‘13 Reasons Why’ Is NOT Bullshit
A majority of the human population who has binge watched an estimated 13 hours could relate to the issues raised and the overall premise and completely non subliminal message which the show had delivered.
The other minority who can’t relate to these topics simply either moved on with their lives (which is completely fine, do you booboo) but, a percentage of that minor number of people just couldn’t but poke the sleeping bear and inevitably decide to “diss” the show.
I’m only writing this in response to another article written by a TC member who said that the show is “Pretty Much Bullshit”. Yeah, it is, if you have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.
The Issues Depicted In 13RW are as follows: Bullying, Mental Health, Rape and Suicide.
These are a few of world’s unfortunate issues and I wouldn’t get the nerve to write this if I didn’t relate to all of the above. But I’m not writing to talk about me, I’m writing to point out that 13RW needed to happen and people needed to see it, because up until now no one had the guts to discuss or even properly tackle these topics on TV or the Big Screen. That sucks, but I’m glad someone had the courage to sit around a table and say “Let’s make this show about these topics” rather than getting in a room and saying “Let’s make a movie about tornados with sharks in it”. The crew behind the show decided to use fame as a platform to raise awareness, so hats off to them all.
The article which I’m replying to did touch my red wire, I’m not going to lie. The bomb within me exploded so my response and discussion will be huge/long and hopefully it’ll reach places beyond the location of the explosion.
Before I get into it, let’s actually ask and answer why Hannah Baker killed herself. It wasn’t the bullying, it wasn’t what those 11 people did to her and how they treated her. It was Tape 12, the rape. You must understand that Hannah was a 17 year old student at a High School in America during modern day society who got raped.
What do we know about modern society?
We have to live up to its expectations.
See, now THAT is bullshit. We don’t have to live up to anything or anyone’s expectations. What I’m getting at here is; Hannah killed herself because she was raped, at the age of 17, after witnessing the same person she was raped by, rape another girl; who was actually her first best friend in this school. Hannah got physically sick from it, she literally vomited as soon as Bryce walked out. Can you imagine that?
Can you imagine witnessing something like that then to actually have to go and live through it? What would you do? You can’t talk about it because you are genuinely physically and emotionally traumatized by what just happened to you. You wake up the next morning and it stays with you, it starts to break you down and the longer you go without talking and having that person punished, the worse it gets. Baker literally went home, didn’t change from her wet clothes, sat down and started planning her suicide and explanation as to why she is going to do it and why she did.
People are forgetting that; when, as a viewer you hear that opening line “Hi, It’s Hannah, Hannah Baker. That’s right…” she already went through everything, she already got raped and she already killed herself.
What some people fail to acknowledge and realize is that you start following the life of a guy who’s hearing this for the first time, just like you, so you don’t have that perspective of “It already happened” you’re only learning what was going on and you weren’t even aware about Hannah’s side of the rumors and err’ ‘ting else that happened. So because of that, some of you thought “Oh she’s over reacting, it’s just a rumor” or “Oh come on, she’s taking Courtney’s lie way too seriously”… umm… hold on, did I mention she’s a 17 year old girl, NEW girl at school whose reputation is being damaged.
This would stick with her, if she never told her story from her side and decided to live with it, not only would she be drowning in an endless ocean of depression but people she knew would always think she was “That slut with the best ass” from school. That would break anyone’s self confidence so of course she was right to react the way she did to the list and the rumors etc. It wasn’t just a list, it wasn’t just a joke and I’m glad Alex realized he was actually wrong to make that list and begun feeling bad about it. I’m just disappointed he realized it after she was already gone.
The article that claims that 13RW is “bullshit”, starts off with the first paragraph mentioning Suicide and Depression. First of all, not in all cases is suicide a “Final Word”—a huge majority of them aren’t vengeful final words. They’re the reaction to people’s actions towards the person who took their own life. Now, these actions could be direct, they could be indirect.
I’m completely and utterly calling that particular post, bullshit. Here’s why:
Other people are responsible for your mental health.
That’s it. That’s my statement.
Having gone through the process of being bullied nearly all my school life, I can guarantee you that what people do and say to you effects you in many ways.
If a person comments negatively on your looks; the reaction to that is damage to your self esteem. Now, due to the mean comments, this mental state and health is being damaged. Then these attacks come in waves; first, the culprit of the mean comment is like the wind in the ocean blowing those negative mind waves towards you directly. Then others might laugh at the mean comment, causing more indirect waves towards the health of your mentality.
Now, kids are kids, they find silly things funny. They can’t comprehend between right and wrong most of the time so if the comment is silly enough, then the joke will last a while. Imagine walking in and out of class hearing more comments about you simply because they’re funny in a silly way and everyone gets a laugh… but hold on, look who’s not laughing; the victim of the mean joke.
The victim goes home and starts to hate the part of their body which keeps being commented on but that person is way too young to understand that talking about it can help. They simply go back to school hoping it’d stop. But it doesn’t.
How much do you think this mental wall can take?
Also, 13RW isn’t a love story, Clay could have saved Hannah, they all could have. But Clay’s side of it isn’t to do with Love, actually. Well okay, yeah it does but, not in the typical sense where this is a story of “Man saves Woman”, don’t gender base this.
If Hannah was a Henry and Clay was a Chloe, then the scenarios would have been the exact same. It’s a scenario of “Person could have saved person”. Depression doesn’t have a gender or a particular choice of a living host.
I think you’re forgetting that we are compassionate beings who seek compassion and give it. We need closure and we give closure. Back to my point, Clay indeed could have saved Hannah but not because of the “I love you” part, but mainly because of the other things he says before that, that he doesn’t care what people are saying about her and that he accepts her either way.
It goes both ways. Sometimes when someone hears the words “Mental Health” they fall victim to embedding, grasping onto the first bit of information available to them so they think mental health is a bad thing and refers to depression, anxiety… no, no, no. Mental health can be a good thing. What I mean is, your mental health can be bad and it can be good. “That person is mentally healthy” and “That person isn’t mentally healthy” are both included in the “Mental Health” part. Just because someone mentions “Mental Health” they don’t necessarily mean that there’s a problem there. So my point is that people can be responsible for your bad mental health and for your good mental health.
And I’m really glad the issue of suicide was depicted on TV, mainly to raise awareness about it. The Bathtub scene was effective and as painful as it was to watch, it had to be shown. They had to depict the horrors of suicide. With three attempted suicides to my name, I can guarantee you that other people were responsible and if only one person cared even a little, things could have gone differently.
So in reading that original article, I felt offended, and there aren’t many things which offend me to such an extent that I sit down and write about it.
Other people are responsible for your mental health.