I am Jor-El, master of scheduling!

I was watching a new show on mtv called Why Can't I Be You with nate (the new director as he should be called) and a thought occured to me that kind of bummed me out. It had to do with how shallow and harsh we are with each other (don't worry, I'm included in this condemnation.)

This reality show has to do with someone wanting to experience life through somebody else's eyes for a few weeks while MTV makes it all happen and documents it. They in essence become somebody else, as the title indicates. At first I thought this was a step in the right direction for MTV, they were documenting a positive experience in a person's life rather than watching them puke for cash or make out with a stranger in a drunken haze while puking, for cash. In this episode a cheerleader wanted to break down the fear and stereotyping she created around another student who seemed to be following the goth-punk scene or a hybrid of the two if no such singular scene exists. Anyway, the cheerleader initially showed a real commitment to learning about a life she had previously cast off with the greatest of ease. I thought this was a show that would bring people together.

I learned later on in the show that it actually pulls us further apart. I know you are probably all thinking, it's an MTV show, what did you expect. Or that I shouldn't get so worked up about something that's designed to solve a life time of problems in thirty minutes. I agree with you on all that, but bear with me, I don't write in this thing very often.

Anyway, the show, through its various machinations proceeded to suggest that high school can only be survived if you find a particular fad, trend or niche and dedicate yourself to following the strict rules of that group at all costs. But also that human beings (especially teens) are ONLY defined through their exteriors (clothes, hair, piercings, carefully coifed mowhawks). It was interesting to watch the punk girl because that whole act is heavily immersed in notions of anti-conformity, anti-establishment, and anti-everything that's not punk. If they are anti-conformity, then why do they all dress the same? Why are people who are part of the punk scene so easily identifiable as such. They all conform to a set of standards that are just as shallow and surface obsessed as the cheerleading group. And whether they want to admit this or not, they are just as dismissive and judgemental of outsiders as everybody else is of them. What's especially upsetting about this (for the punk kids) is that none of them will look like this in ten years. The style to which they so heavily cling right now will be nothing more than a memory as they quietly sell out like everybody else and adopt a set of standards that will allow them to keep a steady job.

I don't mean to be cynical and I don't mean to direct all my questions towards one particular group. I don't even like using the term punk because it has so many connotations that probably don't apply to what I'm talking about. I might as well start calling them the grunge kids. It's just for the sake of simplicity, it's the best way to describe the group I saw on this show.

It upsets me that bright, creative, and passionate kids are stunted like this into defining themselves through such irrelevant and temporary means. It's like nobody wants to take the chance and express something about their personality, they would rather have their clothes do it for them. Maybe I can take comfort in the fact that punks and cheerleaders share the same kinds of anxieties and neuroses that will maybe bring them together when they least expect it. Don't get me wrong, I take no joy in other people having anxiety, I just want them to get together because of it. Stereotyping is probably the easiest thing a person can do, and nothing sucks more for a young mind then trying to figure yourself out while somebody else (or yourself) has already got you pegged. When people act in a way they think they SHOULD be acting, they never live up and it can be kind of a drag.

I don't know how this ends, I don't really have any solutions. I hope this all even makes sense, I guess I just hope everybody finds their way. That's what I call a glib, self-serving solution to everyone's problems. I knew I had it in me.

"Stop light plays its part so
I would say you've got a part.
What's your part? Who you are.
You are who who you are."