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Tag Archives | Suicide
Why Do Gay Porn Stars Kill Themselves?
Picture: See Ming Lee
Conner Habib writes at the Good Men Project:
Whenever a porn star — especially a gay porn star — commits suicide, theories show up, and people act very, very certain about them. Arpad Miklos, who was as much as a porn “star” as anyone can be in a time when we are hyper-saturated with porn, killed himself on February 3rd, 2013, at the age of 45. As usual, many people felt sure they knew why he committed suicide, without much evidence. It was drugs, it was studios not treating him well, it was the feeling of dehumanization, it was the vague but all encompassing “porn industry” that did it, it was the feeling of being hollow, it was it was his loss of validation after being a star for so long.
I can’t claim any special knowledge about his death, I didn’t know him very well. We met in passing on a set; he’d just finished a scene, and I was about to start mine. He was huge and handsome; I’m not saying anything new. If you met him, you were impressed by his smile and his body and his presence. Looking at him almost made you feel a sense of unbalance in the world, like his handsomeness and flawless physique were proof of some deep inequality between people. But then you’d forget that feeling and be drawn back into the intense attraction.
Elderly Suicide Epidemic Strikes South Korea
In the new, hyper-modernized South Korea, many older people feel that they have been left abandoned, obsolete, and penniless. A dark omen of things to come in developed societies around the world with focuses on technology and individualism, and shredded social safety nets? The New York Times reports:
The number of people 65 and older committing suicide has nearly quadrupled in recent years, making the country’s rate of such deaths among the highest in the developed world. The epidemic is the counterpoint to the nation’s runaway economic success, which has worn away at the Confucian social contract that formed the bedrock of Korean culture for centuries.
That contract was built on the premise that parents would do almost anything to care for their children — in recent times, depleting their life savings to pay for a good education — and then would end their lives in their children’s care. No Social Security system was needed.
The World’s Most Romantic Death Spot: Japan’s Suicide Volcano
Would you let yourself be consumed by burning love at an infamous volcano where thousands have taken the plunge? Providentia writes:
On February 11, 1933, a 21-year old student named Kiyoko Matsumoto committed suicide by throwing herself into the volcanic crater of Mount Mihara on the Japanese island of Izu Oshima. Matsumoto had developed an infatuation with fellow student Masako Tomita. Since lesbian relationships were considered taboo at the time, she and Tomita decided to travel to the volcano so that Matsumoto could end her life there, [where] an observation post allowed visitors to look straight down into the lava.
To profit from Izu Oshima’s new popularity, the Tokyo Bay Steamship Company set up a daily steamship line to the island and the brim of Mount Mihara picked up the new name of “Suicide Point”. In 1933 alone, 944 people would jump into the crater. In the two years that followed saw an additional 350 suicides and visitors would often travel to Mount Mihara just to watch people jump.
Berlin’s ‘House Of Doom’ Has Had Nine Unnatural Deaths In 15 Years
The world’s worst feng shui? Germany’s Local writes:
A building in the leafy suburbs of Berlin has been dubbed the house of doom after it emerged that nine people died unnatural deaths there in the last 15 years.
Built just 25 years ago in the Gatow district of Spandau, the large house has been home to a brothel owner who ended up decapitated while flying down the nearby Autobahn on his motorbike in 2003, the suicide pact of a British journalist and his lover, and the murder-suicide of an entire family. The most recent was scientist Lorin W., died in a car crash.
In summer 2012 Berlin police were called to the building’s maisonette apartment, where they found the bodies of 69-year-old Kristian B., his wife Kathrin, 28, and their two sons aged six and three. The debt-riddled asset consultant had suffocated them all before killing himself with a plastic bag.
The FBI’s Letter To Martin Luther King Jr. Urging Him To Commit Suicide
The anonymous note ends, “King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.” Via Letters of Note:
In November of 1964, fearful of his connection to the Communist Party through Stanley Levison, the FBI anonymously sent Martin Luther King a threatening letter, along with a cassette that contained the fruits of a 9 month surveillance project — allegedly incriminating audio recordings of King with women in various hotel rooms.
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Under The Law, Anyone Interesting Is A Felon
The criminal prosecution of activist programmer and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz over his sharing of academic works from the archives of JSTOR likely lead to Swartz’s suicide. Via the New Yorker, law professor Tim Wu writes:
Most of the time prosecutors do chase actual wrongdoers, but today our criminal laws are so expansive that most people of any vigor and spirit can be found to violate them in some way. Basically, under American law, anyone interesting is a felon. The prosecutors, not the law, decide who deserves punishment.
Today, prosecutors feel they have license to treat leakers of information like crime lords or terrorists. In an age when our frontiers are digital, the criminal system threatens something intangible but incredibly valuable. It threatens youthful vigor, difference in outlook, the freedom to break some rules and not be condemned or ruined for the rest of your life. Swartz was a passionate eccentric who could have been one of the great innovators and creators of our future.
Disinfo Contributor and Author Peter Bebergal on His Brother’s Suicide
Picture: Peter Bebergal (C)
DisinfoCast guest and Disinfo.com contributor Peter Bebergal (Too Much to Dream) wrote an article a few years back about his brother Eric’s suicide and research into the experimental application of the Implicit Association Test in ascertaining suicidal intent. It’s a great read, and with two recent posts about suicide, one that might intrigue our readers.
Here’s an excerpt (mid-article):
What clinicians need is some other measure beyond external evidence that could assess whether someone like Eric is capable of suicide in the near future. Four years after my brother’s death, Harvard researchers at MGH are experimenting with a test they think could help clinicians determine just that. It focuses on a patient’s subconscious thoughts, and if it can be perfected, these researchers say it could give hospitals more of a legal basis for admitting suicidal patients.
Of course, I can’t help thinking about whether such a test could have saved my brother.
RIP Dennis Avner, ‘Stalking Tiger’
If you’ve ever watched one of those “most extreme” tattoo shows on cable then you’ll recognize Dennis Avner, commonly known as “The Tiger Man”. Apparently Avner (who preferred to be known as “Stalking Cat”) died last week, with the evidence pointing toward suicide.
Shannon Larratt, who knew Stalking Cat, wrote in a blog post that Avner had tried to adopt the spiritual essence of the animal world. He had tried to transform “himself not just into a tiger, but a female tiger at that, blurring and exploring the gender line as much as the species line.”
“A wonderful and complex person, he was at times as troubled as he was remarkable, and he recently took his own life at the age of 54,” the piece read.
Florida Man Commits Suicide Over Obama’s Reelection
Is this becoming a trend? The Miami Herald reports:
A Key West man who told his partner that “if Barack gets re-elected, I’m not going to be around” was found dead on Nov. 8, with the words “F— Obama!” scrawled on his will and two empty prescription bottles nearby.
Henry Hamilton, 64, owner of Tropical Tan off Duval Street, was “very upset about the election results,” his partner Michael Cossey told Police Officer Anna Dykes. A friend of Hamilton had been worried about him and had a standing request to police to make welfare checks. Officer Pablo Rodriguez did just that and when he went to the condo, he woke up Cossey, prompting the discovery of Hamilton’s body in the bedroom.
