A Not-So-Brief Comparison of Dark Stereotypical Labels

Listening to: "Penetration" by KMFDM

Lately, and by "lately" I mean the last couple of YEARS, the word "emo" has been flying around like Shrimp Surprise in a cafeteria food fight. Personally, I despise this word for a number of reasons. The first being that it is OVERUSED beyond description. Anything and everything featuring skulls, dark colors, the slightest tinge of emotion, a strand of hair getting in one's eyes, etc, or sometimes even NONE of these things or things related to them, is pointed at and called "Eeeemoooo!!!" with a gleeful, ear-slicing cackle. The strange thing about this word is that, while it is frequently used as a derogatory term, its invention (or at least, its adaptation by the mainstream world), seems to me as a sort of "trendy" way to be "dark" and "edgy" but still "unique" and "individual". I'm really not sure how this works. Last time I checked (and I check on a regular basis, let me assure you), the point of being a "unique individual" was to avoid trendiness for trendiness's sake as much as possible. Granted, if your favorite color just so happens to be this season's new black or something, then good for you, you have lots of shopping options. But it really doesn't make any sense to me why all these "emo" bands with heavy rotation on MTV are considered "interesting" or "good" when in reality, the band members themselves probably had very little to do with the actual creation of the music (ever read the liner notes of a major-label CD and wonder what a "producer" does? Well, now you know.). The occasional friends/acquaintances of mine who either consider themselves to be "emo" or at least understand the music scene have informed me that these bands (Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Hawthorne Heights, Say Anything, Hellogoodbye, etc.) are not "real actual emo bands". According to them, "emo" is short for "emotional hardcore", which is "hardcore punk" music that explores emotions other than the "typical punk feelings" of anger, rebellion, etc., and that these MTV bands don't sound ANYTHING like "real actual emo bands". After being briefly exposed to "real actual emo bands" out of curiosity, and "MTV pop-punk supposedly emo bands" against my will, I've decided that I don't really find either one to my taste. (Ok, fine, I admit it--I like 1 FOB song and 1 MCR song and 1 HGB song. They're catchy. But I can't listen to them more than once a week, if that often). But what REALLY frustrates me is people calling other people EMO. Okay, if the person you are calling "emo" genuinely enjoys the music, dresses the part, admits they fit the term, DECLARES themselves as being such, then great. Good for them. Call them that if you will. But to see someone at the mall with a black t-shirt and jeans and be like "HAHAHA!! Look, an emo kid!" without knowing the first thing about them is *in silly, exaggerated voice* DESPICABIBLE. In fact, the same goes with assuming that anyone is ANYTHING without knowing them. But it seems to me as though "emo" is everyone's favorite nowadays. What an emo kid looks like, to me, would be someone with drainpipe jeans (the super-skinny ones), possibly-dyed hair almost completely covering their face, beat-up black shoes, skin-tight emo-band shirt, lots of dark makeup for either gender, and probably not smiling. But even if I were to see such a person, I might glance at them and reactively think "emo", but I would know that I can't really make such an assumption. Maybe they like avant-garde jazz and comedy movies, I don't know. I've never spoken to them, I don't know them, I can't say a thing about them. This goes for anybody of any "label". It's one of those things that everybody does and nobody likes and nobody admits to doing. Personally, I'm trying to stop myself from thinking that way, but it happens.

(added 11.16.07): I REALLY LOVE how people in some of my classes will make jokes about emo kids, and that those same people usually wear various emo-band t-shirts FOR DAYS IN A ROW. I honestly don't know whether to laugh at them or scream and tear my hair out, so I usually just sit there and twitch. (/added)


Another set of people that many tend to label as "emo" are people who harm themselves. This is horrible. People who harm themselves are either A. looking for attention (and if they are then I pity them, because it means they aren't loved enough or something), or B. obviously having some difficulties in life and DO NOT NEED CRAP FROM SELF-RIGHTEOUS IGNORAMUS PIGS while they're trying to find ways to cope with their problems. That being said, I don't promote or encourage self-harm in any way, it doesn't really help you and there are other, better ways to deal with stress, pain, etc.


The main reason I'm posting about this whole "emo" thing anyway is that people tend to call ME emo. Let me clarify a few things:
1. I despise skinny jeans, drainpipes, etc, in every form. The same goes with super-tight clothes in general. Form-fitting, yes. Suffocating, no.
2. As stated above, I am not fond of any "true emo" music and can occasionally tolerate "MTV emo pop-punk" music.
3. Sometimes, my hair falls into my eyes. It happens. I don't like it, I don't try to make it do that, it just does. I brush it away and it inevitably falls back there again. If I'm facing downward, I usually just give up.
4. I have never, and do not plan on, intentionally harming myself in any way. I do tend to hurt myself by being a general klutz and running into walls, tripping over nothing, falling UPstairs (I'm gifted, I tell you), etc, but I assure you, I don't do these things on purpose.
5. I am generally a very cheerful, hyper, and life-loving person. I get cranky when I'm tired or having a bad day, but then again, so does your mom.

So then why do people call you emo?, you may or (more likely) may not ask. Well, this might have something to do with it:
1. I typically wear black clothes, striped socks, Converse sneakers, black eyeliner, black/red/purple nailpolish, etc.
2. Uhh...hmm, what else? Oh, wait a minute! Silly me! The ONLY basis people have for labeling me "emo" is my APPEARANCE! How funny is THAT!! Ha ha ha!
Hmm...judging someone based soley on their appearance...there's a word for that, now what was it...?

Oh yeah: STEREOTYPING.

Cut. It. Out. Now. I'm telling that to myself, too. Self, next time you see that guy in the lunch line with the little squiggly black lines running down his eyes who always looks really sad, you know what you have to do.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have weird noises to add to my songwriting project.

(EDIT: I know the title of this post suggests a COMPARISON of stereotypical labels. This is because I was originally going to compare/contrast emo and goth, but I ended up going on a long anti-"emo" rant instead. So I might actually do a compare/contrast thing later. Leave a comment if you'd like me to do so, or if that would make your life completely miserable and you'd rather I just drop the subject.)