Here in the uk, where i live atleast, we use Chav as an insult and the chavs use emo. Or "go slit your wrists" which is annoying as hell. I agree, i would rather be known by name rather than "emo" or "freak". Whats more annoying is when you get someone move from a diffrent school and they automatically hate you when you've never even talked to them. Someone did that at our school and scratched "i h8 emos" onto the table in english. Stereo types don't bother me, but they di when there used as insults. Also, everyone seems to think i'm a goth...I don't get it.
And according to our dear friend wikipedia...
In 1985 in Washington, D.C., Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, veterans of the DC hardcore music scene, took their music in a more personal direction with a far greater sense of experimentation, bringing forth MacKaye's Embrace and Picciotto's Rites of Spring. The style of music developed by Embrace and Rites of Spring soon became its own sound. As a result of the renewed spirit of experimentation and musical innovation that developed the new scene, the summer of 1985 soon came to be known in the scene as "Revolution Summer".[7]
Where the term emo actually originated is uncertain: the earliest print citation found so far appears in 1997,[8] although some claim that members of Rites of Spring mentioned in a 1985 Flipside Magazine interview that some of their fans had started using the term to describe their music.[citation needed]
Within a short time, the D.C. emo sound began to influence other bands such as Moss Icon, Nation of Ulysses, Dag Nasty, Soulside, Shudder to Think, Fire Party, Marginal Man, Foundation and Gray Matter, many of which were released on MacKaye's Dischord Records.
At the same time, in the New York/New Jersey area, bands such as Native Nod, Policy of 3, Rye Coalition, and Quicksand[9] were feeling the same impulse. Many of these bands were involved with the ABC No Rio club scene in New York, itself a response to the violence and stagnation in the scene and with the bands that played at CBGBs, the only other small venue for hardcore in New York at the time.