By now you’ve probably heard of “13 Reasons Why,” the new Netflix series based off of Jay Asher’s young adult sensation by the same name. This series follows the life and death of Hannah Baker, a bullied teenager, as she chronicles her reasons for ultimately taking her own life in a series of cassette tapes. Admittedly I have not read the novel and am in now way an expert on the show’s book-to-show adaptation value, but I must admit that I was alarmed by many aspects of this show.
I wanted so badly to love this show. I was rooting for it. As someone who struggled with my mental health throughout my teenage years I was excited that Netflix picked up such an important topic. Unfortunately I was let down on a large spectrum. This show deals with heavy topics, there’s no doubt about that, and I commend the producers for taking a chance on such a serious and relevant issue but that should not overshadow its dangers.
There are two main problems with this show. First, it’s portray of mental health and suicide and second it’s portrayal of Hannah Baker as nothing more than another manic pixie dream girl. And while the first few episodes may feel like a poorly produced ABC Family TV-movie, the show quickly escalates into dangerous and harmful narratives.
This show has countless faults from a suicide prevention perspective. Suicide is portrayed in this series as the result of bullying. There is nothing inaccurate about this - many people who choose to take their own lives have been victims of some sort of bullying or abuse. The problem is that the show only focuses on that, choosing to blame Hannah’s classmates instead of zooming into the realities of mental illness. Rarely does someone decide to take their own life because of a single event or person - usually it’s a long build up of events, often coupled by some sort of mental illness that eventually leaves someone to think that they have no other options.
Another main concern in the graphic scenes that come later on in the show, specifically the scene in which Hannah ultimately dies by suicide. While I can respect the fervor and determination that this cast had for portraying the reality of a gruesome situation, their portrayal of suicide could lead to dangerous consequences. One of the main things that suicide prevention experts always say is not to explain the means by which someone dies by suicide. Studies have shown that describing a suicide in graphic detail can often lead to copycat suicides, where someone else learns of the event and chooses to take their own life in the same fashion. This is something that is especially prevalent in teenage populations, also the show’s target audience.
Where were the checks and balances in this show? The scene of Hannah’s final moments goes into such specific detail that they might as well have written a manual on how to take your own life. Not only is it too detailed, it’s unexpected and as someone who has struggled with self harm myself I can personally say that it’s incredibly triggering. To the show’s credit there is a warning for graphic content at the beginning episode. But the scene is more graphic, more realistic, than any murder or suicide I’ve seen on television before (and that’s coming from someone who’s seen every episode of Law and Order: SVU and Criminal Minds).
There was also a similar warning on two earlier episodes that go into graphic detail of two separate rapes, but while these scenes were just as painful to watch they do not “teach” the means to an end in the same way that the suicide scene has the potential to do. The graphic rape scenes are just as triggering, just as upsetting, but the difference is that they are not teaching someone how to rape. They are showing its effects, its dangers, and it’s trauma. This is valid content. This is what I expected to see from the show - graphic, hard to watch content that paints a picture of a larger issue in our world. That is not what the suicide scene does - there is no explanation of emotion, no coping strategies, no means of prevention or intervention. There is simply an action and a reaction, and in order to successfully create a show founded around a teen suicide epidemic there needs to be much more than that.
Did no one warn the producers that the graphic content in this show could have dangerous consequences? Or maybe someone did, but they just ignored them.
In addition to the dangers this show poses, it also propagates yet another picture of this “manic pixie dream girl” that has become such a popular trope in modern media. Hannah Baker is, like any other teenager, a work in progress and the show manages to fetishize her struggle in the same way that characters like Clementine (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") have been in the past. Clay, a golden retriever of a man, follows Hannah’s life as a means of his own evolution.
It’s another manic pixie dream girl with her male hero swooping in to find himself through her suffering. And this doesn’t stop with Hannah. Once she’s out of the picture Clay lurches for Skye, the new manic pixie dream girl with just as many dangerous tendencies as the one before. It’s the same as what the boys do in “The Virgin Suicides.” Boys are looking in on the lives of these suffering girls and instead of trying to help them they simply watch as they crumble and then “grow” from the way the loss effects them.
This is not a new trope. Just take a look at Olivia Gatwood’s poem from 2015, entitled “Manic Pixie Dream Girl.” Manic pixie dream girl says have you heard this record? Manic pixie dream girl says let me save you with this record… Hear that? That’s the sound of you becoming a better person… Manic pixie dream girl says I’m going to save you. Says don’t worry, you are still the lead role. This is your love story about the way I teach you to live. Everything they know about me they will learn when it’s projected onto you… Dream girl, your almost broken accessory… Good girl, just bad enough… The convenient thing about being a magical woman is that I can be gone as quickly as I came. And when you are a whole person for the first time the movie is over. Manic pixie dream girl doesn’t go on. There is no need for her anymore.
The show does nothing to address the concerns it brings up. Nothing to teach its audiences how to cope, how to survive. There are no crisis hotline numbers attached to episodes, nor are they even mentioned. There is no counseling, no interference, no discussion of prevention other than to blame each other for what happened. Suicide is not about blame. Someone does not take their own life for a single reason, period. Suicide and blame do not, can not, go hand in hand. And so, unlike the show, I want to include some resources at the end of this article for anyone who was effected by either the content of the show or by my rehashing of its faults. I’m a firm believer in suicide prevention, in starting conversations about mental health and in stopping harmful stigmas that so many people face. But this is not what occurred in “13 Reasons Why.” While it may have sparked a few conversations, the overwhelming amount of falsity or dramatization overshadows the reality of the situation and only makes way for a continued stigma.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386
Teen Line: 1-310-855-4673
NEDA (Eating Disorder) Helpline: 800-931-2237
Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
Alcohol Hotline: 800-331-2900
Planned Parenthood Hotline: 800-230-7526
National Runaway Switchboard: 800-231-6946
Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453
Grief Support: 1-650-321-5272
Alcohol/Drug Abuse Hotline: 1-800-662-HELP
Help finding a therapist: 1-800-843-6039
For even more, visit http://blog.justaskinnyboy.com/hotlines
Taking your own life is never the answer. If you or someone you know may be struggling with any of these topics, please reach out to the numbers above. Your life is valuable. Your life is important. Your life matters.
