I read an article from student news outlet The Tab today and I feel it is worth responding to. The article can be read here and (attempts to) explains why the hit Netflix show 13 Reasons Why is an insult to anyone with mental health issues. I want to debunk this, as I think the show is helpful and important to anyone being bullied or who has suicidal intentions.
So let's go through line by line.
You can’t remedy depression with ‘love’ reads the sub-headline. Thanks for that. That was the message we all took away from the show. Here we all are, high spirits and hopes, that we can cure depression just by loving someone. Um, no. Don't patronise us.
It grossly trivialises mental health and romanticises suicide – and don’t tell me it doesn’t when her ‘suicide note’ comes in the form of god damn cassette tapes. Indie, right?
- No mental health issues are mentioned in the show, apart from subtle references to Clay's past with antidepressants and therapists. I believe this is for a reason. Hannah was not mentally ill. She wasn't stuck in bed, she wasn't giving up. The whole way through we saw Hannah go back to school the next day, only to be let down by more people and friends. It relates to the notion of "tomorrow will be better" and sometimes it just isn't. This was a girl who took on her problems, she faced them everyday, she wanted things to get better, she was optimistic for the future.
- Romanticises suicide? How? Did you not watch the suicide scene? I had to turn away... Did you not see her parents the whole way through the show? How broken they were? Their reaction when they found her? Did you not see how broken Clay was throughout the whole thing? Where was the suicide romanticised? Where was the point you thought people would go "you know what, killing myself seems kinda nice"?
- Yeah the note comes in the form of tapes. I don't know what's "indie" or wrong about that. The show is a work of fiction and entertainment on one level. Hannah was always different and quirky, so the cassettes seem to tie in with her personality.
The dual narrative is spread so thin that it’s hard to sympathise with anyone.
Strange point to make. If you feel that way it might be due to the storytelling and structure of the show, more than it having to do with trivialising mental health. I never felt that way. I sympathised with Hannah, her parents, Clay and Tony throughout.
That aside, every character appears horribly selfish, overdramatic, and frankly unrealistic.
- God bless you, you obviously have high estimations of people.
- I thought the characters were realistic. Justin not knowing how to tell Jessica about her rape because Bryce has always looked after him was realistic to me; Hannah was flawed in many ways. There were lots of points where we were angry at her, we shouted at the TV and we thought she was stupid, but that's the point. She's human, she'll fuck up; Courtney didn't want to come out because of the stigma attached to gay parents, that's an important point to address; Marcus wanting to maintain his immaculate reputation is realistic; Zach not wanting to disappoint his friends and family, is realistic. Yes everybody's selfish, but everyone is in some way or another. That's the point of being human. How far should we take our selfishness? How far do, have, and will people go to protect themselves and expectations of them?
Suicide isn’t caused by other people – it’s not murder.
- Suicide can totally be caused by bullying, and the bullies should be seen as murderers.
- The choice was ultimately Hannah's, but that's because she couldn't see another way out. She went to her counsellor who didn't help or believe her about her rape; she felt like she let her parents down by losing their money; she pushed Clay away because she was scared; she tried what she felt like was every other avenue. She couldn't see a way to escape what all these other people had done.
- When you are bullied relentlessly everyday, when rumours get spread and don't stop, when pictures are leaked of you, when you're raped, when your friends abandon you, when your parents don't listen to you, when you think the guy you love hates you, that can kill you inside and it can force people to suicide. Don't underestimate the power the words and actions of others can have on an individual. That's a slippery slope.
Suicide is caused by mental illness, not bullying; but is Hannah Baker portrayed as mentally ill?
- Not all suicide is caused by mental illness, not everyone shows signs. Hannah isn't supposed to be mentally ill. She's portrayed as someone who was just pushed too far and everyone ignored her calls for help.
The mental health narrative is as pushed under the rug as ever and Hannah Baker is about as good a poster girl for the depressed as Kendall Jenner is for the oppressed.
-She isn't supposed to be a poster girl for anything. She's flawed, too. She doesn't show signs of depression, but she appeals for help a lot of the time, and gets ignored. People can relate to that because we all know what its like to have suffered and feel like no one's listening or cares about us.
The result is that she comes off as an over-dramatic snowflake.
- Yawn. Using "snowflake" just means you have nothing of substance to say. You just didn't like the show, and you're mad because the protagonist didn't suffer in the same way that you did.
Give us a protagonist who physically can’t get out of bed; who ugly cries in the bath every night for months; who suffers with irrational thoughts of self-hatred. Just something – anything – to throw the focus on the day-to-day struggles of someone with a mental illness. A real-life Hannah Baker would not commit suicide – because Hannah Baker is not mentally ill. Or at least not the Hannah Baker we’re being shown.
- THIS JUST IN: YOU CAN ONLY BE SUICIDAL IF YOU'RE MENTALLY ILL. IF YOU'RE NOT MENTALLY ILL AND SUICIDAL THEN YOU'RE WRONG!!! What an awesome message for a student site to be sending out!
- If you want a protagonist like that, read Catcher in the Rye, or another one of the countless books that shows a depressed character. There's plenty.
- Who are you to say what a "real-life Hannah Baker" would do? There are many "real-life Hannah Bakers" who have killed themselves. There are suicidal people who aren't being helped because articles like yours shut them down because they haven't been diagnosed with a mental illness. There are suicidal people who ask for help but don't get it because they're not displaying outward and obvious signs of mental illness or suicidal thoughts.
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