I am really getting upset with the people who are blaming the parents for being into dark art, horror movies and heavy metal as a scapegoat as to why these 12 year old girls attacked and attempted to murder their friend in Wisconsin. We should be focusing the blame on the fact that these girls did not have remorse and the fact that they can not define reality from fantasy! I have been into horror, Halloween, the macabre, listening to hard rock and heavy metal music since before I was their age and you don’t see me out killing anyone.
Creepy Pasta (the site that these girls claim to be following the Slender Man stories on) put this into a great perspective on their You Caring site that they have set up to raise money for the victim.
In the wake of this cruel event, many people have begun pointing fingers at the Slender-man mythology and by guilt of association, the Creepy Pasta sub-genre of horror. It is creativity at its root. A set of stories written by some and enjoyed by others. Much akin to our urban tales of old and the books written by our literary giants. It is imperative to understand that these things, like almost all works of the horror literary genre, are fiction. Many of these stories yes, are filled with an illusion of reality to them in an effort to make them much more unnerving. However, that does not change the fact that they are concoctions of fantasy. Sure, some of these stories are based on historical events or based upon a well documented case whose elements are terrifying. But these accounts are again: for educational entertainment and are well documented for their truth and real life consequences.
It is considered by many that common sense is applied to fantasy and history. We do not repeat the actions of real life monsters. We do not attempt to replicate the fantasy. We do not in any way condone those who fail to realize the line between fantasy and committing an atrocity. Nor do we condone a lack of security on the parts of the minds of those who read them. Many times when accountability is called into question, the blame is placed not on the perpetrators, but on the supposed fictional root causes. In most cases, the accountability and responsibility is to the teacher who failed to impart the wisdom of what is real and right, and most importantly, failed to pay attention. Please take this moment, if you haven’t, to remember that many things can be avoided, if you teach and to listen.
Please spread this link to their fundraising page. Let’s put this into the right perspective all while raising money for the victim.
Stay Spooky!
LDG Nicole
Living Dead Girl Nicole 
What is “common sense”? This term is almost always used as a cop-out to mean “It’s obvious so I shouldn’t have to explain it.”
“We should be focusing the blame on the fact that these girls did not have remorse and the fact that they can not define reality from fantasy! ”
Why do you think they couldn’t tell. Kids believe based on the realities created by their parents. The fictions people believe in religion, the supernatural or politics are almost always closely tied to their parents. My guess is her parent, whether they believed in any of this mythology or not, acted around the girl as though at least some of it was real. Perhaps no different from Santa, but they did it, and they showed happiness while watching movies that contained gruesome killings. It is hardly likely this would have no impact on a child in their care. Normally it might not lead to a killing, but every component that contributed bears some responsibility.
And yes, I have enjoyed horror movies, loved them as a teen. But grew up and would never have raised a child in such an environment.
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Teaching your children right or wrong and teaching them that these things are not real is all apart of parenting. If they were not instilling these things into their child then yes that is bad parenting on their part. But blaming the parents for liking things of a darker nature is not. Blasting photos on the news and internet of the things they like and blaming that for the killing is the bothersome part to me.
I remember watching horror movies as a child. I remember my Mom laughing when she got scared at them. I also watched Jim Henson movies with puppets but when I was 12 years old I knew that Freddy Krueger and Kermit were never going to be real.I also at that age knew right from wrong. Just because someone likes darker things doesn’t mean they are a killer or are teaching their children to kill. My wedding was Halloween and Horror Movie themed. My whole house is decorated in horror movie memorabilia and decor. My dishes have skulls on them just like the father who instagramed a bloody mary in one of his own skull glasses. This does not mean I should not have children or that I would be a bad parent who would raise a murderer. I know people… very good people who do the same and their children have never gone out and hurt a soul. The fact that the girls have no remorse and the fact that they believed this character from a make believe story was real is the troublesome part of all of this. You can’t blame the writer who created the character. There are many teens out there reading these types of stories, playing gruesome video games (including things like Call of Duty) etc and they are not out stabbing their classmates or shooting people. I understand that bad parenting could be in play here. I just don’t think that because the father gave their wife a birthday card with a skull on it or decorated their yard for Halloween makes them bad people. Or is to blame for their daughter and friend going out and stabbing someone 19 times.
And the same goes for mythology and religion. Is it then ok to teach our children to eat the body of christ. To scare them with stories of rain and rivers of blood and giant locusts and firey pits of hell if they do not do what “god” says? A God the child has to believe is real based on faith? How is that any different here?
All I know is that its putting a bad taste in the mouth of people like myself who are good people. And just because we are a little different and aren’t into rainbows and butterflies doesn’t mean we are raising homicidal maniacs.
P.S. This is nothing against you personally and I value you your opinion and appreciate you commenting on my post. Thank you for visiting my blog 🙂
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The Christian mythology you cite, while outdated, served a purpose at the time of keeping people in line. It was a warning and in the stories the “good” characters won out (at the least, got heaven in the end), and were the heroes.
These myths are certainly outdated now, and given our understanding of astronomy, geology, psychology, biology and other areas the stories hold us back. So I agree they are not the best tales for kids in this day and age, but for different reasons.
