COLUMBINE'S MOST WANTED? ================================================================ Is MTV's popular animated series "Daria" to blame for the tragedy at Littleton, Colorado, or a convenient scapegoat for the fundamentalist right? ================================================================ by Peter W. Guerin ================================================================ Imagine, if you will, entering your local post office one day, and casually looking at the "WANTED" posters on the bulletin board. Among them seems to be one with the picture of a rather plain-looking woman with brown hair, eyeglasses and with no expression on her face. You now casually read the poster, which goes as follows: WANTED: For conspiracy to commit mass murder Name: Daria Morgendorffer Age: 17 Height: 5' 2" Weight: 108 lbs. Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue Distinguishing characteristics: Expressionless face, speaks in monotone Suspect often seen wearing: Brown T-shirt, green field jacket, black, pleated knee-length skirt and black Doc Martens steel-toed boots Known accomplices: Jane Lane, Trent Lane, Beavis, Butt-Head You stand there amazed as you look at this. You skip down to the charges against her and are shocked to read the following: "Suspect is accused of influencing Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris in their attack on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999, where they stormed into said school and killed thirteen students and teachers." You just look at this in disbelief. How could a popular animated program on MTV influence the worst incidence of school violence in American history? The sad truth is, however, that this story is not as far fetched as it may appear at first glance, and is just part of a continuing battle that's been going on ever since Popeye first whipped out that can of spinach and Tom first got a shovel to the head by Jerry. It all began innocently enough with a post to the Message Bored at Lawndale Commons (http://welcome.to/lawndale), a Daria fan site maintained by "Toon Magazine" Associate Editor Michelle Klein-Häss. On a post dated May 8, 1999, Kathleen Becker said the following: "I think it's sad. In my debate class, someone was talking about how "Daria" encourages violence. She doesn't do ANYTHING violent. It's sad we blame the media for Columbine. It makes me vomit." This, of course, led to some spirited debate on the matter, not only in the message boards but in fan fiction and in letters to the editor. Michelle Klein-Häss weighed in with her opinion on the matter in her fan fic "Clothes Make the Manson": "'Well, Daria, is this a little like fantasy fulfillment?,' asked Jane (Lane, Daria's best friend). Jane's words just lowered the temperature a few more degrees. "(Daria replied) I would never go through it. I might make jokes, but I wouldn't do it. Really, Jane, you should know me better than that. "Not even the Fashion Club? "Not even them." (The entire story can be read at the fan fiction section of Ms. Klein-Häss' Web site.) Even I had something to say about the matter in my own fan fic, "Booted!", which can be read at my site, Mark Zero Fan Fiction (http://direct.at/markzero.com). In one scene of the story--which deals with Daria's boots being stolen--Daria, her sister Quinn and their parents Jake and Helen are having a discussion in regard to the theft: Jake: Well, after what happened in Littleton, Colorado, I bet they're cracking down on trenchcoats and Goth clothes. Helen: (Sharply.) Who asked you, Jake? Jake: (Meekly.) Sorry. Daria: Mom, Dad, do you really seriously think the school would take away my boots because they think I might take out a gun and shoot everyone? Helen: Well. . . Daria: I wouldn't. Helen: That's a relief. Daria: I'd prefer to wear a halter top and hot pants when I do that. Jake: Daria, you wouldn't! Helen: Jake, she's obviously making a joke about this. . .(With a tone of half-concern, half-anger.) you were, right? (Daria just smirks that Mona Lisa smile of hers.) Quinn: Daria, I think Mom and Dad do have a point. You wear that old field jacket, knee-length pleated skirt and those boots a lot. It's almost as frightening as those dusters those two killers wore. Daria: Come on, guys; even you aren't that dumb enough to paint everyone who's smart, cynical and an outcast in school as a potential mass murderer. Helen: Well, you also like to play "CyberKron" and "Cannibal Fragfest". Daria: This is almost as ridiculous as saying playing with toy guns makes you violent. Helen: Maybe you ought to soften that image of yours a bit, Daria. Daria: And become like Quinn? Been there, done that, hated every minute of that. Quinn: Well, Daria, I do have a pair of go-go boots you can borrow until you can get the others back or get a new pair. Daria: No thanks; I don't want to look like a fashion disaster. Helen: Daria, at least consider it. Daria: Yeah, at the same time they give me a lobotomy. (She gets up to put her plate away.) Now, I will grant that most of the blame in this matter has been fixed on movies like "Natural Born Killers" and "The Basketball Diaries", as well as video games like "Doom", "Quake" and "Duke Nukem 3D", but remember that "Daria" is being shown on MTV, a network that's no stranger to controversy, and that Daria herself had been spun off from the popular "Beavis and Butt-Head", which itself