It’s a distressing scene to witness as it is graphic: a 17-year-old girl enters a full bathtub with a razor. We witness her cut into her skin, we see the blood pour out, hear her cry and struggle to…
Selena Gomez attended the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” at Paramount Pictures on March 30, 2017. One of the scenes in the series depicts a graphic suicide of a 17-year-old girl who climbs into a bathtub with a razor. The audience sees her slice into her skin, and blood pouring out, while she cries and struggles to breathe. Then she is still. It is not surprising that the suicide of the heroine in the show has triggered criticism that it romanticizes suicide, and prompted many schools across the country to send warning letters to parents and guardians. However, the show’s creators are unapologetic, saying that their frank depiction needs to be “unflinching and raw.” Writer Brian Yorkey, who won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize for the stage play “Next to Normal,” which grappled with mental illness, strongly believes that they did not portray suicide in an attractive or positive way.