I’m not saying all, or even most, people who are into this stuff are bad people. But a child growing up with it *will* be desensitized. Different kids will react differently to that desensitization.
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I just don’t see how teaching cannibalism and believing that someone rose from the dead is much different then things we see in horror movies. But that is just me.
I also don’t necessarily see being desensitized as always a bad thing either. I mean I grew up around this stuff and made me realize even more what was fake and what wasn’t. I sure the hell would not have thought that if I killed someone then maybe Freddy would come to me in and dream and take me with him and I could be his minion. As an adult I am even more desensitized to things in the horror genre. To the point I watch a horror movie and instead of being scared of it I am all up close to the screen trying to figure out how they made the wounds look so real. I owe that all to the fact that I was not deprived from the dark even as a child. You can’t raise your kid to see the world completely in rose colored glasses all their lives. I know people now who are so timid and naive because of their parents upbringing that they don’t even know how to fend for themselves.
According to what I have read these girls have had pretty happy childhoods so far. The funny thing is I went through hell and back with a lot more serious issues then being exposed to horror movies and ghost stories growing up and at a much younger age then these girls. As an individual I took my morals and my own experiences and chose to go on a positive path in my life. Just seeing how quickly I had to grow up vs my friends I was an adult way before they were (and way sooner then I would have like to have been). I could have went down a very terrible path and it actually may have been excusable to some. Not because I grew up watching Tales From The Crypt in my bedroom late at night but because I had experienced alot of loss and negativity in my life. I was the one to choose better for myself. I certainly knew in my mind that I had a choice. I definitely didn’t let any movie or song influence that. I knew I was responsible for the choices that I made and that there were consequences in life. The only thing movies and music ever did for me is make me escape reality and get a little enjoyment from what I was experiencing. If anything they saved me.
I know people keep saying these girls are just children and they didn’t know what they were doing and everything else around them is to blame.. but no it’s not.. they chose to do this.. they are the ones to blame for this girls suffering. They chose this path for themselves and no movie, story or song should be to blame for that.
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I think we look at the idea of blame a little differently. It’s actually a word I don’t often use. I see the world in terms of contributing factors, or which for anything there are hundreds (or an infinite number, depending on how you look at it). Some contributing factors are avoidable, others not so much. When. i do use the term blame it means maybe something like “a greater than 50% influence,” but that would be rare. Unless one of these kids turns out to. have schizophrenia I can’t image a view in which any single factor could be considered that big.
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I agree that blame is what is wrong in this whole situation and that was pretty much the point of my post. They should be concentrating on what is mentally wrong with these children.
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It’s really not cannibalism in the sense in which most people use that word. If I stretched it it might be like when a dying man on a mountain says to his starving comrades “please eat me when I’m gone for your survival.” I don’t see anything evil or horrific in that. I hope I would be eaten by starving planes if I died in a plane crash in the andes.
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I understand that completely. My point is if these children have no sense at the age of 12 to know right from wrong and reality from fantasy then teaching them these religious beliefs would have made them go out and do the same thing any horror movie would have. I think they would know the differance just as we do 🙂
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ok im 12 years old and personally love creepy pastas, so the other 12 year olds cannot differentiate fiction from reality, and also they went on a STORIES website not true stories as it states on the home page, stop just pointing fingers at the site, its just like pointing fingers at pencils make mistakes, guns kill people, and knives stab people, its all people who do this, people people people, so just because they’re 12 and probobly have the iq of a giraffe, people saying a story caused it all, have some brains people.
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Thank you so much for your comment. You are a prime example of my entire post and comments on this debate. My nephew is 13 and he watches the Walking Dead and reads fiction and he isn’t out biting anyone or attacking anyone. He dresses up like zombies for Halloween (I have the pleasure of doing his makeup) and he has fun “playing” the role but he sure the hell wouldn’t hurt anyone. Just like you I too was into reading scary stories and things at your age and even younger. My husband and I have been talking and we think that maybe the lawyers are telling these girls to say these things so there is some sort of other blame as to why they did this. I just am not falling for it. Just like you at the age of 12 aren’t falling for it either. Thank you again for your comment. It is nice to have a perfect example of the points I have been trying to make.
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I think you are both using poor scientific methods here. Anecdotal evidence is just tiny uncontrolled studies of highly biased samples (yourself, your nephew, etc.). Until you understand the scientific method, how research is done, and what research is out there you’re just making random statements that are such poor science as to be laughable. Would you trust a study published about a new drug that was tested on one person who said “It made me feel good!”. This is how silly personal stories of “It doesn’t affect me” sound to anyone who k nows how research is done and understands statistical analysis. If you are 12 you probably haven’t studied research methods or had a decent stats class yet. Hold on a few years and get back to us.
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Well some would say god and science don’t see things the same either but who are “some”. I can say from personal experience and my own research of myself and people I know that none of us are going out and killing anyone anytime soon. Why because we have morals, we know right from wrong and we know fantasy from reality. I am pretty sure there are more of us out there to fill in the gaps!
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