engendered controversy due to their characters' obsessiveness with bodily functions, "scoring" with women and pyromania; there was the well-known incident in 1993 where a woman in Ohio blamed the show for her son setting their trailer home on fire, killing his sister. As long as we have self-appointed "censors of the people" like Jerry Falwell, Peggy Charren and Donald Wildmon around, shows like "Daria" and "Beavis and Butt-Head" aren't going to get a break. First of all, there is no evidence proving that either Klebold or Harris were fans of "Daria" or that they had even watched the show. Odds are, Klebold and Harris--who had Nazi leanings--probably weren't, since two of Daria's friends are African-Americans, Student Government Vice President Jodie Landon and Football Team Captain Michael Jordan "Mack" MacKenzie. Further, trying to paint them--as some have--as being Goths like the perpetually taciturn Andrea also is problematic. Though the both of them did listen to Marilyn Manson, most Goths like Andrea are not the type that are out for blood (or even engage in Satanic worship); most, like the suspects, are indeed outcasts, and frankly, when I was growing up in the 1970's and 1980's, I saw all this before in the guise of Steven Vincent Furnier--Alice Cooper to you (the biggest irony being that now Cooper's act seems sedate compared to Manson's; when you've got Pat Boone doing some of his songs and even playing golf with the man, it makes you realize how old you're getting). Most Goths tend to be rather shy, quiet individuals who wouldn't harm anyone (the most Andrea's ever harmed anyone herself was in telling class Geek Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer III to beat it). Do not take what I am saying amiss; I do not follow the Goth lifestyle myself, and I have no intentions of doing so. But I feel that the majority of those who do who are otherwise fine young men and women should not be singled out for the sins of a few. In one point of view, I could act as a Devil's advocate for the suspects. Life for me in school--from elementary right through to high school--was not a picnic for me. In the caste system people humorously call "class cliques", the jocks and fashion plates are at the top, while the nerds are in the middle, with Goths next and dead last, Special Education students--the "Untouchables". I was an "Untouchable"; I was in Special Education due to a behavior problem. Any of the problems the Darias or Klebolds or Harrises or Andreas or Upchucks of this world have, I had it ten times worse due to something that was an accident of birth, something that I could not control. And for that I was picked on, teased, harassed, beaten up, treated like a member of what the Japanese call the "burakumin", "the filthy people". I was made known that I would not be welcome in school clubs or any other activity by the "jocks" because of who I was; it was the moral equivalent of "No Irish need apply". I was warned by the "jocks" not to go out with any girls because they didn't want "their" girls going out with one of "my" kind. At times I felt like one of those civil rights activists of the 1960's; I had to fight for what I had. It was a brave decision on my part to seek the post of Student Government President in my junior year; there were some who made threats to me during my campaign, and some of my posters were torn down. In the end, I lost by a narrow margin, the narrowest in school history. On the one hand, I can understand the frustrations of Klebold and Harris; on the other, I must condemn the methods they used to express their frustrations. I must admit there were times I wanted to "pay back" at my tormentors, but at least I had the moral decency not to act them out the way they did. If the saying that time heals all wounds is correct, then such has been the case with me. It's been twelve years since I graduated from high school, and over the years I have tried to contact some of the people I knew. To these people I have over the years expressed my forgiveness for what had happened to me. Perhaps my watching "Daria" has helped in some way as well. The show is no "Wonder Years"; there's no rose-colored lenses by which it views school life today, or yesterday. However, there are universal themes that anyone who's ever went to high school can relate to, whether it was the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's or 1990's. In some ways I see a bit of myself in Daria Morgendorffer, and I see a lot of one of the few friends I did have in her confidant, Jane Lane (a dear friend, who has since passed on, I might add). We've all met someone like them in our school years; most of us just don't want to admit it. It is the brave few who do, and do so with courage. By all means I am not saying that perhaps Klebold and Harris would not have gone on their bloody rampage if they had watched "Daria", but I would challenge the Peggy Charrens and Donald Wildmons of this world to take a very close look at the show before they condemn what they do not know or understand. Perhaps they will see themselves or even their own children in the program. Perhaps they will see that not all the outcasts in school are the duster-clad, gun-toting type. Perhaps then they will not be so quick to judge. If not, then we are perhaps sowing the seeds for more Columbines, and that would be the biggest tragedy of all.