By Sandra Diaz

By Sandra Diaz

If it wasn’t bad enough having a bad hair day, now kids have to worry about getting beat up at the their local hang out.

What started as an anti-emo rant on Televisa’s music video station TeleHit has turned into a series of violent attacks on emo in areas throughout Mexico.

An estimated 800 punk, metal, and rockabilly fans gathered in Queretaro, Mexico March 7 seeking out and assaulting youths who identify themselves as emo at a local hangout.

The attacks then spread to Mexico City, Juarez, and Tijuana.

Videos of the attacks have been springing up on the internet depicting Mexican teenagers attacking thier peers in broad daylight.

Emo, which is short for emotional, is a music genre that was created in the late ’80s.

Fans of emo are often identified by the scenes fashion which has evolved over the years to incorporate flashy eye make-up, messy hair drooping over the eyes, and tight, dark clothing.

“Emo is a stupidity,” Kristoff said in his on air rant.

He went on to explain his dislike for the emo scene describing it as a scene for young girls who like the appearance of the musicians more then the actual music.

He continued his rant, asking “is it necessary to create a new genre that says that everyone else is wrong because, emotionally they don’t satisfy us?”

The Mexican police anti-gang unit has increased patrols at teen hangouts in order to help keep further incidents from taking place.

In response to the attacks, emo youths from all over Mexico joined in peace marches through Mexico City.

With groups of punks, metal heads, and rockabilly fans being the alleged aggressors in the attacks, the Mexican government called for a meeting with the “urban tribes” to call for resolution between the groups.

Incidents have also been reported, as early as a month before the first attack in Mexico, in Chile.

The attacks on the country’s emo youths, known as PokEMOnes, by skinheads.

Mexican Goths (Los Darkys) have denied involvement in the incidents going so far as to hold a demonstration stating that they are above that kind of behavior.

Since the attacks Kristoff has come to the aid of emo teens on his show defending them by calling out the attackers.

This may just be an attempt to keep his job if he is blamed for inciting the attacks.

While not a new concept within local sub-culture communities, beating up rival music fans has become increasingly intense with the help of internet forums and communities.

Forums like the Anti Emo Death Squad on Last.fm are on the rise, with more popping up daily, speaking out and calling for action to eradicate emo culture.

The primary problem against emo culture is the idea that emo youths are anti-youth by not partaking in illegal drug or alcohol use as well as not engaging in sexual activity.

First of all, they’re not apart of straight edge culture, who cut out all drugs and alcohol going so far as to reject prescription medication.

Second, when has every person in a community reflected every ideal within a scene simultaneously?

It would be far more work to uphold a unified image than to actually be involved in the scene.

Online responses to the issue seem to be in favor of the punk, metal, and rockabilly fans stating that emo teens had it coming and that they now have something to be “emo” about.

It is not quite clear what negative effect emo culture has on other sub-cultures, but everyone has had a go at the scene.

From songs making fun of “emo problems,” to the now physical abuse of scene participants, it seems that no one outside of the scene has any tolerance for it.

They’re mad at emo culture for being “anti-youth” but they’re being anti-youth by trying to shut them up.

Teenagers have a lot of hormonal issues going on; of course they’re going be moody and angst ridden.

But what did emo teens do to deserve this?

Regardless of a lifestyle choice, a person is still a person. Fortunatly no one was seriously injured in these attacks.

Not everyone survives unprovoked attacks sadly.

On August 10, 2007 Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend Robert Maltby were assaulted while walking through a skate-park in Lancashire, England.

The couple was assaulted because of the way they dressed.

They didn’t necessarily identify with goth culture, but dressed in a similar fashion.

Maltby survived with minor injuries, while Lancaster was in a coma.

Lancaster died two weeks later.

The attacks in Mexico could have been far worse than they were.

Most students on Riverside City College weren’t even aware of what had happened last month.

“That kinda sucks” Caleb Gasteiger, a RCC student said.

“I didn’t even know that emos were that big of a problem” Gasteiger said.

“I think it’s more about homophobia” RCC student Miriam Quintero said.

One possible reason for the attacks could stem from Mexico’s “macho culture.”

Emo boys are often described as effeminate and weak, which would make them targets in such an environment.

While it seems that the attacks have died down for now, this is just the latest in the war against emo that has been boiling for the past few years.