Posted by akc on November 30, 2001, at 23:06:18
In reply to I'm sure I'll be black-listed for this one but...., posted by tina on November 30, 2001, at 22:28:30
I don't think you will be blacklisted.
Cutting is different. And it will always be considered by most of the world a taboo. But the reality is that many use it as a coping method. And I am convinced at this moment that it can be a very effective one. Don't hear of too many cutters killing people because of their cutting (I'm thinking of people who drink and drive or do drugs and drive).
I didn't start cutting until I was in my 30's -- and I am fighting the urge to cut right now. I want to cut because I don't want to feel what I am feeling right now. I don't think it is abnormal at all to not want to feel -- this is just one way of doing that. But society will press us not to use it.
It may be a "little" less blacklisted with the generation that is now in their teens and twenties -- a generation that has done more piercing and tattooing than any in the USA. So the idea of altering your body is less of shock. Still, most people will associate a cut with pain -- and they recoil from pain -- and cannot imagine someone necessarily purposely cutting themselves (not understanding that for many cutters, there is not much pain involved at all and for others the pain itself provides the relief). Society will always make taboo that which they cannot themselves understand.
Thankfully, we have the internet that has given so many sites that don't make cutting taboo (some may discourage it, but not out of a place of shame, but out of a place of healing).
Thanks for bringing this up.
akc
poster:akc
thread:14653
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011130/msgs/14658.html