I know that the 13 Reasons Why series on Netflix has been getting a bad wrap, but here is my take. A take from a person who has severe depression, who has thought about taking her life and who is a survivor.
Now I understand why others would be upset with the show. Some say it glorifies suicide, others say that it makes people believe that people can be blamed for someone's suicide. Some say that it was "too much" to show the rapes of Jessica Davis and Hannah Baker on screen.
The only thing I do agree with about the criticism on this show is the showing of Hannah's suicide. That I do believe was extremely triggering for people watching that suffer with depression. But now onto the other issues.
1. It Glorifies Suicide
In no way I believe that this show glorifies suicide. Instead of doing that I believe it starts the conversation about mental illness because nobody wants to talk about a topic like that. It is too sad, too dark or a person just does not know what to say. If a child sees this show and ask their parents about it; the conversation is then forced. This conversation needs to happen. According to the CDC, suicide is the third leading cause of death among people ages 10-14, and the second among people ages 15-34 years. And in 2013, 17.0% of students in grades 9-12 seriously considered attempting suicide. So you see, the conversation needs to start happening so these numbers might some day be lowered. Children need to know that sometimes not feeling okay is okay. The stigma behind depression, or any mental illness for that matter, needs to disappear. And one day, mental health will be treated like any other physical health condition.
2. It Makes People Believe that People Can Be Blamed for Someone's Suicide
This one is tricky to address, because everyone that has thought about ending their life or has ended their life has their own reasons for it. Coming from my experience, it is never about one person or one event. In fact, it was not even about one person. At least, for me, it was a series of events that piled on and on and it took a single event to light the dynamite and explode. There is no exact explanation for the reason we think the only solution is to end our lives. There is an explanation behind depression - a good, understandable video can be found here. It should also be noted that there is a difference between sadness and depression, which can be explained by a great video by The Mighty. If we look at the big picture behind 13 Reasons Why, it was more the events than people that led to Hannah Baker's decision of ending her life. Yes, there were people involved that caused each and every event, but it was one thing after another that was happening to her. And one day, she just exploded. Each person is different, and each story is different. We can't compare people to each other. That would be making a faulty comparison - comparing one thing to another that is really not related, in order to make one thing look more or less desirable than it really is.
3. Showing Rape On Screen
Though it may be a hard topic to talk about as well; but not talking about it, victim-blaming, and giving sympathy to the perpetrator are all a part of rape culture. Rape and sexual assault happen so much more often then people realize. Every 98 seconds, another American is sexually assaulted. That accumulates to about 881 sexual assaults a day. A day. I believe the mastermind behind the book that created the Netflix series, Jay Asher, illustrated Bryce Walker's character perfectly. Nobody wants to believe that the popular guy or the star athlete would commit anything like this. Everybody wants to think the best of him. But they do happen, and when they do, they need to be recognized. There is a reason, upon many, that people do not want to report a rape or sexual assault that happened to them. And that is because they know that people will protect those that are important. They know that nobody wants to punish the jock with a bright future ahead of him, nor do they want to believe that such a perfect person would commit such a horrendous crime.
So I understand that the unpopular opinion here is that 13 Reasons Why is actually a good show to watch no matter what your stance is on these subjects are. We can agree to disagree, but this is just a stance from someone who has been there and done that.
