Increases in Suicide Rates among Teen Girls

A recent study by the CDC reports a huge rise in girls' suicide rates. Buried in the AP Press article is the statistic that still 3/4 of suicides are committed by boys. This seems to be the way the media works, packaging any new data about girls and boys as a battle of the sexes. It's really really important to understand this rise in girls' suicides amidst the purported flourishing of girls, but we can see the set-up already. Boy advocates will be saying -- don't forget the boys, and girl advocates will be saying, time to refocus again on the girls. We don't think either girls or boys are doing so well these days. The culture of violence vs. slacking that boys live in can translate in extreme circumstances to homicide vs. suicide. The pre-packaged sexy, diva media image vs. the idealized perfect student pressures can leave girls feeling empty and unseen, searching for escape. Of course we can't forget that boys too are committing suicide in scary numbers, but these new stats tell us we need to figure out why this is increasingly true for girls. First stop: media images and a huge marketing industry selling girls on the impossible.

Comments

[Her Grace]

Great post!

I'd love to hear what you thought about this:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2007/09/10/hill.raunchy.clearasil.ads.affl

[cheryl]

Please sign my petition to get the MGA to change the style of the Bratz dolls http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/moms-against-bratz

[mom]

Hi Authors-
I would love to see this blog be more active -- so much to say on this topic, yet I check back regularly and am crushed! Any chance you might bump it up to a weekly or bi-weekly post?

[Sue]

The inculcation of attitudes and stereotypes on gender, race, religion, class and political ideas in the toys, games and children's fiction, is laying the ground and doing the damage long before the teen and adult media get to work.

This explains why demeaning stereotypes and aggressiveness in boys persist in the face of the evidence that they are false, and even though the main carers in childhood are women.

These tactics are clearly exposed in these careful and detailed studies and the references to the work of Margaret Mead in pointing out that these sterotypical attitudes are false and misleading.

The 2xvolume book that is now out of print are on-line with highlights and there are quotations. One chapter and Conclusion of his later book can also be read or downloaded.

www.peace-workshop.freeuk.com/Bob_Dixon,htm

[ls]

How very sad that a topic as tragic as teen suicide had to be divided among gender lines, and even then not too accurately, in order to create some hype.