More than 10 years ago, I had a student who came to class wearing an all-black ensemble. His fingernails were painted black, his shades were darker than night—and he wasn’t even gay, snickered the straight guys in class. I didn’t mind, because he wrote well, asked difficult questions, and made the teacher think.
Later, he became a friend of mine and last I heard, he was making short films that were being screened all around the globe.
He seems to be the precursor of the emo phenomenon that is sweeping some (okay, a small) segment of the studentry. In 21st-century Philippines, what does emo mean?
Since I am now between the age of 50 and death, I had to ask the help of my former students in figuring out what it is. They tell me it began with an underground music scene. It all loops back to the mid-1980s in Washington, D.C., where the bands played with pitch and passion bordering on emotional overkill. The subject matter of the songs thrummed with images that were dramatic and poetic – all served up in contemporary melodies. Thus was emo born, emo being shorthand for emotive hardcore.
Quoting Frederic Trasher, a student of mine said that young people cluster together because of common likes. “Peer groups function in two ways: they substitute for what society fails to give them, and they provide relief from suppression (of feelings). Thus, peer groups fill a gap and afford teenagers a form of escape.” How familiar this is, if you look back at the landscape of your life, when what our classmates thought seemed more important than what the teacher taught; when what our crushes felt mattered more than what we felt. The pivot was on what the Other thought, or felt, or wanted, and we orbited around these like planets in the solar system.
And if emo began in the West, can its clone in the Philippines be far behind? As they say, we are always at least 20 years behind what (good or bad) happens in the United States.
The emo movement has also made its mark here. My former students cited bands like Chicosci, Typecast, and Urbandub as emo, whether self-proclaimed, or hailed so by their teenage fans. Young people swoon at lyrics like “I’ll bleed for you like a new tattoo. In my heart you’ll stay permanent . . . permanent . . .” Or listen to these lines: “Caught you in the arms of another, and I’ve been dying every day since then.” It’s the romance of the youth with what they do not have—love or even death. It’s the desire for permanency of those who themselves are still in the bloom of youth, in the flux of life.
They add it is not unusual to see the teenage fans imitate the way the band members look. Clones of Chicosci’s Miggy Chavez, Typecast’s Arsie Gabriel, and Urbandub’s Gabby Alipe abound. As are the clones of the other new bands in the block. The look is generic: asymmetrical haircut, black nail polish, skinny jeans. The looks telescope the feelings welling up from within. My student, Jamir Tan-Torres, called these “unstable moods, dark emotions, suppressed feelings. In a way, their personal style is reflective of their current state of mind.”
Going against the emo stereotype
Like all people who think they are rebels, the young ones also bristle at what they perceive to be emo stereotyping.
Jamir says: “It is a misconception that people who are part of the emo culture cross the boundary of what is normal. It is unfortunate that some people view them as disturbed, self-mutilating and apathetic individuals. Just like the punks and Goths before them, people immediately pinned a label on them. Even media worsened the situation by using the term emo loosely, in several cases portraying the teenagers in a negative light.”
To prove his point, Jamir interviewed a 15-year-old girl who is a self-confessed emo. “Her profile did not fit the description of my notion of the emo look. She was wearing white short shorts and a bright yellow shirt with the figure of a smiling sun. She wore French tips and not black nail polish. Her reply to my comment that she looks so un-emo was a raised middle finger and a laugh. She said she does not like the typical emo look. For her, being an emo is not a matter of physical transformation but a decision to be ‘true to one’s self.’ It is a way of feeling and there is a sense of freedom and acceptance in being an emo.”
Being “true to one’s self.” A sense of freedom and acceptance. These are the key words of the roles portrayed by James Dean and Marilyn Monroe; the books of J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye) and the most recent Young Adult (YA) novels by John Greene (The Fault in the Stars, among others).
Thus, emo, which used to be a term for a subgenre of punk has, like all its earlier reincarnations, taken on a complex form. Another young artist I know describes emo in the form of the images that she draws. Her roses have black petals. The tears streaming down the faces are like black knives.
Like my favorite writer, the ageless icon Gilda Cordero Fernando who is now forever 81, emo is okay with me. If my students and my nephews and nieces call themselves in an emo state of mind, no problem with me. I think it will give a better high than drugs.
source: interaksyon.com
