You know, lately, I've been getting surveys via about 15 people to find out what you 'are.' Goth, punk, prep, hippie, etc.I'm not mad at anyone, but i keep getting them from my friends, who supposedly don't care, via email, and myspace, and IMing. I got 3 today from some of my friends, and it makes me wonder...

Why should we care?
I'm always talking about this, but I feel like it's becoming more clear to me that it doesn't matter. We shouldn't NOT befriend people because they're not in your 'circle', or you 'type of people.' God made everyone individual, with different personalities, preferences,tastes, and whatnot.

Who's to say that we are 'made' to be a label?
Who made them up in the first place?
I feel it's just another tool to keep us from reaching out, and connecting with people, because you don't want to hang out with someone who's not goth...or whatever.

Nobody really cares how much black you wear, or how dark you are. Nobody really cares how many designer shoes you own. Nobody really cares who much you say you don't care.

God made me special.
I'm not going to walk around pretending to be deppressed. I'm not going to wear guys clothes, and I'm not going to just listen to just one kind of music.I wear skirts, and I'm dreadfully feminine. (greg)
Psalm 139 13,14 You formed my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and winderfully made.

So who's to say that we can only do this, or that?
Nobody, unless they're not a true friend. If you live your entire life within a stereotype, you're not really being yourself. It really doesn't make sense when people say "I'm being myself, but I'm going punk."

Contridiction.
This year, I want to challenge you all to be yourself, and look at people for who they are, not what group they're in.

This isn't anything new. I use to get them in my email constantly till I had to put my foot down and start blocking people who would send me things like that after warning time and time again not to.

Yes, it's annoying, but it's also inevitable.

CJ

Well, it's not just the emails. It's the fact that when I go to work, church, or anywhere, I see it, and feel it.
And it's not right.

If you live your entire life within a stereotype, you're not really being yourself. It really doesn't make sense when people say "I'm being myself, but I'm going punk."

Contridiction.
This year, I want to challenge you all to be yourself, and look at people for who they are, not what group they're in.

Amen, sister! I've been preaching this same thing for the past three or four years now...it's annoying to no end to see kids these days so eager to belittle themselves with labels when it DOES NOT matter! Keep up the good work...

Very good point...you should post it as a bulletin on myspace!

You'd think more people would reply to this...because I feel it would be importante' to many people. But that's just my 2 cents.

Labels are pretty bad. I've been labled as a Nerd, Jock, Moron, Goth (lol), and a plethora of other things. I don't really think I'm any of those, except I'm awesome, so maybe that.

Where did all this labeling start? Media? Pop Culture? That's it! Pop Culture. You see all those movies with stereotypical people in it, and the accusitions start rolling...

(I was going to respond to this, but I really couldn't think of anything to say until now.)

Freaking PREP!

[QUOTE=Isildur9473]
Where did all this labeling start? Media? Pop Culture? That's it! Pop Culture. You see all those movies with stereotypical people in it, and the accusitions start rolling...
QUOTE]
I recently had a girl I work with say something about not talking to preppies(she's pretty big into the whole goth thing...). And it got me to thinking "What is this?"
I did talk to her about it, and she just answered "Well, they do the same to me." Which may be true, but do not repay evil for evil.

If you want to change the world, start with yourself.

I mean,, how did it get started in the first place?
Pop Culture, it's a good answer. We didn't used to have as many labels as we do now, 20, or even 10 years ago. The last five has escalated too.

It's one of my resolutions, evn though it's not a big problem for me. (not to say that I am perfection, and don't have ay problems)

This kind of thing has always been around. There has always been stuff like different trends, ways to dress, and it all kinda ties into what music you listen to. For instance, there is a punk coming across the street, and he sees a hip hop guy. The two obviously wouldn't like each other because they like different things. You will get made fun of because of your music, if you haven't already. This one guy, who I thought was my friend, called me a poser because I was wearing a Green Day shirt.
You know what I like about the christianity boards? No one makes fun of you because of what you like. That's how everyone should be.

I delete MySpace friends who send me that junk. Take heed those of you who still insist on posting bulletins of "resend this or you will have bad luck". I will delete you if it continues...

As for labels? They only matter to small minded simpletons who are best ignored.

My label? I dunno... Some weird combination of Nerd and Geek.

Labels don't work on me though, cause I don't be anything but me or speak anything but I want to speak so I can't have a label.

[QUOTE=skynes]I delete MySpace friends who send me that junk. Take heed those of you who still insist on posting bulletins of "resend this or you will have bad luck". I will delete you if it continues...

As for labels? They only matter to small minded simpletons who are best ignored.

My label? I dunno... Some weird combination of Nerd and Geek.

[QUOTE]
which would be...a neek? or a Gerd?

anyways, those were bad.


Those are probably among my top 3 in least favorite things to get, among "How Hott r u?", and "You've been snowballed."
I don't know what this has to do with anything, but my friends who aren't christians send those to me the most...
Just an observation.

You'd think more people would reply to this...because I feel it would be importante' to many people. But that's just my 2 cents.
thing is, more people would reply to it, but our opinions have been aptly stated already. If everyone who agreed replied, the thread would be full of variations of "I agree".
I can't think of anything more to be said.

I think that most of the reasons that people fill out/ look at that kind of stuff is because they have no life and they're sitting and home, bored out of their mind with nothing to do. And seeing if you fall into hippie/emo/geek/redneck/goth/whatever holds about two minutes of a small amount of amusement.

Yeah, I've had a whole conversation in my head ready for this kind of thing, and I was about to post a thread of this same nature. but I see I'm not the only one! I noticed that you mentioned that you wear skirts...I do too! just as an off-topic question, Are you Pentecostal? (I know, I know...LABELS!) But to get back ON-subject. I've noticed this and it gets on my nerves so bad. I'm a christian, but not a stereotypical christian, you know the kind that Ned Flanders off of The Simpson's portrays? I HATE this kind of thing. I also hate the whole "rocker" stereotype label thing. Who's to say that you can't be a rocker if you dont wear black, band t-shirts, skater hair, and go to EVERY concert of the band you like.
Some of my "friends" think I'm basically going to hell for listening to the kind of music i do (this happens to make me even more mad). On the exterior, I'm a girlie girl, I fix my hair nice, and I wear skirts all the time (because of my religious beliefs). What's wrong with wanting to look nice? People automatically think I'm just a prep wannabe. What is this? I'm just going to join in by saying OUT WITH LABELS! I'm tired of being called a "christian girl"! Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of being a christian and living my life for God. I just get highly annoyed when people automatically think that because I'm a christian, that must mean I can't have fun....well anyways....that's about it!

-Savannah-

My label? I dunno... Some weird combination of Nerd and Geek.

Nurks all t3h way. 8) ;)