Online tie in?

Lange, Patricia G. University of Michigan, Department of Anthropology (pgonzal@umich.edu)

Identity Performance and Disruption on the Internet

Participants in online groups often use sociolinguistic strategies to perform their affiliation to certain beliefs, values, and ideologies popular in technical communities. For example, a participant may praise the importance of Netiquette in order to construct his identity as someone who is knowledgeable about "correct" or normative online forms of expression. Importantly, such a public display does more than construct an individual identity as "expert." The performance also helps to create an imaginary group of like-minded individuals to which the performer wishes to align himself. Yet, as Goffman points out, a performance is a "delicate, fragile thing that can be shattered by very minor mishaps" (Goffman 1959: 56). This paper examines data from two online communities in which participants mentor each other with respect to computer technologies and related social behavior. The data show that participants may interrupt another's attempt to display their expertise by questioning, challenging or attacking a particular performance. The attacked participant often responds with an improvisation meant to recoup the techno-social capital lost during the disruption. The contention here is that performers often respond to the high-pressure demands of performance disruptions by offering stereotypical views on technology and techno-social culture. The continual re-animation of such stereotypes eventually concretizes these views as normative (whether or not they originally were), thus making non-normative expression more difficult. Within and across interactions, such stereotypical expressions become reified as techno-cultural norms even though they are better seen as improvisational responses to performance disruptions that threaten to decrease a participant's techno-social capital.

Found at http://anthropology.uchicago.edu/courses/michicago/2003.shtml#identity_performance

Male Self-Harm up 11%

Ireland has GREAT self-harm reporting!

"The report revealed that almost half of presentations were by people under 30, with the peak rate for women in the 15-19 age group and for men in the 20-24 age group. An increase in self harm was also observed amongst those aged as young as 10-14 years."

"with particular concern for those who used highly lethal methods, such as attempted hanging and drowning."

at http://www.imt.ie/news/2009/07/11_increase_in_male_selfharm.html

CNN Photo Essay: Self-Injury in Japan

See more at:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1809157,00.html

Enviable Anorexics?

Comparing disorders, depression/anorexia/cutting

"Because it lacks "bleeding wounds," Merkin feels, her illness doesn't seem real — even in comparison with other mental illnesses"

"They were clearly and poignantly victims of a culture that said you were too fat if you weren't too thin and had taken this message to heart. No one could blame them for their condition or view it as a moral failure, which was what I suspected even the nurses of doing about us depressed patients. In the eyes of the world, they were suffering from a disease, and we were suffering from being intractably and disconsolately - and some might say self-indulgently - ourselves."

YET, in popular media, "people with eating disorders are blamed for their illness, when it is even seen as an illness. Eating disorders are generally seen as some sort of failure—if not the sufferer, then clearly her parents."

So yeah, we're talking an article that "shows how deep the stigma still goes, and how difficult it is for those stigmatized to advocate for themselves"

at http://jezebel.com/5248389/depression+stricken-daphne-merkin-finds-anorexics-enviable?skyline=true&s=x

Triggering? Girls and Eating Disorders

NY Times has an article on 'contagion' and eating disorders especially among young girls regarding Young Adult literature.  

Quotes:

"The Internet has given rise to countless “pro-ana,” or pro-anorexia, Web sites that promote anorexia as a “lifestyle” rather than a disease. Photos of rail-thin celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen sisters serve as “thinspiration,” while reading lists tout the appeal of eating disorder books."

"I’ve gotten tips, motivation and many of the characters have become my role-models"

"Are there things in this book that will trigger unsuspecting people? And if so what do we do about that? What their response was, was that we have a culture that glamorizes this. The docs say, Yes, the book is going to trigger people. Turning on the television triggers people — looking at billboards, going to the computer, walking past a magazine rack. But the challenge in the book they felt I had met was to show the entire story. There is nothing glamorous or lovely about an eating disorder. It’s horror."

"There is a dangerous trend to view anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than a serious mental illness"

"Books such as these should be read with careful parental supervision."

From the Comments:

"IN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION: In writing about eating disorders, are authors, unwittingly, creating an alluring guidebook to the disease? MY ANSWER, BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS: “YES”

More than 28 years ago, I, as a teen, first began reading about bulimia and anorexia in popular, safe magazines like Woman’s Day, and Ladies Home Journal...These magazine articles, which were meant to inform, led me down the road to be a practicing anorexic/bulimic for almost 15 years. Be VERY wary of these types of books. They may very well turn out to be a how-to guide for your teen."

"On the “Yes” front: I know my disorder was triggered by an article in New York Magazine - among the first on the topic, a few years before it burst into the headlines...

