No, seriously. What's the deal? I mean, it wasn't that long ago that I was a teenager myself, I'm only 24, so it's not like I was a teenager twenty years ago, but I don't ever recall me, or any of my classmates, being this stupid at fifteen. Sure, we all giggled about boys (or girls, depending on which friend), and which movie stars (Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Felton and the Phelps twins) or singers we we 'in love' with and what music we were listening to (Delta Goodrem, Good Charlotte) but we never went crazy like these girls have been doing recently. At fifteen I was just getting into Anime, watching old re-runs of Sailor Moon.
Which is why teenage girls cutting themselves because Justin Bieber smoked weed is astounding to me. Do they really think that he cares that they are cutting themselves over his smoking habits? He certainly doesn't seem to, the #cutforbieber hashtag on Twitter has thousands of entries, and while a lot of them are paying out the cutting kids, there is no sign of Justin telling them to stop. If he cared so much about his fans, wouldn't he try to do something to stop this? His own Twitter account is full of posts about the upcoming release of an acoustic version of his album Believe, but not one mention of his fans mutilating themselves over something he did, however small.
Of course, this is the internet we're talking about, so there's no guarantee that all the pictures of slashed up arms are real and not just 4chan users trolling Bieber fans, but if even one of those photos is real, it's one too many.
The worst part is, is that this makes a mockery of the very real issues that drive people to cut. Depression, anxiety, and other illnesses drive people to cut, not because they want to, but because they can't stop. There was a girl the year above me in school (an all girls Catholic school) that would cut in school. I remember being in the sick bay one day to get headache tablets and the nurse was wrapping up her arms in bandages, in front of young kids, because she'd sliced herself open with her scissors during class. She always wore jumpers even in the middle of summer, because then no one could see her scars.
Two of my friends were cutting during high school. One of them would use their scissors or what ever was handy to cut a tiny slash in her wrist, and she'd cut in the same place over and over so no one would notice. My other friend cut her legs to pieces for years before her parents finally discovered it and got her the help she needed. I never knew until recently, and it hurt that they felt they couldn't come to me for help. But that's a part of it, the feeling of loneliness that makes you feel like you need to cut to feel better about things.
So for me, no matter how much is real, or how much of it is internet trolls being smartasses, it is NOT cool to trivialise this, because it takes away from the kids who have real issues and need real help. Yeah, the #BaldforBieber thing was funny, teenage girls shaving their hair because they thought Beiber had cancer, but it didn't hurt anyone; hair grows back. These kids are going to have these scars forever.
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