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Until I was thirteen or so I
pretty regularly got
crewcuts. When I got my
hair cut at all. As I There's a second grade class
remember it, my pattern was photo of me: Hair long,
to let it grow out, then uncombed, sprouting out of No wonder
chop it all off. my head wildly (my hair is those
straight, but it does not teachers
Understand: during the late just come out and go down... hated me.
60s and early 70s, when all when I was wearing my hair
good non-conformists were long, i.e. high school, it Being
wearing their hair long, was a thick glossy helmet alternately
I insisted on cutting it around my head, that bounced loud and
short. One of the main as I walked.) undisciplined
reasons I did this was or bored
that people were putting At least I combed and listless
pressure on me to let it it by then. probably
grow long. Though I didn't didn't help
shave much. either.
Since then I've
decided that
compulsive non-
conformity isn't
necesarily any Though, if you always
better than choose the road less
compulsive traveled by, you at Oh yeah.
conformity. least have a shot at I thought
doing something new, that Robert
I try to pick getting someplace other Frost poem
my battles better people don't go. was really
than that. cool when
Even a symbolic I was around
difference becomes ten or so.
a real difference
very quickly. I first
read this
in some
dewind@acsu.buffalo.edu (Padraig) said strange
on alt.cyberpunk, 8/92: dittoed
form that
"I laugh at those folks who think they I found
are being rebellious while looking lying
exactly the same as every other 'rebel' around in
that they hang out with. Personally I one of the
think that Non-comformity is more a empty lots
state of mind than a way of cutting (or that made
not cutting) your hair, or of wearing the up the
your clothes." surrogate
wilderness
This is all very true, playgrounds
but it's not the whole of much of
truth. my youth.
MASKS
Choosing a subculture Undoubtably
can be a rebellious someone's
action. assigned
reading,
Individuals but it
are not islands. wasn't *my*
assigned
Appearance is not irrelevant. reading.
Shave your head, tattoo And that
the sides, & pierce made all
your nose and you'll the
find out very quickly difference.
what it's like to be
an outcast.
Finding out who can't
handle trivial changes
like this is not a
small thing.
I laugh at the people
who laugh at the
"pretentious" types
dressed in black, when
they themselves are
committed to their own
uniforms (e.g. T-shirts
and blue jeans). There
are all sorts of
pretensions.
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