On the “No” front: Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, pica, EDNOS, are all manifestations of an underlying problem. Whether you want to define this problem as a reaction to external issues (e.g., poor peer relationships, dysfunctional family, etc.) or internal issues (depression, OCD, bipolar) or most likely an interaction of both, there will be SOME trigger and SOME manifestation. If it isn’t an eating disorder, it could be acting out, or inappropriate sexual behaviour, or kleptomania, or cutting, or something else. The psychological force is a river, and if you dam one channel it will cut itself another.""

"I don’t think it’s a coincidence that more girls are having problems with anorexia and bulimia at the same time. The same goes for “cutting.” No one cut or had these eating disorders before they became popular. Just like no one considered shooting up their schools until others did it"

Girl Bullying: The Media's Fault?

Interesting blame-game by the Sydney Morning Herald about girl bullying and online media.  But is Gossip *new*?  It seems to say that the move further into "the private domain" is causing an increase in harassment...

Quotes:

"The public arena is moving further and further into the private domain."

"Because the internet is so unfiltered and so vast, it has become a far more accurate reflection of the human condition than the traditional mass media. The self-portrait that has emerged is not flattering. The explosion in productivity, transparency, community and knowledge has been accompanied by largely unfettered pettiness, vituperation and schadenfreude. This is the encompassing public medium of the young. This is their stage and their minefield."

Irony:

Same sight re-posts Rihanna's alleged nude photos.  Gossip, anyone?

Getty Images: Self Harm

Getty Images has a few (19) images found by the search terms "self harm".  They're all listed under 'Creative'.  

A lot of the images feature blood, the color, drops, the razors, the whiteness of most of the subjects and the contrast of the blood and the skin, scarification, bathrooms (privacy?), and metaphors.

Methods include knives, burning/stoves, gun, alcohol. 

E.G.:

Women and Mental Health : A New Report

New article on women's mental health from CNN.  Quotes:

""Action Steps for Improving Women's Mental Health," a new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health (OWH), explores the role gender plays in the diagnosis, course and treatment of mental illness. It calls for specific actions to counteract the inadequacies in this field."

"There is a common thread to Neighbour's experience and that of other women suffering from mental illness: societal beliefs often pressure women into accepting their mental illness as "just how things are," citing hormones and traditional views of women as the emotional, weaker sex as reasons to simply accept their current situation. According to Jones, it's a barrier that keeps women from seeking treatment for an otherwise largely treatable disease."

Just another hystericization of women? Or a good point?

Kill Yourself or Die Trying

Online website that sells belts and custom-worded t-shirts, etc.  

'Kill Yourself or Die Trying'

See Me: UK Anti-Stigma Campaign

The UK launched an anti-stigma campaign about a year ago that focused on all kinds of issues of mental health, including self harm. Find out more about See Me.

Check out the ad about 'Cloud Boy', a boy who self harms.

Also of note: This article that talks about the UK campaign.

Self Harm: Cut it out

Article about the UK authorities' stance on self-harm, new campaigns to reduce stigma.  This article is fascinating because it is decidedly ANTI-self-harm, and ANTI-stigma-reduction.  Quotes:

 

"The UK medical authorities are sending the message that young people hurting themselves is an acceptable lifestyle choice."

"It is a sign of a sick society when young people start turning to self-harm to work through their emotional problems. But it is an even sicker society in which medical and political authorities give sanction to their actions." 

"In March 2004, the Mental Health Foundation and Camelot Foundation launched an inquiry at the House of Commons looking into self-harm in young people, which was backed by MPs from across the political spectrum. The inquiry’s website cheerfully announces its aim to ‘educate and raise awareness about self-harm - for everyone!’. By ‘shifting culture’, it wants to move ‘towards a more flexible, user-focused, non-alienating, “no-blame” culture for young people who have experience of self-harm’ (3)."

"Michael Maher, a group analyst, tells me that when he first started working in the area of self-harm 17 years ago, it was seen as an ‘exotic behaviour’. Now, he said, it has become part of people’s vocabulary: ‘if you’re going to choose a language of distress, self-harm is part of the menu of choices that people use for expressing distress.’ The issue has become part of popular culture: for example, there was a recent story about self-harm inHollyoaks, the soap for young people. We also hear about celebrities who have harmed themselves, such as Johnny Depp and Princess Diana - which prompted the MSN self-harm discussion group to set up a section entitled ‘Your [sic] not alone - celebs who SH’ (5)."

