Of Concrete and Deviants

I'd been meaning to set up a new blog for a while to commit my ramblings to the internet, but tonight I was given the impetus to do so.

To give some context, Concrete, the student newspaper at the University of East Anglia frequently does features on the other student societies, generally with a view to promoting them and widening their scope. The current issue of Concrete has a feature on the Deviant Society, the university's equivalent of a RockSoc. As both a former features writer for Concrete and a former president of the society, I am however, rather shocked at what they have published. It can be found on page 13 of this digital edition.

Firstly, I suppose I'm shocked at the number of errors. For a start, the article states that the society began life as a gaming society in 1993. This is not true. Whilst the society did form as a splinter group from the UEA GameSoc, Deviant was not established until 1998, and came about from the then GameSoc president telling members of the society to stop derailing the one she was trying to preside over and form their own. Secondly, the article states that 'much the same as every other society, they have regular clubnights.' No. Many other societies organise socials to nightclubs, Deviant members actually put one on. The only other society that I know of to do this is Pride, who put on Liberate, which I would only loosely term as being a clubnight. The venue, name, and genre of music has varied over the years, but from the original Chains on Velvet (yes, as much as it may pain many of you to hear it, Chains, or Exile as it currently is, was the original Deviant run night) to the current incarnation of Deviate, the night has been put on by society members. From those who DJ to those who designed, and in the old days, featured on the fliers, society members were involved. That is something unique to Deviant, something that should be highlighted, not mangled and implied to be something that most societies do. Thirdly, they have stated that Joseph has Asberger's syndrome and not Asperger's. I find it pretty offensive that they've not even bothered to do their research, and their editor hasn't spotted it either. If someone takes the time to tell you personal information like that, that otherwise wouldn't be any of your business, you'd do well to get it right.

Then there comes the tone and the content of the article. I suspect that those quoted were trying to be funny but it doesn't necessarily come across that way, and allows the author of the article to lead into a more sinister tone. In fact, the majority of the article is devoted to how members of the society are united by their 'issues' (my quotation marks because I don't particularly care for that euphemism) and involves quite a bit of detail about one member in particular. I think it was very brave of Joseph to divulge that information but I'm not sure it should be included in a feature of that nature. At the very least, they should've gotten another perspective. Instead of talking about the music or the drinking or the gigs we enjoy, people are told that we're bullied misfits, and whilst it doesn't quite say that we bond over discussions of self-harm, that's the vibe people will get. It's great to highlight that we're an accepting bunch, but most people are, and I think you'd have a hard time finding any society at any university that didn't have people who have had turbulent pasts, or who, you know, feel a bit down sometimes. Just like everybody else.

I have a personality disorder. I'm not ashamed to admit that, but my disorder isn't why I joined the Deviant Society four years ago, it's not why I have the friends that I do. I joined because a lot of the music I listen to would not be defined as mainstream and I'm friends with them because for the most part, they're lovely people. It's great that we can help each other through rough patches, but that's what friends do. Not even that, it's just what decent people do. Alternative people get a bad press because sometimes someone who has mental difficulties also likes alternative music and people assume a correlation. A couple of teens who commit an horrific crime also like Rammstein, KMFDM and Marilyn Manson and boom, every socially awkward, black-clad rocker is immediately suspect or assumed to be a 'cutter', 'freak', or likely to massacre their peers. The article does nothing to really change that view, and despite urging the reader to 'not judge a book by it's cover' it has essentially already done that, portraying us as quite miserable and homogeneous. People have pointed out that stereotyping is ridiculous and that the reader should be smart enough to draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, stereotyping does exist and things such as the UniLad phenomenon prove that just because you're at university doesn't mean you're capable of making a reasoned judgement of your own. I also reckon that had the article been highlighting one of the cultural or peer support groups, they would not have been allowed to publish such sweeping generalisations about the society. 

Which I suppose brings me onto my final point. Yes, we have a lot in common but we are also a very diverse group of people. I frequently joke that I constitute the lighter side of Deviant in that I'm not tattooed, only have my earlobes pierced, I don't really like metal, and I often turn up in rainbow striped dresses (I'd post a picture but one day I'd like this blog to deal with more personal stuff and the internet doesn't need to know what I look like.) One the other hand, I've sported neon red hair with blue and green tips, wear ridiculous New Rock boots, and I will quite happily listen to goth, industrial, punk, grunge, ska, and a whole host of other musical genres which the Deviant Society acknowledges as being part of what it encompasses. Whilst it wasn't mentioned in the article, this is something that I cannot stress enough. Deviant is NOT a metal society, it is an alternative music society, of which metal comprises one part. For all our talk of being open and accepting, we often need to look at ourselves. Many a member, myself included have been dismissed for not being that enthusiastic about metal and I suspect a lot of potential members have been lost to that kind of snobbery. If we want strangers to join us and respect us then we need to respect ourselves first. Your taste in music is not superior to anyone else's within the society, it's just different.

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention since I wrote this that Joseph doesn't even attend UEA. Well done, Concrete. You completely misrepresented an entire group of people based on the experience of one person who doesn't even attend the university.