I've always been partial to the "societal rejection" theory that argues that we were attempting to not just reject societal norms, but we were basically attempting to reject society before it could reject us and, therefore, provide a ready made excuse for what would surely be our failure to achieve anything in this fucked up world. Lord knows, it is better to think that no one loves you because you have 18 metal studs in your head than it is to think no one loves because you are unloveable as a person.
If class was destiny, then I was born to be a timber worker. I can probably count on one hand the number of older male relatives of mine that didn't earn their living working with lumber. Those that know me probably find the picture of me working in a lumber mill ridiculously incongruous, but then I imagine that all kinds of blue collar jobs are held by men that would/could/should have been something else. Hell, I doubt that my dad at sixteen was looking forward to a life of manual labor. Which, of course, was exactly where I was at that age. Fortunately for me, the northwest timber industry was collapsing about that time and timber wasn't really much of an option, but that only meant that I had no future, rather than an unlimited one. (On a side note, if the spotted owl had to be wiped out as a species so that I didn't spend my life in a mill, so be it).
So how does the son of a mill worker rebel? (Ed: By doing really well in school and getting into Harvard and having the old man tell you he loves you when you graduate at the top of your class? No.) Perhaps by rejecting macho working-class culture by getting his ears and nose pierced. Nothing like a little feminization to tweak the old man. (On another side note, I fully recognize that these tweaks and body modifications are also a desperate attempt to gain the attention of the distant father figure. I also recognize that this ground has been covered better elsewhere. I'm going to get to my actual point soon). We also took the badass tattoo and repurposed it by decorating ourselves with fish, nonsensical symbols, and, in some cases, Warner Bros. cartoon characters.
Anyway, my point being that multiple piercings and tattoos were about rejection. Defying cultural norms. Saying "Fuck you!" to The Man in many, varied ways, especially before the man could say "Fuck you" to us. And being piercings and tattoos, they were very public expressions of alienation. Which is to say, in no way was getting oneself pierced or tattooed a call for understanding and acceptance.
Which leads me (finally) to my point and this week's Eugene Weekly Letter of the Week. Now, I recognize that is has been some years since I drunkenly got myself tattooed and that I am coming dangerously close to yelling at someone to get off of my lawn, but either the kids today are very different than we were or Taylor Snow has missed the point entirely.
ANTI-TEEN BIASOne of the problems in this town is discrimination against teens. Not just any teens, teens with piercings and tattoos. At the LTD bus stop one morning a man talking to me said, “Kids with facial piercings and tattoos are bigger troublemakers than kids who do not have them.” I think that it’s stupid that people say things like that.
Please look beyond the piercings and tattoos. I’m just a kid. I don’t have a criminal record, and I’m not looking to rob you. I know plenty of kids my age who have piercings, kids who don’t get into any trouble whatsoever. People should get to know someone before they judge them. Labeling kids just isn’t fair. Eugene would be much better off if people didn’t judge other people by their appearance. It’s unkind and disrespectful to judge someone by what they have or don’t have on their face.
Taylor Snow, Eugene
All I am saying is that you cannot get yourself all tatted and pierced up and then complain that people don't take you seriously.
2 comments:
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that kids today (and moreover, societal expectations) are somewhat different than "back in the day," but the letter writer doesn't give enough context to know what s/he means.
On the one hand, I don't think getting a tattoo or piercings are necessarily a marker of alienation any more. Considering the number of professionals I know around here (in what is a somewhat conservative professional environment) who have facial piercings and tats, I don't think it necessarily has the same connotation that it did when we were first getting pierced/inked.
That said, I think there are gradations. No one thinks twice about my ears being pierced, and I've seen enough nose studs/hoops to think that even they're not that big a deal. But when you move beyond that, or if you move into the non-discreet tats, you're moving into what you describe.
Back to the letter, if Taylor has a nose ring and some tribal arm band, s/he might have a point - them's no real shakes. However, if Taylor is sporting a lip and tongue ring, in addition to the eyebrow, septum, nose hoop, and multiple ear piercings, plus having hir face tattooed, then yeah, s/he is missing the point about body modification.
I recently offhandedly mentioned to my mom that I was going to re-pierce my nose and she said, "Don't you think you're a little old for that?" Just sayin. I'm not sure what but just sayin.
Post a Comment