"with a heroine any goth girl can identify with"
Morbid Outlook Magazine
Morbid Outlook Magazine? Really?
They have a website, although it appears to be on haitus. Still, lots of information.....
My issue is not "the Goth lifestyle" as such. Or even the interesting "Ask Witch Hazel" segment. I understand that there are many means of self-expression. My issue is the word morbid. Morbid is defined by the OED as principally related to disease and lack of health. But the second definition needs to be seriously considered. "of mental conditions, ideas, unwholesome, sickly, chiefly applied to unreasonable feelings of gloom, apprehension, or suspicion. Hence of persons: Addicted to morbid feelings or fancies"
As the parent of a nearly teen girl, I am not sure I want such an outlook represented as an endorsement to read a book. Or buy a book. Or do anything at all. I try to be openminded, but would prefer we not actively market unreasonable gloom and mental unwholesomeness to our young people. I will concede that there are many paths to wholeness. Morbidity, I feel, does not qualify. It is not a path. It is a dead end.
What do you think?
oh, I don't think they are using the term in it's technical application. Just like they are not really "Gothic" pertaining to East Germanic peoples, or medieval art, or architecture, or a sub-species of British romantic literature.... it's more of it's own pop art/fashion category.
ReplyDeleteJulie-- I suspect you are correct. But I do think words matter and we should be cautious how we use them. I will be interested to see if anyone else has a comment.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think this post was influenced by the middle school girl who came to youth group and said a boy at school told her is was going to commit suicide. She didn't feel inclined to tell an adult at school about this but did mention it to her youth leader who spend some time tracking it down to confirm that the boy was ok. And then I come across Morbid Outlook Magazine.....
ReplyDeleteto be sure, teenage depression is serious and often ends tragically, and it crosses all those little social niches. I hope the young man seeks help.
ReplyDeleteJames, I agree with you, words do matter. As a person who draws so much from words and our language, I often cringe when I see words misused, utterly outside of their true meaning and context, but it seems to be the nature of society to turn the language to fit society. A lot the words we have now are actually old world language that evolved. Within that reasoning, I think words such as morbid have been adapted into the lingo of certain subcultures. And, if there is someway for someone to make a buck out it, it will happen. This magazine has done so. All that said, it is not what I would want to find my teenager reading, period, by even just the title.
ReplyDelete