How suicide is represented in the media

[GenesAndEnvironment]

The mass media will report on whatever stories will gain the most popularity which, in turn, will generate the highest profit. An effective tactic to draw attention to a story is to have it include somebody who is young and attractive, and by "attractive" this means by the standards of society.
This is done because that is what many people want to see. The problem with this though is that it can lead to a warped view of the story - such as who suicide actually affects, and it can also reinforce biases (both positive and negative) against certain "types" of suicidal individuals.

It is similar to beauty magazines who feature very athletic and pretty supermodels on the front, it gets you interested but it also gives you unattainable and harmful body-image expectations.

This is just a theory however.

Makes sense, fuck the media.

 

[Nightwillalwayswin]

The world treats attractive people better and cares more for them in every way. Even when not by suicide, when a beautiful, young woman is killed it is extra tragedy. People will say: oh and she was so pretty too. Such a shame.

This isn't bitterness btw. I am one of the people that would be spoken of like that but I see that it's warped and wrong.

 

[BornofDust]

i can't remember where i saw it but there was a documentary on a young woman seeking legal euthanasia for mental health reason. Can't remember much about it now... maybe i made it up... anyone aware of this documentary?

Are you referring to this?

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I think the real thing that made me super stoked on suicide was the ending of The Good Place. Hey Pro-lifers, if you want something to go after for encouraging people then talk to NBC.

Spoiler: The ending of The Good Place

By the end of the show, the characters have finally made it to heaven. When they get there they realize that all the other people there have become mindless zombies because they have all their needs and wants instantly met. Their solution to this is smart. Basically they end up providing a door which allows people to walk into it and experience true death where your consciousness completely ceases, peacefully and painlessly. They don't know what's on the other side but it's very clear that people only go there when they are absolutely sure they have done everything they ever could have wanted to do while in Heaven. For many people this takes literally multiple eternities of time but eventually all things must end, even happy and healthy existences. When people are ready to go, they go.

At the very end it's revealed what happens to those who go through the door, your essence spreads and goes back to earth where you get to influence one good deed that a random person does.

The best part is that the characters made sure now that everyone had a fair shot at heaven, probably even people who committed suicide. When you die instead of automatically going to heaven or hell, you get given a test designed by individuals from both places. If you pass, you're good. If you fail, you simply get to keep trying ad infinitum. By giving everyone the theory that there is a chance for the peace they so crave in the afterlife, this show likely did more to encourage suicide than even Bojack Horseman or 13 Reasons Why but in a positive way. That's why I liked the show so much.

 

[Zhontafly]

I think the real thing that made me super stoked on suicide was the ending of The Good Place. Hey Pro-lifers, if you want something to go after for encouraging people then talk to NBC.

Spoiler: The ending of The Good Place

By the end of the show, the characters have finally made it to heaven. When they get there they realize that all the other people there have become mindless zombies because they have all their needs and wants instantly met. Their solution to this is smart. Basically they end up providing a door which allows people to walk into it and experience true death where your consciousness completely ceases, peacefully and painlessly. They don't know what's on the other side but it's very clear that people only go there when they are absolutely sure they have done everything they ever could have wanted to do while in Heaven. For many people this takes literally multiple eternities of time but eventually all things must end, even happy and healthy existences. When people are ready to go, they go.

At the very end it's revealed what happens to those who go through the door, your essence spreads and goes back to earth where you get to influence one good deed that a random person does.

The best part is that the characters made sure now that everyone had a fair shot at heaven, probably even people who committed suicide. When you die instead of automatically going to heaven or hell, you get given a test designed by individuals from both places. If you pass, you're good. If you fail, you simply get to keep trying ad infinitum. By giving everyone the theory that there is a chance for the peace they so crave in the afterlife, this show likely did more to encourage suicide than even Bojack Horseman or 13 Reasons Why but in a positive way. That's why I liked the show so much.

Speaks for the christian pro-lifers: OMG! In the name of Jesus I REBUKE THEE, NBC and your Satan inspired TV programming! To Hell with thee!

