Bloody Mary : A Guilty Pleasure; Comical or Catastrophic?

"Bloody Mary" : A Guilty Pleasure; Comical or Catastrophic?

Urban legends are fictional stories that are believed to be true because they are viewed as a curse. They repeat themselves and spread through a method of story telling over time. Urban legends are so bizarre and unexplainable that it actually makes something inside of us want to believe it. It almost seems inhumane for us to want to believe such morbid myths. It is not so much that we are that brutal to want some of these malicious things to happen; its more like we feel the need to question the unexplainable. Urban legends are world wide and have been since the beginning of time. The most widely believed urban legends are the ones that begin as a mere rumor and then gain the status to be thought of as "accurate" and acquire media attention. Urban legends are hard to determine and are so popular because they leave people wandering if they are true, because in most cases it could have actually happened. Urban Legends have also been referred to as anecdotes and everyone knows that anecdotes are harmless. It is okay to repeat certain urban legends in fact, teachers have even brought them into their classrooms. They use them to make lessons more interesting (Goodwin, Stephen C. p. 114). Urban legends vary from comic to catastrophic. The most widely known urban legends are those which have an ironic twist. Urban legends that turn out to be tragic seem to be more socially accepted than the legends that have a positive outcome.

Whether or not the urban legend is true, it is a fact that it has been exaggerated over the years. What causes these tales or myths to obtain such widespread belief? One of the main questions that lingers in everyone's head is how does someone determine the fictitious from the factual (Frost, Chris. P.224 )? There has been numerous researches and case studies on urban legends because of their high density of popular belief. In one of these studies, the researcher came to the conclusion that urban legends are often retold more when the story is full of humor and horror (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 81. Issue 6). People are always more willing to repeat repugnant things rather than the altruistic stories. Urban legends are just a more amusing form of gossip. It has been passed on from friend to friend or generation to generation ( Milkinson, David and Barbara).Urban legends are questioned so much for many reasons. One reason being because there have been a few situations where an incident that was thought to be an urban legend turned out to be true. Another reason people believe urban legends is because a lot of these stories originated from authentic events that just got exaggerated over the years. People are fascinated and have a hard time disregarding urban legends because, although it is unlikely of happening, the actual event is plausible enough to be true (Journal of Consumer Marketing. Vol 18 (6), p521).

A fictional urban legend that everyone has heard of is "Bloody Mary", the mirror witch. "Bloody Mary" is mainly known to be played with your girlfriends at a slumber party. Researchers believe that this particular urban legend originated before they can remember but it became most popular in the nineteen seventies and has emerged since then(Brunvand, Jan Harold. P.82). The most common legend of Bloody Mary is to sit in a candle lit room with all of the lights off in front of a mirror while saying Bloody Mary thirteen times while spinning around and gradually raising your voice. The bathroom is the most predominant place where this calling should occur because the lack of windows. The amount of times you call out to the spirit has been anywhere from three to one hundred. Whether or not you are suppose to be alone or with a group of friends have all been questioned. The end result is always the same; it is that an evil spirit will appear. This spirit goes by many different names such as: Bloody Mary, Mary Worth, Hell Mary, Bloody Bones, and much more. There has been many different myths of what the evil spirit will actually do (http://www.halloween-website.com/bloody_mary.htm). It has been said that the spirit will appear and scratch your face off. She has been "known" to come through the mirror and kill them on the spot. Others say that just the sight of her spirit will drive you crazy. It has even been said that this evil spirit will literally pick up and take you back through the mirror to live with her. There has been accusations that the walls will bleed and red evil eyes will appear in the mirror. You may run out of the bathroom bleeding with scratches on your hands. The spirit may cut your friends throat and then come after you. The spirit has also been said to make you cut your friends throat or even your own (http://www.castleofspirits.com/bloodymary.html).

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