Statistical issues aside--be aware that the original Washington Post article is by Laura Sessions Stepp, who already has demonstrated that she has a tendency to be alarmist about young women's sexuality. I suspect that the cultural issues about modesty vs. sexualization are only the tip of the iceberg here; Stepp just wants to play them up because she believes they're THE major issues young women face today. I'm far more likely to believe that economic challenges in families, lack of academic support, and lack of access to mental health services (like someone else already pointed out) are bigger problems. My agency in Hartford deals with this stuff all the time for young Latina women.

"But here they struggle with feelings of powerlessness and frustration, torn between an American popular culture that encourages them to be sexy and assertive, and family expectations that they be modest and submissive."

But aren't Asian girls subject to the exact same pressure, with very different results? I work on a college campus where they constitute a large percentage of the student population, and very few of them let "American popular culture" dictate their self-image; most are excellent students and very few of them totter around on high heels in sexy clothes. Maybe in addition to expecting their daughters to be modest and submissive Latino families ought to expect them to get educated.

This certainly is more evidence that allowing in so many impoverished Latin Americans was a serious mistake. What I saw as a psychologist working for decades in community mental health where most all clients were Latin American in origin ( or whose parents were) was women who making dangerous, dramatic, manipulative suicidal gestures.

Maybe a penchant for drama is to blame. I think the keyword here is "attempted." People who want to die commit suicide; those who want attention attempt suicide.

Digits

As others have noted, there's a huge difference between attempts and completions. Methods explain much of the difference, e.g. White men over 65 tend to use guns, thus their attempts are usually fatal. That doesn't explain everything, though.

I hate the "virgin/whore" dichotomy, not least for its resilience.

Though I won't dress it up in hate like the anonymous previously, that white men over 65 kill themselves (in this country) far more often than any other age group or demographic. "Rising rates" are sometimes picked out and targeted to increase research money for adolescents or this or that ethnic group, but white men over 65 beat them handily with their actual suicides. Not attempts, which some people collect like baseball cards, but actual suicides that ends in death. If there was ever a reason to single out white men for research, it would be suicide prevention. I admire researchers who are willing to do it.

Suicide attempters, particularly those whose attempts are not medically serious, deserve whatever psychiatric help they need. But they should not be confused with people who really want to die.

Being born and raised in Brazil, I'd call Xuxa Brazilian, even if ethnically she's a European mix. Brazil is a huge melting pot.

"... real freedom, self-determination and equality."

Those are things EVERYONE strives for, for generations unending. It's called the human condition. Broadsheet in general is always trying to endlessly prove that this is some special female problem that needs to be addressed and corrected...it's not, it's everybody everywhere.

The strained attempts to somehow prove that it's due to a 'sexualized culture' (what culture ISN'T sexualized?? It's called 'being human'), or the elusive cabal of white males who hold secret meetings to cook up new ways to make young girls try to be anorexic...I mean, come on.

maybe that's the thing - latino culture is about being sexy, until you get to the catholic part, where it's about being a good girl (ah the madonna/whore complex). tack on the additional no-abortion-'cuz-you're-a-good-catholic, add on a little sexism (see the article about mexican-yes i know that's not all latinas- women not being able to ride the bus), and i'd be pretty miserable too.

i had a friend growing up who was puerto rican. i think her parents had her young, and got married because of it. then they had a son when she was 12. guess who got all the attention. guess which gender got away with everything while the other got punished all the time. and guess who was pregnant at 19 because her boyfriend was too macho to wear a condom, was almost disowned, and would have been even more so if she'd terminated the pregnancy.

Xuxa is a polish woman...

I haven't thought about Xuxa in years. And the first thing I thought of when I read the post was that Latin American culture is VERY into women being sexy, everywhere and at all ages.

Something like 70% of ALL suicides are white males. This whole article is just plain wrong, like Flying Spaghetti Monster wrong. And yet, the dumbshit feminist juggernaut rolls along. Inconvenient facts are irrelevant. The truth is irrelevant. This a classic, perfect case of the Big Lie, and I am not holding my breath waiting for a retraction or a clarification, either.

This blog is basically propoganda dressed up as journalism. It's incredible. To return from the Land of Pretend for a minute, if women were killing themselves as the rate men are, there would be riots in the streets. Hilary would make it a campaign issue. But because the victims of all this death happen to be white males, who are, after all, expendable, who cares? Let's focus on a bunch of Latina teenagers instead. They're VICTIMS.

This story is vile.

Are hispanic teens really supposed to be modest? Judging from the audience on Sabado Gigante or any other Univision or Telemondo program it seems like if anything hispanic girls and women would feel pressure to dress sexy. I could see the agument that the conflict between being expected to dress sexy with the expectation of acting modest would be very confusing to a young girl.

The last time I looked at Broadsheet, I wasted some more of my remaining eyesight reading Tracy Clark-Flory's completely w-r-o-n-g (as in: what she writes is just plain-old not-true?) article on Anna Wintour.

I just read this ridiculous article and a few of the gratifying letters....and my thought just now is that I'll quit before I have to read some pitiful excuse along the lines of "this is a BLOG, you trolls!!!!!!"

I've previously made it clear that I don't quite have a handle on what a "blog" is.....but, if articles such as this one are any indication, a "blog" apparently is simply what you get when you toss some facts up in the air and see what shit comes back down and then plop a pile of attitude, agenda and prejudice on top of that.....and then sign your name to it?

My nephews and nieces do this when they're telling stories on eachother....but, then, they're all under twelve, and even they (when caught)admit they didn't really think anyone would fall for their shit.

Broadsheet is truly idiotic. Do these women plan to pursue careers in journalism?