 

[Chronicillness]

These cherry-picked suicide-completions, almost always feature young, visibly vibrant, attractive, intelligent and family-oriented individuals, and this of course gives the impression that almost everyone who intends to kill themsleves can be saved.

"Why would such a beautiful and successful person flush themselves down the drain of non-existence!?" It's outrage over the annihilation of the *aesthetic*, and the character traits of the individual, rather than thinking outside of the frames of the documentary, in order to understand and digest that there might be horrific sensory torture that lies beneath the surface.

They also tend to focus on a "social-defeat" model of suicidality: so think of divorce, social ostracization, losing socialeconomic status, getting fired, etcetera. They pick the lowest hanging fruit generally and gas them up as gods who were previously thought to be immortal, until they go on to complete a suicide. So the audience gets the idea that the "face" of suicide is usually a beautiful, young person, with a high intellect, and a successful application of that intellect, but they come to a false realization that the suicider just can't see the "full picture" like the audience can, which makes the audience believe that this suicide was incredibly impulsive and short-sighted. In reality though, social defeat is likely the tipping point for most people and not the cause of overwhelming sensory torture.

Rarely do they capture the scalding hot chains that mercilessly bind a person to a severe, complex chronic alien (physical or mental) illness, that has no clear etiology, no clear treatment and subpar management strategies. If they showed, say for example, someone with severe developmental deformities coupled with ghastly presentations of unconscionable chronic illness(es), then the perception of the audience is often congruent with the person's plea for a death with dignity.

Pious anti-euthanasia believers, i've noticed, often believe the world should revolve around their ideas and beliefs, and that violating these beliefs is somehow pulling the curtains up and exposing themselves to a reality they would refuse to subscribe to. These documentaries just give more fuel to their arguments that a life taken by one's own hands is *actually* criminal and every precaution -- including censorship, jailing, banning of substances, etc. -- should be taken to protect the individual from committing a crime against themselves.

 

[Kat!]

Kurt Cobain was a 'happy guy'.. that was until he shot himself.


I doubt a large portion of people who kill themselves were happy all along, it's very rare for these things to turn on a dime, and for people to kill themselves like that.

They don't want to face the fact that they were NEVER happy. When's the last time you've read about a funeral where they called the guy an asshole?

 

[Sprite_Geist]

Makes sense, fuck the media.

Thank you.

Kurt Cobain was a 'happy guy'.. that was until he shot himself.


I doubt a large portion of people who kill themselves were happy all along, it's very rare for these things to turn on a dime, and for people to kill themselves like that.

They don't want to face the fact that they were NEVER happy. When's the last time you've read about a funeral where they called the guy an asshole?

Yes. Generally: no matter how much an individual is disliked when they are alive - once they die suddenly everyone who knew them claims to have had some form of positive relationship with the deceased - a friend, lover, a "good colleague" and so on. There are exceptions though such as when someone has committed a really horrific act; only then does it become acceptable to talk honestly about how bad someone was when they were alive.

 

[loopylou]

After watching a documentary about ctb yesterday, I started to think about something.

In most news reports and documentaries, they tend to focus on the suicides of young students, aged 18-22 usually, who are very charismatic, popular, loving family (on the surface at least), academically talented, loads of friends and they usually have a bf/gf as well. The typical, never saw it coming story.

However, I am beginning to wonder what percentage of suicides are that type of person I just described. Most of the prevention narratives seem to assume that you are in a situation where you have loving people around you who care, and you're suffering from a temporary affliction that will likely pass. I don't think this is reality.

They always focus on someone being beautiful and talented, but what if you are neither of those? While I'm not the world's ugliest girl, very few would tout me as beautiful. It is as if the attempts to include and support those who would be outcast and ostracised are total visages when the suicide prevention narrative only focuses on people who they describe in their own words as "normal boys/girls next door".