"But self-harm needs to keep its ‘stigma’, in the sense that we shouldn’t forget that there is something deeply wrong with it. Giving self-harm official sanction as a ‘coping mechanism’ is only likely to entrench the practice, and make it more acceptable. "

Read more here.

Pro-SI community

This is a live journal community that is PRO self injury and self harm.  It states,

"We don't promote, but we don't judge either, and we see value in our actions...you must not post instructions or techniques. We have a forum for that...Feel free to vent here. If you want to stop cutting, there are serveral communities for that, but we can also be a support system. If you just wanna let us know how you're doing and what's been going on in your life, that's fine also. We're basically just here for one another."

Interesting other perspective to the issue?  Group has over 800 members.  

Listed under 'interests', one will find:

ana, anger, anorexia, anxiety, blades, bleed, bleeding, blood, bulemia, burning, carving, cut, cutting, death, depression, die, eating disorders, hatred, help, helping, hurt, hurting, knives, love, mental disorders, mia, outsiders, pain, passion, poems, poetry, pro-choice, pro-cutting, pro-ed, pro-si, razor blades, razors, sadness, safty pins, self-control, self-harm, self-hatred, self-injury, si,siers, slashing, venting, wounds, writing

interesting:  their word for "comment" is 'broken', so when you comment you 'break the silence'.  hmm...

Self Injury Information and Support

A somewhat pro (or neutral) self injury site is http://www.psyke.org/

Sections on the site include Photos, Stories, Articles, Books, Coping Resources, and Forums.

Perhaps most interesting is the 'Photos' section, which has a disclaimer about the triggering nature of its content.  Once clicking through this page, you reach a HUGE selection of photos users have submitted of their scars, with descriptions about their self harm trajectory.  USEFUL?!?!?!

The Self Injury Anthology

This site has a small catalogue of pop culture references to self-harm, alongside some essays about the topic.  Of great interest!  There are categories for Music, Art, Music Videos, Literature, Non Fiction, Fiction, Movies, TV Series, and the Bible.  

hosted by http://gabrielle.self-injury.net/  Check out their boards!

UK Self-Harm Trend

Article in the Telegraph on Self Harm trends in the UK. 

Key quotes:

"what experts fear is the 'new anorexia'"

"Cutting made me feel better," Tor says. "Imagine holding your breath and feeling like you are going to blow up. Then you release the air and immediately feel better. That's what self-harming feels like."

"Tor, 24, is not your typical victim but she is part of a growing trend. Self-harming is associated with disadvantaged children but, increasingly, youngsters from well-off backgrounds are also displaying this destructive behaviour."

"Tor discovered self-harming by accident; she and a friend tried to create tattoos, using a compass and fountain pen ink. "My mate was in a lot of pain but it didn't hurt me. It felt good." "

'In the past, self-harm was expressed in different ways. It was called hysterical behaviour, or manifested by women not eating, pulling their hair out or scratching themselves. We tended to examine it in the context of psychiatry - looking at girls who were in care or in hospital. Now we are finding out it is much more common."

Facebook Suicide?

Term for dropping off of social networking sites?  Found at Trendspotting of 2008.

Pepsi Suicide Ads

Advertising Age has a comment on the (now pulled) Pepsi Suicide Ads, using, well, here's their description:

"There's but one calorie in PepsiMax and, as we know, one is the loneliest number. So it only makes sense that a new flight of print ads from BBDO Dusseldorf show a cute but sad little personification of a calorie committing suicide in a few ultraviolent ways, including a gunshot, a hanging, self-immolation and even slitting his little blue wrist with a razor blade. "

Each image gives several different methods.  Why the 'overkill'?

Also gives comment on the GM 'Robot Suicide' ad that ran a few years back, with a link to the EDITED VERSION after people spoke out.  Power to the people?

COMMENTS:

"These days it's pretty easy to offend anyone. I for one really think these ads are cute :)

quite like the suicidal robot marvin from hitchhiker's. Maybe if they did away with stuff like blades and blood people would get off their back." (Interesting...the blood is the concern? Talking about pain and symbolic markers...)

"Fantastic ads. Something different to the regular boring stuff we've grown accustomed to. And anyway you can see far worse on Cartoon Network. That said, I guess with everyone feeling a little sensitive about violence post-Mumbai, the timing is probably not as cool as it could have been. Pity." (The 'Violence is Everywhere' defense)

Suicide in Advertising: From the Horse's Mouth

Here's an advertising blog's defense of the use of suicide in advertising: Advertising Pawn

Some key quotes:

"we provide you with an article on suicide and how to end your life with a bang (or a splash)."

