YOU ARE NOT A BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE!
*NOTE TO MY READERS*: This months column/rant has been much delayed for a couple of reasons. One is a massive case of writers block, the other is i've been exceptionally busy getting ready to go back to school and also i've been working a lot. So, sorry for the delay..hope this was worth the wait.
~dr fever~
So, i've been thinking a lot about what to write this months column about..and I think I've finally hit on it. I got my inspiration from a political cartoon I saw in the Charleston (WV) newspaper not that long ago and I think I speaks volumes. The cartoon shows two 15-ish kids walking down the halls of AnyHighSchool USA, wearing matching baggy jeans with the tops of there matching boxers showing. Both are wearing over sized t-shirts and backwards, fitted baseball hats. Now, EVERY other kid in the background of this cartoon is wearing the exact same thing. The "conversation bubble" above one kids head says. "I could never go to a school that requires uniforms, I gotta express myself and be different from everyone else". Get the joke??? I sure as hell do and thus, the inspiration for this months column.
Let me say this write off, normally I can come up with something to blame these distrubing trends I write about on...but not this. I think the best blame lies with MTV and the like, but, I'm just not sure. So, i'll try and examine this. I've grown up in about the most hick/redneck/backwards location you could imagine, how I turned out like I did is nothing short of a miracle. What gets me is all of these things that are fashionable NOW, i've been doing for YEARS (as i'm sure many of you have as well). It kills me. I don't intend to change because these styles are what's comfortable to me..I can't help it if they've all of a sudden gotten so mainstream it's sickening.
I guess, what makes more just downright fucking ill is the jackasses who HONESTLY think that there wearing a backwards hat, or baggy jeans, etc etc makes them so ORIGINAL! Are they nuts!?!?!? Hey folks, here's a newsflash, the days of true 'orginality' when it comes to clothes,fashion, whatever are OVER. Everything's been done. I'm old enough to remember a time when tattoos and piercings were only for dirty old bikers. Now?? Well, every 16 year old girl with an Abercrombie and Fitch midriff shirt and Tommy Girl jeans has a piereced navel and a tattoo on her ankle. This is just an example though.
Another thing that bugs the living shit out of me is the thought "what will my generation be remembered for". I mean, over the years generations are remembered for civil rights battles, battles for peace against war, political statements..the list goes on. My generation on the other hand?? Well, we'll be remembered as the "Tattoed, piereced worthless shitheads that wear out underwear OUTSIDE our pants." And, let me tell you, I can quote Denis Leary to sum up the entire underwear thing: "That's one of the most basic rules we learn, that underwear goes inside the pants...That's why it's call under-fuckin-wear!" It's really quite sad, and like I said it just bothers the shit out of me.
Ok, here's the reality break for all of you out there..."you are not the clothes you wear, you are not the contents of your wallet, you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake, you are not your fucking khakis. We are all a part of the same compost heap!" Get it??
So, where does this leave us? Well, I'll tell ya...to me, orginality is all about what you think and what you feel, not how you look. In other words THINK FOR YOURSELVES don't be a mindless drone just following Carson Dalys orders...wear what's comfortable, have opinions (especially your own..who cares if it's not the same one as all your friends), etc, etc. But, don't ever try to be "original". Once you claim to be "orginial" then you've already fallen into the trap.
Of course, that's just my opinion and I could be wrong.
thoughts, suggestions, comments and stupid arguments that orginality is alive and well should be emailed to: drfever@antimusic.net
