spooky_sez
Agree agree agree. If you dress differently you WILL GET LOOKED AT. Why are people so suprized when it happens? Gah.
I'm pretty damn judgemental so I don't complain when people look at me a bit longer than they would another person or have some idiot yell out stuff like 'Halloween is over' (which in Australia, doesn't make much sense because we don't even celebrate it).
Luckily I don't get much s**t come my way.
Everyone is a bit of a hypocrit.
And I like labels. I don't get why everyone hates them so much. This conversation is very intriguing, but I thought I'd take a momment to touch on another subject here...
Hypocrisy is when you say you hold an idea/belief but you really don't.
Ex: Me saying "I support Fascism," would be hypocritical of me because I do not support Fascism.
Hypocrisy is
not when you come up with a rule/idea that applies to everyone but not you.
Ex: If I say "All ex-convicts shouldn't be able to apply for gun ownership/have one in their possesion" but believe that
I should be able to own a gun even though I am an ex-convict, I am not being hypocritical. (I beleive that is called a double standard, correct me if I am wrong.)
(I'm not a Fascist or an ex-convict, just examples)
Now back to a more related topic.
Stereotypes are overgeneralizations applied to a specific group of people. It's just a way our minds attempt to orgazine our world, instead of getting to know every single person and then putting them in certain catagories based upon that. If Sarah likes pop music, is on a cheerleading squad, and happens to have an obnoxious personality, and Mary,Carla,and Linda happen to have the same qualities, I may be tempted to put everyone who likes pop music and/or is on a cheerleading squad under the catagory of people who annoy me. It makes orgazing the world a lot easier.
There's nothing that wrong with stereotyping, its just something people do, but it can be potentially harmfull.
If I see a kid dressed in a "gangsta" fashion, I may think "
Maybe this kid likes rap music...", it doesn't mean he does though. "Maybe" is a key word here people...
Labels are just further attempts to catagorize everything around us and can be used like stereotypes to help classify things.
Ex(sterotypes): Once Josh has decided that people A,B,C,D, and E are most likely skaters based on their dress/observed interests and people F,G,H,I and J are metalheads based on the same observations and Josh knows he likes things that fall under the "metalhead" catagory, he decides he wants to hang out with people who share similar interests and goes to the "metalhead" group because they exhibit a certain style mostly worn by members of that praticular group. If Josh likes Mettalica, maybe these people will like Mettalica as well, and they can discuss metal music together.
Catagorizing things/people help us in our everyday lives in many different ways.
Ex: People may advertise something and direct it toward a certain group of people because they hope more people in group A will be interested in it than group B. If many older people like golf (just an example, it doesn't matter in this case if its true or not) and also watch channel 58 which has older programs running, than golf ball makers or whatever might advertise on that station. They wouldn't advertise it on a channel that deals mostly with kids programing or adult shows. They might advertise more on a sports channel or mentioned above, channel 58.
Labels are ways of indentifying people, such as "He's a punk rocker". You label them based on your observations which correspond with the stereotypes of that group. Punk rocker is the label, he has a bright red mohawk and is wearing a Misfits T shirt might be some stereotpyes that go under the label (mohawks and band T's are the stereotypes here), which allow you to get to the "punk rocker" label in the first place.
Okay next subject...
If you go against societies norms, overcourse your going to attract some amount of attention, why? Because it just isn't the same Levis jeans and tank top you see everyday. The jeans are ripped with chains attatched and the tank top is black with a red anarchy sign in the center, and you have your eyebrow peirced. Ovecourse your going to attract attention...your different!
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Thanks for reading this,
razorblade6060
P.S. comments/critisisms are welcome.