
I'm thinking one of the first questions should be who let a 12 year old date a 23 year old??? I was 18 before I dated anyone over 20. I'm new to the parenting thing, but 11 years?? I don't care if my kid is dating Mother Theresa, thats too old!!
|
| Christian Parallels? | Apr 27th. at 10:55:13 pm EDT
|
Ahr-Ohn (Bridgeport, Connecticut) - Email Me
I wonder how Preacher'swives are weathering their recent little embarrassment?
Arawn
|
| ... | Apr 27th. at 9:40:28 pm EDT
|
Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
Couldn't have said it better myself!
Find More info -- HERE
|
| Goths In The News | Apr 27th. at 3:44:34 pm EDT
|
Jeanne Lisbet (Calgary, Alberta) - Email Me
It's about finding an angle for a story. This isn't being sensationalized.
The point of Goth is that it's supposed to be 'different from the norm', and so that's how the media reports it: as the superlative that it is.
As for reporting on the pedophilia, that has been the main focus of the majority of articles reporting about this (the 'Hat is only a few hours drive from where I live, so it's a pretty huge story.)
Considering the two ppl charged actually MET on a website called vampirefreaks.com, I'm sorry, but their extra curricular activites ARE a part of the story. This isn't sensationalism, it's simply reporting the facts. Journalists can't neglect to report aspects of a story simply because some ppl might take offense, so get over yourselves.
This article is, the way I read it, trying to balance out negative perceptions of Goths caused by this incident by actually interviewing articulate members of that community. I thought it was a pretty good article.
Certainly a lot better than the article (linked below) that quotes friends of the accused 23 y/o saying that he thought he was a werewolf. Dude, that's just f*ed up.
As for AB being the 'Bible Belt' of Canada, try living here. It's not as oppressive as hysterical Easterners make it out to be, and BTW more ppl voted Green here than anywhere else in the country in the last election. Plus we're way prettier than the Big Smoke ;P
Blessed BE!
JL
Find More info -- HERE
|
| Ah Yes, If Only Every Perp Looked Like ____ | Apr 27th. at 3:15:20 pm EDT
|
karrie9 (Kenosha, Wisconsin) - Email Me
Heck, they can even look like a minister's wife or church deacon-- because some have been.
Murderers and other various perps can look like anyone -- including goths.
|
| People & Perception | Apr 27th. at 2:18:23 pm EDT
|
Wild Huntsman (Toronto, Ontario) - Email Me
People in general, particularly the sensationalist media, love to focus on abnormality as a way to explain abnormal acts. Anyone who looks and dresses differently calls attention. To stand out in any way calls attention. People see the most obvious appearance that fits their preconceptions as an expression of the cause, the symptom of what is wrong. In this case being goth probably has nothing to do with the crime, or it may be this little girl is mentally ill and the goth culture and the inappropriate boyfriend is an expression of her problem. At any rate, it is the most visible abnormality and so attracts the most attention.
People always react only on the basis of their experience. Let's be honest, the vast majority of people will experience "witches" as a Halowe'en prop, or the Wizard of Oz, or Samantha from "Bewitched" and react accordingly. For more than five hundred years, a witch has been an emblem of evil in the popular culture, as it is in many cultures around the planet (e.g. Zimbabwe and India) and until witches control mass media and stop using Gardener's archaic Wica [sic] or Wicca, it will stay that way. Goths dress like stereotypical witches, ergo, in pop culture, it means they must be somehow evil. The fixation on the melancholia of mortality does nothing to counter that perception.
So the Goth communities across the central plains are going to feel especially scrutinized, criticized, and possibly ostracized over the next few weeks. Years from now, people will remember the "little girl led astray".
It is how people are. Yes, they can change, but only when a sufficiently large minority exists so that contact with the strange becomes routine, and only when the local leadership supports tolerance and diversity, and only when a subculture abandons the fun of being obstreperously upsetting to the mainstream. Go ahead, focus on death and mortality and morbidity, go ahead for the shock value and tolerate the fellow-travellers who enjoy the frisson of power from stirring up a fearful reacion, but then don't wonder why, or complain when, the ignorant mainstream looks askance with suspicion and dislike.
If the girl had been a sweet, grade A student with no obvious abnormal behaviours, then everyone would be 'mystified' and the blame would fall 100% on the 23-year old, because people also don't want to entertain the possiblity that the girl (or women at all) had problems and went looking for trouble. Lizzie Borden and those like her is not a popular cultural image. Look at the extent to which we excuse behaviour.
