Prejudice against members of alternative sub cultures

Weather most you are aware of it or not prejudice just being a part of everyday life is a firm underlying belief in many people minds, and when it comes to people that are part of an alternative subculture such as the goth or punk culture and show this visually on the outside by ways of clothes and makeup and because of this are targeted by prejudice, many people think in the back of their minds 'Aren't they are just asking for it by dressing that way?".The answer to this question is no they're not, but in many cases they receive it anyway. and quite often in ways that is not just mentally damaging but physically as well. These have escalated into hate crimes such as the murder of Sophie Lancaster a young woman in Britain who was attacked and beaten to death while trying to protect her boyfriend Robert Maltby from being hurt on the 11 august 2007. The police stated that this attack was provoked due to the couple wearing 'gothic fashion' and being part of this sub-culture.The attack on this poor woman and her boyfriend was truly brutal and when help arrived their faces were so badly swollen they found it hard to tell which was female and which was male. Sophie fell into a deep coma that they soon found apparent that she was not going to recover from and on the 24th of August 2007 her family agreed to turn off life support and she died. One of the most tragic factors of this horrible occurrence is that the killers never showed any remorse they seemed proud of what they've done and that never came to change.Which brings around the question 'why is there so much hate towards those that are different?' especially those that are part of a well known alternative subculture. I think the main blame would be found in the negative stereotypes placed upon people due to their image and the narrow minds of people creating these views. One major fuel to this fire is the media who in particular attack the goth culture by reflecting negative stereotypes.One big example was the tragedy which was the 'Columbine high school massacre' where many teenagers were killed by two of their classmates who bought guns to school. The media were quick to incorrectly label these killers as goths and put the blame onto goth culture especially on that of Marilyn Manson a shock rocker who portrays a goth image through clothes and make up.The media continues to make negative statements about the gothic culture such as in a 'Times online' article when journalist Chris Campling (2009) stated referring to American goths, "In America, they machine gun their classmates, having missed the point of the whole thing". This was responded back to by Frank Trenton (2009), "It is lazy for you to group the entire goth culture in America with a couple of mentally unstable people. Not only is it incorrect, but it is offensive."The reaction to the accusation and the grief felt from the death of fellow goth Sophie Lancaster seems to have bought the goth community together to fight against prejudice with the creation of the S.O.P.H.I.E campaign which stands for stamp out prejudice hate and intolerance everywhere. Also many blogging sites have been put together to discuss the subject of prejudice in alternative subcultures which helps to relieve a sufferer of the stress on this by sharing with other likeminded sufferers.The main question are though how can this prejudice be stopped? is there anyway that we can change the narrow views of others? Will we ever be able to live in a world that is accepting of people that are different and that perhaps have other norms and values to our own? This question is still left unanswered but perhaps one day it won't be.

http://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/ (website for the S.T.A.M.P campaign)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goth_subculture (Describes what the goth subculture is)
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article5833441.ece (A times online article that contains pejudice towards goths)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Manson (Describes who Marilyn Manson is)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Lancaster (Describes the murder of Sophie Lancaster)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre (Describes what The Columbine high school massacre was)
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5923915/columbine_whose_fault_is_it/ ( A Rolling Stone Article that describes how Marilyn Manson was virtually blamed for the Columbine high school massacre)
http://alterophobia.blogspot.com/2007/10/hate-crime-and-subcultures-debate.html (A bog website discussing prejudice against alternative subcultures)