What was interesting to me was that in one of these documentaries, they got so close to recognising that there were societal factors at play when it came to the ctb of these people, but yet, the producers and the family members interviewed never seemed to acknowledge it. They were all convinced that the people who died were merely depressed and if they had taken more pills or talked to someone more they could have been helped.

Case in point, one of the deceased was a very accomplished academic studying at an extremely prestigious uni in the UK. The University is well known for putting far too much stress and pressure on its students, and he succumbed to the demanding nature of the institution. It was always his dream to study there, and it had just been crushed when he started doing poorly in school.

Another person on the documentary was in debt or something and was about to lose their flat due to back rent, at like 19 or 20 years old. Those aren't really temporary problems, more like longterm ones that have implications and consequences.

Of course I never see anyone in these programs who is chronically ill like me, no family, you get the gist. Feels like the depiction of the average suicidal person isn't really correct.

Can I ask what the documentary is called and what channel please ?

 

[LastFlowers]

Would you want your suicide displayed all over the media though?

I absolutely would NOT, yet still, I have had the same sentiments that KGK has outlined.
I, too, rarely see anyone depicted in the media who shares in anything I struggle with, and if they appear to on the surface, the narrative of the program seems to minimize or completely ignore it, and instead put the blame on something being amiss with their "brain chemistry" or not getting the right "mental health help".
As if a person could not be perfectly rational, but simply trapped in unfair circumstances...
Not to mention, the reality that medication and talk therapy are not solutions for everyone, sometimes even causing additional trauma. Instead we are told that these things are an absolute must, and those who refuse them are somehow more responsible for their own shitty trajectory in life.

At the end of the day, the people we don't see on the news, or similar, are probably the quiet majority. Society promoting toxic positivity and saving the attention for the bright, young and beautiful is nothing new. I think the depiction of suicides in the public eye, is just an extension of that. Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise for those who aren't displayed, as to keep their privacy, and not humiliate them. Unfortunately, I think the overall insidious nature of this phenomenon plays itself out in the smaller cracks of the foundation, behind closed doors, not just what we see flashing on the small screen.

 

[LittleBabyNothing]

Are you referring to this?

Yes, thank you!

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

Can I ask what the documentary is called and what channel please ?

It is called real stories of student suicides and you can find it on BBC youtube

 

[loopylou]

It is called real stories of student suicides and you can find it on BBC youtube

Thank you

 

[decafcoffee]

Media: no don't kill yourself you're too sexy aha

(Everyone else can die tho who cares about them?)

Aye. It's important to keep in mind that sources of media are controlled, so the information presented there could have went through the prism of personal benefits. I don't see how the most influential people in the world wouldn't want to influence public opinion in a certain way, since (as one interesting copypasta has pointed out) those who get at the top are the ones who are willing and capable of stomping over the needs of others, and establishing dominance over others.

It's unfortunate that dead people don't have a say in the matter, cannot testify about the injustices and hardships they had to endure. If a young person gets abused at home and dies by suicide because of that, then family is free to make up their own story that puts themselves as angels and this forum as monsters, like in the recent case. As if their biological relatedness to a deceased individual somehow necessitates the truthfulness of their just-so stories.

Another possible interpretation: if some pretty, athletic, smart, and popular young person has preferred to end life over continuing it, and what does it says about your (average viewer's) life?

Yeah I'm hoping I don't have to come back as a ghost to see my parents making up all kinds of bullshit like the professional narcissists they are. My father is a professor at the university of Ottawa for a very long time so he definitely has a lot to lose. If I could somehow fuck him up so bad he never teaches again, that would be cool to witness and I'd happily ghost him for that! :D

Also, society failed me utterly. I hold many people responsible for the mess. And of course they will just think I'ma sad freak loner loser.
I bet the suicidal person has visited or is currently still a part of our community too! I hope that's true. Their life is similar to mine. Living with abuse and I have no friends irl. But I won't try to get myself in any more trouble trying to die legally. As if anyone cares enough to help! Ha! They would have to face reality and we all know society hates that.