Now, let's face reality: no one here is going to ever find out the full story, unless someone from the U.S. with an eiditic memory goes and sits in on the trial. Canadian law forbids it publication, for starters, and newspapers -- at best -- only ever give a synopsis of the evidence, and focus on the most lurid and exciting testimony, because at the end of the day, papers must sell and that is what people buy. Given a choice people will feed their preconceptions which are based on experience. (That is why it is so hard to have a respectful disagreement with people, because the ones who are mature enough not to take offence are so few and far between.)
|
| Goth Had Nothing To Do With It | Apr 27th. at 12:53:42 pm EDT
|
bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
They see someone dressed in black and instantly they think, "Aha They're Goth!" Like it explains everything. The way this article was written, Goth explains everything including murder- which is indeed a prejudiced attitiude.
What I find strictly unusual is a twelve year old girl with a twenty three year old boyfriend!
Instead of looking at the clothes, they should judge the crime for what it is.
|
| I See A Pattern Here... | Apr 27th. at 12:36:01 pm EDT
|
Vetch (Tunbridge Wells, England) - Email Me
Wasn't there an article about a double suicide or murder-suicide pact recently, with an underage girl and a boyfriend around this age? Wasn't it the hyped one about pentagrams being carved into their backs?
First off, why isn't the article focused on the inappropriate and illegal relationship between this paedophile and a girl barely into pubesence? Why does it focus on the aspect of her membership into the Goth subculture, rather than her family not stopping the relationship happening?
Maybe the paedophile convinced her to help him kill those people because they were trying to stop her seeing him?
It's tiresome to see the blame being laid on other people's shoulders for this, but this is one of the reasons why I wish to organise proper protection for Pagan youngsters who are picked on and vulnerable, like Tempest Smith and others.
I appreciate we can't be seen to be "corrupting" or "stealing" people's children, but surely we can defend our younger adherents? If a 16 year old like myself is prepared to give up time for a younger Pagan in need of advice or help, why are our elders so unwilling to offer their support as well to the most fragile of our community?
|
| Wrong Focus | Apr 27th. at 10:48:36 am EDT
|
Eric Redbear (Madison, Wisconsin) - Email Me
Who really cares how "goth culture" was involved?....the MAIN focus on this story should have been about "12 year old girl & her TWENTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD boyfriend"!!
Why HE hasn't been strung up by his [fill in blank] BEFORE there could have even been CONSPIRACY to commit a triple-murder is beyond me!
|
| Nope... | Apr 27th. at 10:44:28 am EDT
|
Snake (Creve Coeur, Illinois) - Email Me
Chances of the Goth culture having anything to do with this: 0%
Chances of a 12 year old girl having a 23 year old boyfriend having something to do with this: 99.999999999999999999%
|
Disclaimer: The Witches' Voice inc does not verify the accuracy of the details stated in this listing, nor do we vouch for the value of the goods or services presented here... As with all contacts and financial dealings in cyberspace, we encourage you to use caution and wisdom in your dealings with strangers.
Political Statements: Any and all personal political opinions expressed in the public listing sections (including, but not restricted to, personals, events, groups, shops, Wren's Nest, etc.) are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinion of The Witches' Voice, Inc. TWV is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization.
|
State/Country flags created by 3dflags.com and are used with permission
Web Site Content (including: text - graphics - html - look & feel)
Copyright 1997-2009 The Witches' Voice Inc. All rights reserved
Note: Authors & Artists retain the copyright for their work(s) on this website.
Unauthorized reproduction without prior permission is a violation of copyright laws.
Website structure, evolution and php coding by Fritz Jung on a Macintosh G5.
Any and all personal political opinions expressed in the public listing sections (including, but not restricted to, personals, events, groups, shops, Wren’s Nest, etc.) are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinion of The Witches’ Voice, Inc. TWV is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization.
Sponsorship: Visit the Witches' Voice Sponsor Page for info on how you
can help support this Community Resource. Donations ARE Tax Deductible.
The Witches' Voice carries a 501(c)(3) certificate and a Federal Tax ID.
Mail Us: The Witches' Voice Inc., P.O. Box 341018, Tampa, Florida 33694-1018 U.S.A.
| |
