From a comment I wrote elsewhere:

[kajarainbow]

"What's with all this trash talking emo, anyway? I'm deaf, so I don't get those music genres anyway, but I hear 'emo' applied as an insult to everything. It's the new 'gay' (as in 'that's really gay')."

In short, lay off emo, goddamn. I'm tired of hearing about it. (Not that I've heard it from anyone on my friends list.)

Comments

[robocoon.livejournal.com]

It's not about the genre of music-- that's just where the word originated from. It's used as a derogetory comment to people who look/act like the original listeners of emo-- people who think being 'depressed' is 'cool', people who whine constantly about minor things, etc etc. So, if you whine a lot or you have a 'pity me' attitude, you're going to get called 'emo'.

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

A friend just explained this to me, and in considerably more details (including how there're some songs with lyrics about how a middle school breakup still haunts one into ones twenties, things like that).

It sounded to me like many of them were suffering from some form of depression, but not getting therapy for it. In that case, emo's unhealthy because it gives them a subculture that enables their wallowing in depression, instead of seeking states of emotion that will enable them to do more about their issues and better accept the things they can't do anything about. Nothing wrong with such moods, only staying in them so that they disable you.

However, using it as a derogatory term apparently doesn't accomplish much. This same friend told me those emos she was talking about want you to wallow with them, or to kick them so they can have an excuse to wallow more.

At any rate, I've seen the word 'emo' applied to things far short of such severe degrees far too often.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I like emo personally.

Also, I like your user icon on this page! ^_^

[kajarainbow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see how it'd be fine for the occasional mood.

EMO Jokes

[asrinmoore.livejournal.com]

EMOkids are sort of a joke at work. "How does the emo kid change a light bulb? He doesn't, He just sits in the dark and cries" ... "I'm so EMO, I can't even cut myself" ... Like that. We also have a plastic knife we labled "EMO training kit, This Side Down" with a little arrow pointing to the poorly serrated blade edge. We don't get a LOT of millage out of it, but its a reminder to us to keep our drama's at home. It makes me smiggle.

lol

[soulsurvival.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* I think people don't like it because it's often self-indulgently whiney... It can be melodic stuff, I dunno, but the lyrics tend to go something like, "You hurt me when you dumped me,you broke my heart in two, so I think I'll get some nails and drive them through my spine, and drink gasoline while I hang upside down from a wall..." so yea, a bit over-the-top melodramatic. it has nothing to do with someone's sexual orientation, so I don't really think it's like calling something lame gay thus offending gay people, to be honest. it just embraces weakness a lot i guess- which- depending on what you value, might be okay. I like ska and punk better, cause ska's lyrics tend to be like, "You got a bad situation? fix it up,-pickitup pickitup pickitup" lol and punk's more like, "oy oy oy Down with society!"and gets angry and activist about the same situation. lol wow this is weird to try and explain

Re: lol

[soulsurvival.livejournal.com]

crap, they did the same thing with lame, didn't they? we call stuff 'lame' now which is uncool-but didn't that used to mean you couldn't walk? like "he made lame men walk and blind men see'? weird how people twist stuff. stupid people.