(following discussion about this article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/13-reasons-why-criticized-for-messaging-on-teen-suicide-1.4084168)
With social media these days, it’s easier than ever to share a picture or an opinion.A picture of you and your friends or how you feel about a homework, things from a to z can go on the internet. But when things go wrong, social medias don’t come in handy for the victim. That’s what happened to Hannah Baker. But much more than just on the internet. It became so strong that she decided to end her life and comitted suicide. But Hannah Baker is just a character in the Netflix original 13 reasons why. The scenario is based on Jay Asher’s novel, written in 2007. The story is about Hannah Baker who, before killing herself, recorded 13 tapes. (More…)
On the tapes, she talks about moments of sexual harassment, slut-shaming, rumours and rape that caused her to take her life, each dedicated to one of the classmates that her tapes are delivered to. The show got a lot of backlash on social medias, saying it pushes viewers of the same age and condition to do the same. Some say it became some kind of trend. In the last episode, we can see Hannah take her own life which led to anti-suicide organisations to go crazy. They said the graphic content could possibly give ideas to others on how to achieve it. On the other hand, one of the writers of the show, Nic Sheff, thought it would’ve been wrong not to show it. “It was an opportunity to show what suicide looks like and to confront the spectator with this horror. What would have been irresponsible was not to show the scene in which she ended her life” he said. While writting that last scene, he took inspiration from his own suicide attempt.
I too got interested in the matter and decided to see for myself. I watched the first few episodes and decided to break down the very first one. First, we meet Clay, the main character( Dylan Minette), he has flashbacks of Hannah (Katherine Langford), 10 to be exact, he then gets a mysterious box of tapes. The tapes Hannah recorded. “Hey, it’s Hannah, Hannah Baker. Don’t adjust your… whatever device your hearing this on. It’s me, live an in stereo. No return, no engagements, no encores, and this time, absolutely no requests. Get a snack, settle in, ‘cause I’m about to the story of my life.” These are the first words Clay heard. The first word of tape number one. As I mentioned earlier, each tape is dedicated to a certain person, in this case, Justin (Brandon Flynn). Hannah liked Justin and Justin liked Hannah, which ended with an date.Spoiler alert, they kissed. That same night, Justin took a picture of Hannah, which he later showed his friends. Let’s say the picture was a bit revealing for Hannah. Nothing scandalous but slightly revealing. One of Justin’s friends Bryce( Justin Prentice)shared the picture with his classmates, which resulted with Hannah being slut-shamed. And that’s pretty much it for the first episode. Nothing too graphic I’d say, but in the same time, it’s the first episode. After this 53 minutes long episode, I decided to make a “Pros vs Cons” list to establish arguments for both sides.
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After going through all the episodes, I now understand why some say it’s graphic. Why some say it’s inappropriate or even disgusting. But, in the episodes 9, 12 and 13, in the very beginning of the episode, this message appears:
The following episode contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing
and/or may not be suitable for younger audiences,
including graphic depictions of rape and sexual assault.
Viewer discretion is advised.
or:
The following episode contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing
and/or may not be suitable for younger audiences,
including graphic depictions of violence and suicide.
Viewer discretion is advised.
So they did warn us about the content and that it will be graphic. After watching the whole serie, Netflix recommended a 30 minutes long interview about 13 reasons why called “ Beyond the reasons”. In it they talk about why they did what they did. They said they showed the scene where Hannah cuts her wrists and bleeds to death because they wanted to show the pain, the emotions, the process, just to show what it really was and how much it can hurt someone. They showed Hannah’s mother’s reaction to the suicide and they showed what it can do to someone close to the victim. In the scene when Hannah gets raped, they made sure that we can see Hannah’s face longer than usual to show the discomfort.