Thursday, June 23, 2005

   Always sleepy, but more than usual...oh, and read this.
Okay, woke up at 11:30 this morning, but still really tired. On starlightmks.com (really good site) I found this! Please read. It makes a lot of sense!

If there's one thing that annoys me the most, it has to be people labeling themselves. So which "category" do you fit in? Prep? Punk? Goth? [insert name of other label here]? Ugh... it makes my head hurt just to think about it. Who came up with this stuff? Some insecure 12 year old trying to find their identity? The odd thing is that I don't encounter this problem too much in the real world, but it seems to be one heck of a big deal on the internet. Since you are an internet user, this article is for you. :-D

Isn't it aggravating how some people will judge you as a person based on whether or not you think Good Charlotte is "punk"? First of all, let's look at the definition of "punk". The dictionary definition most relevant to this would be "A young person, especially a member of a rebellious counterculture group". And that's all there is to it? Most people don't seem to think so. If you ask ten people what "punk" is, you will get ten different answers. Why? Because it's one of the many stupid labels made up by people who think they're really cool and original, so of course, it doesn't have one official meaning. Do you want to associate yourself with something that has a different connotation wherever you go? I sure wouldn't. Another sad thing is that people put these labels on music, clothing, and other things of that sort. It's too bad really. It narrows possibilities so much. I mean, are you really not going to listen to a certain kind of music at all because it's not "punk"? Are you really expressing your individuality by only wearing clothing that would be considered "goth"?

Many people claim that by labeling themselves with something other than "prep" makes them a unique person. Pretend for a moment that you're a "punk" or "goth" and you think you're really cool because of your label. The reason you labeled yourself is because you fit into that certain "category" right? Now how is that being original? If you dress just like all the other "punk" or "goth" people, act the same way, and listen to the same music, how is that different? If you answered "I don't know" or "it's not" to that question, you are right. Being different in the same way as other people doesn't quite make sense. But if you are a "goth" and claim that you don't listen to the same music and buy the same clothes as others in the group, you will probably be told by someone who considers themselves to be a "true goth" that you don't really fit into the category. Being yourself is original, but grouping yourself into a category and submitting yourself to stereotypes is not.




For all you visual learners
(If you don't get what that's supposed to say, it's representing the fact that all those people who claim to be so different from everybody else are all doing the same thing, while ironically, the person they are calling the poser is the different one)


So you say "punk" (or any other label) is your lifestyle? Great. Go be a rebel. Disobey authority. Good luck to you when you wind up in jail someday because you thought it would be cool to set fire to the police station since a cop gave you a speeding ticket (after all, people who enforce rules are doing it just to limit your fun and it has nothing to do with safety or anything like that). If you think "punk" has nothing to do with being a rebel then tell Merriam-Webster to put your definition in the dictionary. If your definition of a word is not in the dictionary, then that's not what the word means and you need to expect people to be confused. The most common made-up definition of "punk" is something along the lines of being yourself, creating your own style, and not caring what other people think. Well why do you have to put a label on that? Why do you have to call yourself something if you're an original person? Why can't people just be people instead of "punk" people, "goth" people, "prep" people, etc?? AHHHHH! It doesn't make sense!

There is one thing that has been a big issue lately to some people and that is the fact that people are mistakening this article to be an attack on the actual people who label themselves, instead of on just the concept of labeling, which is what it was intended to be for. I guess the point doesn't jump out at some people as vividly so I'll explain. If people want to label themselves, I don't have a problem with that and I'm not going to think less of them as a person since of course, you have to get to know somebody before being able to judge them. The only thing I don't like is the idea of putting labels on people because I think it's just divisive and does no good for unifying people or accepting others for who they are inside. Putting ourselves into categories based on how we dress or what music we listen to is just separating us from people who think differently, which then tends to make people more narrow minded. I find that in most cases, if somebody puts a label on themselves then other people automatically assume that person is a certain way based on the stereotype. For the final time, I don't have anything against people who are labeled or label others, I'm just not a fan of the labels themselves.

Okay before I start getting hate mail about this, I'm just going to clear up some things about the dolls section of my site. You'll see that they are sorted into categories Prep, Goth, etc. I've just been waiting for somebody to contact me about how that completely contradicts this article, but I guess nobody noticed or maybe nobody wants to say anything. Anyway, when people normally go to find cartoon dolls or need to sort them, they are usually sorted by the base that is used and how they compare to other styles. Prep is one of the kinds, as opposed to mini, as opposed to silents, which all look very different. The art on each kind is different. So it's not that I'm labeling little pixel people, I'm just sorting them into the categories that most people would recognize.


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