How many times have you heard the phrases, ‘cheer up, emo kid,’ ‘heartless goth,’ ‘punk delinquents,’ and ‘good-for-nothing hippies?’ Most of the time, the person in question doesn’t even fit the stereotype, not to mention the fact that they’re not depressed, heartless, delinquent, or good-for-nothing. People shouldn’t judge or stereotype others based on their taste in clothing and music.
Firstly, stereotypes have recently been blurred together, because of the music scene. All kinds of people go to rock shows-people from every stereotype imaginable. At a hardcore show these days, you can find the ‘preps’ and ‘jocks’ standing by the mosh pit, occasionally even going in. That ‘hardcore’ kid you see slam dancing-guess what? He listens to reggae and classical music, too. Rock now has so many sub-genres that it’s nearly impossible to classify without argument. The face of music has changed, and so had the crowd listening to it. Music and clothes stereotypes just aren’t that true anymore.
Some people believe that wearing name brand clothes and being popular makes success. They think that ‘punks’ and ‘hippies’ won’t ever amount to anything. I know for a fact that this is false, because I have a friend whom they would consider ‘gothic, who not only teaches, but also owns and runs his own successful business! Just go to any college and look at the diversity of the students. Clothes and music don’t affect your intelligence.
Another reason to avoid stereotypes is not only the fact that they’re mostly wrong, but also that the newest crowd of ‘punks’, ‘goths’, and ‘emo kids’ don’t have a clue about what their predecessors did. Why should they? You can go to the mall and buy ‘punk’ clothes, look up everything you think you should know on google, and download a single from the latest trend band to be ‘scene’. The result is an onslaught of pre-teens trying to be ‘cool’, and completely bypassing the principle of being yourself, which is the reason true punk began.
A few weeks ago, some of my friends and I went out to eat Chinese. The amount of stares we got was ridiculous; it was like they’d never seen people who refused to wear Hollister and pre-ripped jeans. We weren’t dressed badly-all of us were wearing band t-shirts and either jeans or black pants, except my friend Matti, who was wearing a long skirt, T-shirt, and a checkerboard jacket we’d just gotten at Goodwill. We later went to Wal-mart and a lady actually pulled her child away from us, like we were criminals, when we were just playing games in the arcade. The paranoid woman didn’t know that we all actually adore little children, and had the girl actually gotten to approach us, we’d have been nothing but friendly to her. She just assumed that we fell into the common stereotype, and since that three of us were wearing black clothing, we were all bad people.
In conclusion, stereotyping by clothing and musical taste is just a bad idea. Most stereotypes are false, and often offensive. The first amendment gives everyone the right to freedom of expression, and if people choose to express themselves through their clothing and music, they should be able to do so without being deemed something they’re not. People should be judged based on their personality and character, not by the brand or style of clothing they wear or their musical preference.
