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textualdevianceI wonder if there will ever be a point where being ironically anti-social, sarcastic and retro will become out of fashion and being well-groomed, well-dressed, nice to people and mentally healthy will be cool.
See, I think when Hot Topic started, all of that actually became uncool. If you can buy it in a mall, mass-produced, it's not subversive anymore.
Which is not to say that the fuzzy bunnies are the way to go, either, just that when a suburban mallrat dyes her hair blue, gets a nose piercing and wears a t-shirt with a Dukes of Hazzard iron-on on it, it's no longer counter-culture, but pop culture.
I blame Buffy.
It's annoying that, at nearly 33, all of the stuff that I've always authentically been, since I was a teen myself, has now been co-opted by a bunch of sniveling brats who see it only as fashion. Those of us who were authentically disenfranchised and disaffected and expressed that in the music we listened to and the way we dressed are now seeing that culture being bought and sold by spoiled kids who have no freaking idea why we were doing what we were doing. Sarcasm, depression, anti-social attitudes are cultivated as a means to be "cool" and not because they're really things that were really happening to us.
And yes, we had to walk uphill both ways to school in our Docs and we liked it, dammit. ;)
I guess mostly, I'm just annoyed that I've had to cut back my own "counter culture" expression because I don't want people getting the idea that I'm trying to be like the cool kids when I'm obviously too old for that anymore, not realizing that I was doing the same damned thing, and doing it as more than fashion, before these kids were even out of diapers.
ETA: Unlocked this since a few folks wanted to see it.
See, I think when Hot Topic started, all of that actually became uncool. If you can buy it in a mall, mass-produced, it's not subversive anymore.
Which is not to say that the fuzzy bunnies are the way to go, either, just that when a suburban mallrat dyes her hair blue, gets a nose piercing and wears a t-shirt with a Dukes of Hazzard iron-on on it, it's no longer counter-culture, but pop culture.
I blame Buffy.
It's annoying that, at nearly 33, all of the stuff that I've always authentically been, since I was a teen myself, has now been co-opted by a bunch of sniveling brats who see it only as fashion. Those of us who were authentically disenfranchised and disaffected and expressed that in the music we listened to and the way we dressed are now seeing that culture being bought and sold by spoiled kids who have no freaking idea why we were doing what we were doing. Sarcasm, depression, anti-social attitudes are cultivated as a means to be "cool" and not because they're really things that were really happening to us.
And yes, we had to walk uphill both ways to school in our Docs and we liked it, dammit. ;)
I guess mostly, I'm just annoyed that I've had to cut back my own "counter culture" expression because I don't want people getting the idea that I'm trying to be like the cool kids when I'm obviously too old for that anymore, not realizing that I was doing the same damned thing, and doing it as more than fashion, before these kids were even out of diapers.
ETA: Unlocked this since a few folks wanted to see it.
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no subject
besides, i think it's a bit sad to assume that people are expressed purely by how their dress. it's also sad to assume that those were your 'symbols'. everything is made shallow by fashion sooner or later. anyway, when you were a teenager, dressing was probably more important in terms of expressing what kind of person you are. it's important to us too, but in a different way. and it's sad, but my generation and the ones below are more likely just shallower, but that's the way we are, and you will have to accept it and understand that you are thirty three years old and the time in which you could assess those things with validity has passed, since it's unlikely that you understand them anymore or understand the subtle differences in the way fifteen year olds nowadays choose to express themselves.
i don't know, that's just my opinion.
no subject
If you're going to co-opt something of a subculture you don't belong to, at least understand the history behind it. Us old people are useful for something, really.