"Advertising just loves hyperbolic behavior. In our world, suicide isn’t morose and heart-crunching (let’s leave that to real life). We prefer to consider suicide as the epitome of a relationship with a brand. After all, suicide is just the doubt looking for the truth, which means that our products become the ultimate reason to live, die, or think of life differently."

Be sure to check out the example ads they post at the bottom.

Celebrity: Amy Winehouse

This gossip site has the link to a 2007 article on Amy Winehouse and self harm.  It's refreshing in that it is in her own words.   Key quotes include:

 "She says: "It's a funny thing, a morbid curiosity. I'm talking about when I was nine. What does that feel like? 'Ow, that f*****g hurts.' It's probably the worst thing I've done."

Also: "She said: "It's a way of suffering for the things that mean a lot to you. Actually I like the pain. To me, it relieves you.""

Another gossip blog has an article about it  here, in her own words/texts, includes an episode with her husband finding out.  More recent than the other article.    

Amy is also used as a 'poster child' for self harm in this article.

See previous celebrity post.

Celebrity Cutting

Consumerism, Cutting, and Celebrity.  

Check out the Lindsey Lohan Self Harm Speculation, 2006.  

More recently, tween star Demi Lovato had marks on her wrist.  

In that vein, many 'self help sites' for self harm have pages devoted to 'Famous Self Injurers'.  Examples include:

Self-Injury.net

and

Wide Open West

What does it say of our celeb-obsessed culture that such sites proliferate--and that questions about self harm plague young starlets?

Perhaps most enlightening: Comments  from the Lindsey Lohan article

"Seriously guys, I am not a fan of Lohan but seriously, it honestly isn't our business whether or not she is and for a second thing, self harming isn't always "to die", its used as a way to release emotional pain into physical."

"Shut up you douche, take your preachings elsewhere. Why are you even in a celebrity gossip column anyway? Oh, and Lindsay, please come up with something original in the pain category. e.i. slitting palms or fingers. it's more honorable. 

I feel stupider for even wasting this energy to type this shit"

"wow, big deal a TEENAGER that CUTS HER SELF =0. man everybodys paying too much attention to celeberties, i dont even know y im on here. and as far as her publicist denying it, he probably just doesnt want to worry her fans (that is if theres still any more lindsay fans out there)."

"Ok. Those are cut marks. I cut, my friend cuts. They are cut marks. End of story. She wouldnt have covered it up at before if she fell in a bush. Whatever. If it was a suicide attempt, its pathetic, you cut down the legnth of your arm if you want to die. Whatever."

Trevor Project Ad Campaign: I'm Glad I Failed

the Trevor Project's online ad campaign against suicide.

Info here:  http://www.thetrevorproject.org/ImGladIFailed/

E.G. Blog

http://jmh83.wordpress.com/

Seeking Attention?

from http://freakontheloose.wordpress.com/2006/07/04/grow-up-i-think-my-group-knows-about-that-i/

 "i tend to agree with joyce, that when people cut, sure-they have a problem, but most of them have a problem of seeking attention of people around them. if suicide was on your mind, you wouldnt cut at random places, you’d cut at strategic places and deep enough, this way, your goal might be achieved. plus, if suicide really was your goal, you’d need a significant amount of courage to cut, most people find cutting painful, okay, so if hurting yourself, without the intention of suicide is your way out, i dont think anyone in a right frame of mind would agree it’s the right way. heck, even if suicide was a way out for you, i still wouldnt agree"

Myths of Self Harm

From Freedom from Self Harm: Overcoming Self-Injury with Skills from DBT and Other Treatments by Kim Gratz and Alexander Chapman 

8 Common Myths about Self-Harm

1. Self-harm is the same as a suicide attempt.
2. Self-harm is superficial and not dangerous.
3. Self-harm is manipulative.
4. If you self-harm, you have borderline personality disorder.
5. Self-harm is a female problem.
6. Self-harm is crazy, sick, and irrational.
7. You must resolve your underlying issues before you can stop self-harm.
8. If you resolve all your underlying issues, your self-harm will go away.

from http://fbpda.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/8-common-myths-about-self-harm/

Just Do It Video

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd259/mariahleia/suicide/thsuicide-1.gif

Video found at http://thesuicidelist.blogspot.com/

Interesting intersection of consumerism (Nike's 'just do it') and suicide.  What is the message here?

The Beginning

This blog is part of the process of writing my BA.  I will post articles, images, and items of interest in order to help catalogue my thought process, find some common themes, and work through where I want this project to go.  This will help me chart my adherence to my goal to make this BA Accessible and Actionable.

So here goes nothing.