Goth Gone Morbid
Someone must have phoned one in to BMJ from the Department of the Obvious. The publication, formerly the British Medical Journal, has reported that kids who self-identify as members of the Goth subculture have a high incidence of suicide attempts and self-mutilation. Over half of the Gothed out 19-year-olds interviewed reported some form of “self-harming behavior.”
I think this is a fine example of science attempting to prove the obvious; the notion that a bunch of socially misunderstood, alienated, angry kids with a demonstrated love of black lipstick might be a little prone to acts of self-destruction hardly comes as a shock. Perhaps what should come as a shock is that there are still hordes of self-identified Goth kids running around Britain.
Full details on the story are right here.
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Hey, sometimes medical science has to document the obvious rather than just assuming that it’s true. If you look through medical journals you’ll also find articles with statistics showing that, say, huffing gasoline is bad for you. That’s part of what makes it “science”.