Tuesday 4 October 2011

The Checked Shirt and Pigeon-Holing

So you join me in this blogerino amidst a bit of a existential crisis of sorts and I am considering turning this blog post into a (most probably) short vlog later on, maybe tomorrow, so yeah, that could be interesting. Anyways, back to this existential crisis.

A couple of events occurred the other day that have led me to question myself; myself and, well, basically everything I am. One of these events has lead up to a purchase and the other will most likely lead up to another purchase... on Friday... if I can afford it.
The first event was this: I visit sainsburys and tried on a shirt. Today, I bought said checked shirt. *tragic screams accompanied by thunderclaps.* Yes,  I know... a checked shirt. The fare of hipsters and lumberjacks. It's a tragedy and I provide no excuse. The shirt looks good! And it's comfy. And I like it, okay. (As a side note, it's really nice; it's grey and red and looks really good on me. Moving on.)
Event numbero due! I visited the animal website and spotted something that I wouldn't normally say, "that's nice, I might get that." It was, in fact, an olive canvas messenger bag. Yes, I am most likely going to buy a man-bag on Friday. Possibly. If I can afford it which I probably can. ANYWAY.

Both these things are not normally "me" things; I'm pretty much the stereotypical nerdy type. T-shirts of Star Wars and TRON and space invaders and random things from Threadless... Standard, not really at all "fashionable" jeans, you know the drill. And in all honesty, I'm not really at all bothered by this. The shirt looks good. I like to carry stuff around with me and I only have 2 hands: solution - bag. At first I was a bit, like "what is happening to me!!1!1one!" But after thinking about it for a while (and, believe me, that's something I do a lot) I've come to the conclusion that nothing is happening to me at all. I'm just... buying stuff that I like/ is useful.

And then I got to thinking how we pigeon hole things. We take a certain type of clothing, a certain type of item, a certain interest and we pigeon hole it into a certain type or label or whatever you want to call it and although these pigeon holes tend to be pretty accurate I still can't help but wonder... what in the world is the point? See, my first reaction to getting a check shirt/ putting a bag on my wish list was to go "what's going on with me?" I've been taught, unintentionally, to assign these things to "hipsters" or those who are somewhat more "fashionable" than I. The first response I got when I told one of my friends that I bought a check shirt was "it's mantart-itis".
I don't like this. People are so often put off wearing things or doing things that they like because "it's emo" or "it's so hipster" and stuff like that which is ridiculous, from my point of view. Because I may start to wear checked shirts, doesn't mean I'll start listening to bands that you've never heard of because they're too obscure. Just because I may start to wear mostly black doesn't mean I slice my wrists and listen to My Chemical Romance and Bullet for my Valentine (I do like a bit of the MCR... Don't judge me.) and I find this whole ideology... really weird.
I doubt I'm making a whole lot of sense here but bear with me, I'll try and be clear.
I've noticed that we as humans have a need to classify and separate and to make distinct the things that we encounter in an effort to better understand them. But to better understand each other, that classification shouldn't be implemented. We're all humans; surely that should be enough without filing each other under E for Emo, G for Goth, H for Hipster, N for Nerd, W for Whatever...

Now, I'm going to confuse matters here by saying that I don't mind people assuming a certain - for the sake of simplicity I'll say - label. I would class myself as a big, fat, juicy nerd with a side helping of geek. I'm perfectly content and proud to be classified as such. But the difference is, I cannot for the life of me understand the need for anyone to see someone enjoying a certain thing which makes them then go "Oh, X-person's a *insert label*" Am I being crazy here because I feel like I am...

I guess it's the distinction between "I identify with this label" and "I don't know you, but you dress in a certain way so I will apply this label to you." It's that automatic assumption that we know something about a person at first glance when we really know nothing. Not their taste in music, not their favourite tv shows, not their political affiliations, not the beliefs. It's a waste of time, ninety-nine percent of the time, to pre-judge in this kinda fashion because the majority of the time the stereotypes are disproved. It would be so much more worth our time if we suspended our judgement and actually spent some time getting to know people before applying any label. I know that from experience, and it's so much more interesting that way.

Well, that's about all of today's illogical and potentially oxymoronic ramblings. Take care interwebs.

No comments:

Post a Comment