So this is a paper that I wrote for my U.S. History class. We're learning about the beginning of pop culture in the 1920's in the U.S. and we had to write a page about something in pop culture that we hate. I'm pretty proud of the paper I wrote and thought it was epic so I typed it up and now I'm sharing it with you, gaia. Hopefully it's worthy. Enjoy.
(I'm aware that it's pretty much all one big long paragraph. Get over it.)
How many times have you heard this cry in the halls, “I hate ____! Everyone’s obsessed with it!”? Or maybe you’ve heard this one from a kid wearing all black or with lots of piercings, “I hate ‘preps’! They all look and dress the same!”?
Statements like these may be understandable, the teenage years are when kids figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives. Anyways, no one wants to be called the same as anyone else, unless they idolize them, we all want to be our own people. But lately I find people claiming to be non-conformists to be extremely hypocritical. Encyclopedia Dramatica, I think, expresses my point the most accurately in their “Law of Conformity”: “The Law of Conformity states that the more teenagers attempt not to conform to certain stereotypes and shared identities, the more they actually conform to other stereotypes and identities.” For example, a kid may want to become “goth” to become a non-conformist and be different from everyone else. But they don’t account for the fact that plenty of other “goth” kids are attempting to achieve the same goal as them. Thus they belong to the “goth” stereotype and are conformists. So to those kids who complain about stores like Hollister and American Eagle saying that all of the “preps” shop there and they all look and act the same: Where do the “goth” kids all shop? That’s right, Hot Topic, and frankly all “goth” kids look pretty much the same to me. All stereotypes for the most part act and look the same and shop from the same stores. You think you’re original because you shop at Pac Sun? Urban Outfitters? Delia’s? Even Kmart? You wear skate shoes? You’re gay? You play lacrosse? You’re an artist? You do drugs? You wear tutus to school? You’re religious? You have pink hair? You’re popular on myspace? I don’t care, you’re not original, you’re conforming to your own stereotype whether or not you’re trying to be a non-conformist, which I know that deep down everyone is trying to be. I understand that it’s a hard concept to accept, no one ever wants to be stereotyped or put into a certain clique, but that’s life, I don’t care who you are.
So just stop. Stop trying to hate everything that’s popular. It’s okay to be “emo” and like Rihanna, you don’t have to hate her because her music is popular and you’re “different”, because you’re not really different. I’m not saying that we’re all the same, but we’re certainly not all original, no matter how special you were brought up to believe you are. How you act, dress, and think is never totally you, they’re influenced by other people, trends, and stereotypes. So stop complaining about what everyone likes just to be different and complaining about conformists, because you’re complaining about yourself.
Piney Hates You Community Member 
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