Emo (slang)

Stereotypical emo fashion, portrayed in the style of common American signage.

Emo is a somewhat ambiguous, controversial slang term most frequently used to describe a fashion or subculture which is usually defined to have its roots in punk fashion and subculture, as well as some attributes of gothic fashion and subculture. As an adjective, emo can describe fashion, music, or a general state of unhappiness (as in to "feel emo"). Emo is also used as a noun, often pejoratively, to identify someone viewed as fitting a particular stereotype, and is generally used in an insulting manner outside of the subculture.

Fashion

Emo clothing is usally characterized by tight jeans on males and females alike, long fringe bangs often brushed to one side of the face, dyed black, and then straightened, tight t-shirts which often bear the names of rock bands, studded belts, belt buckles, Chuck Taylor All-Stars, skate shoes, or other black

Caricature of stereotypical emo fashion

File:Emojaymay.jpg

Typical male emo 'Myspace' picture.

shoes—often old and beaten —and thick, black horn-rimmed glasses. Emo fashion has changed with time; early trends included haircuts similar to those worn by the Romulans and Vulcans in Star Trek, tightly fitting sweaters, button-down shirts, and work jackets (often called gas station jackets).Emo is taken from the phrase "emotionally driven punk."

Personality

When referring to a person's personality and attitude, most definitions of emo hold that an "emo person" is candid about their emotions, due to such, they are often defined as any of the following: SONIA sensitive, shy, introverted, glum, and often quiet. Emo personality is also often connected with writing poetry, which addresses confusion, depression, loneliness, and anger, all resulting from the world's inability to understand the author. Emo poetry uses a combination of any of: a highly emotional tone, stream of consciousness writing, a simple (ABAB) or nonexistent rhyme scheme, references to the flesh, especially the heart, heavy use of dark or depressing adjectives, and concern over the mutability of time, love or both. Themes such as life is pain are common.

Emos are also stereotyped to use depressing Internet screen names that sometimes contain straight edge Xs, often using ironic sloganry, a poetic sense or cliché (eg. xmourningafterx).

Emo is taken from the phrase "emotionally driven hardcore punk." Emo is a synonym for a cock sucking douchbag who has no friends and hangs out with his mother too much.

Criticism

An anti-emo image exemplifying the backlash against emo subculture

In the years since emo music's rise in popularity, both emo music and emo subculture have attracted sometimes severe criticism. The term emo itself is sometimes used pejoratively, to suggest that the target is "overly emotional." Emo in general has been characterized as a fad which will be discarded and forgotten in the near future. Emo music has also been compared to the teen pop of 1990s boy bands. Critics cast the music as lacking any artistic merit, the fashion as "embarrassing" and members of the subculture as imagining or pretending that they lead harsh, painful lives when they actually live in comfortable, upper- to middle class homes. Members of the emo subculture are portrayed by critics as melodramatic, self-pitying teenagers who pour their efforts into writing bad poetry and spending a great amount of time on MySpace. The current emo subculture has been called a "sad caricature" of what it once was.

Some have accused emo subculture of celebrating self-harm. Some assert that it is cool within the emo subculture to pretend to be suicidal and harm one's self. Critics have gone so far as to contend that the emo subculture or emo music are likely to cause youth to commit suicide. This manifested itself particularly strongly in Australia, albeit over a brief time frame, following the suicide of two teenage girls in 2007. The girls, who expressed interest in emo culture, made a suicide pact with one another, and possible clues of their intentions were later found on their band's MySpace page.

The backlash against emo music and subculture has become so prevalent that it may itself have become a cliché: one commentator notes that "hating emo kids these days is as hackneyed as emo itself."

Grammatical usage

The word emo can be used as a noun, verb, adverb or adjective.

Adjective (1): All my friends are emo.
Adjective (2): I feel emo today.
Noun: She is such an emo.
Verb: Do you mind if I emo at you a bit?
Adverb: It was written really emoly.