Have you heard enough about 13 Reasons Why yet? Are you over all the hype? Or are you totally loving it? No matter what your opinion is on the series, there’s no arguing that it’s attracted an outrageous amount of attention over the past few weeks. Personally, I’m still in the middle of binge-watching this Netflix original. Even before I started Tape 1, Side A though, I had already been exposed to a number of judgements about the series’ main character, Hannah Baker.
There’s countless memes circulating social media channels right now actually downplaying the character’s suicide.
I’ve also gotten the lowdown from friends who have completed the series, reporting that Hannah Baker is “a bit dramatic”. I haven’t had the chance to finish the series myself (though I intend to in the immediate future), but I have seen enough to actually start to be able to put these notions into context. Here’s the questions I keep asking myself:
When is suicide ever something to joke about?
When is it ever something to take lightly?
When is it ever okay to confuse depression or suicidal tendencies/thoughts with “being dramatic”?
The answer should be “never”.
And I get it; it’s a TV show. Hannah Baker isn’t a real person. However, there’s no denying that the kinds of situations that go down in 13 Reasons Why are very real. Private photos get leaked every day. Rumors are spread every day. Girls are shamed as “sluts” every day. People are sexually assaulted every day.
So I get it. It’s easy to write off Hannah Baker as dramatic. The show is a drama after all. But can we please take the opportunity to recognize one of the most important messages behind this show while people are off making offensive memes and commenting on the quality of acting in the series?
The bottom line is this: we just don’t know each other’s struggles, or the extent to which these struggles can shake a person. Maybe it was just a harmless joke…or maybe it was the reason she cried herself to sleep that night. While I don’t think there’s a reason to tiptoe around each other and avoid joking around at all costs, it’s certainly a good practice to remember that there’s always two sides to every story, and consequences to every action.
Sometimes, suicide doesn’t make sense to the living. And yes, it probably was super unfair and cruel of Hannah Baker to leave those tapes in the first place. However, the unfolding of the events in the show does an excellent job of pointing out how seemingly miniscule events to outsiders can add up in one person’s mind and result in tragedy. While no one person on the tapes can be blamed, Hannah Baker’s “dramatic” tendencies surely aren’t the only factor at play either.