Conformity By Rebellion Essay Research Paper

Conformity By Rebellion Essay, Research Paper

“It’s like living on the outside of society and seeing what a crock of *censored* it is, but then approaching it again with a sense of humor. I mean, when you’re able to see society as this sort of funky, funny illusion, it makes it easier to deal with it because there is no rhyme or reason to the way it works.”

RuPaul, on fringe culture

(Genre, March ‘99)

Rebellion. *It’s about articulating that little inner voice that’s in all of us, the voice which resists being assimilated into the mass conformity that is American society. The quality of our interaction has diminished so much that we barely recognize each other as human. The “American way of life” has destroyed our individuality while pretending to cater to it, and the natural interdependence of society has been compromised by the shrieks of mass media and the cubicle farms they call workplaces. We are all gearing up for some heavy *censored*, all around the world. The yuppies are putting together their silly stock option plans, the Pakistanis are aching for jihad against India, the major labels are trying harder than ever to saturate our culture with Limp Bizkit bull*censored* and kill Napster while they’re at it. To me, it fits together like a puzzle. It’s all related. This is more than a complaint about social differences. It’s about human nature. Stick around; I think I can prove this. The hippie and freak hordes would have us believe than they are the sole bastions of non-conformity and acceptance left in America. They are not.

I really dislike stories like Hans Christian Anderson’s The Ugly Duckling. Not all ugly ducklings turn into swans. Some of us turn into ugly ducks. We need to learn to accept it, and to find that being an ugly duck isn’t really necessarily all that bad, because going with the flock isn’t always the best or most satisfying way to go, even if it does seem like the easiest. I was never one who “fit in” with my peers. From the day I began school at the age of five, it was obvious that I was somehow different from the rest of them. Since I was hyperactive, kind of shy, and too intellectual to be popular, I rarely had many friends, and at times found myself a subject of ridicule, mocking, and outright abuse. My first ploy, which lasted for a number of years, was to attempt to conform. This was very much a failure. It’s basically impossible for a square peg to fit into a predefined and uniformly drilled round hole. So try as I might to bang myself into the “acceptable” state of existence, I couldn’t, and it was apparent to all the nice, shiny cute little round pegs that I was a “wannabe”. So I went the opposite direction. At around the age of eleven, I became a rebel. I deliberately swam upstream; intentionally bucking every convention I could think of. I wore odd jewelry, which got me quite a reputation. I got my ears pierced in strange ways in an era where dual piercings were unusual; I wore odd clothes, like jeans with holes in them (when they came into fashion a few years later I stopped wearing them). I went out of my way to annoy, shock, and irritate the primarily working class and middle class people around me. Yes, I was still an outcast. Yes, I was still drawing a lot of negative comments and being picked on, but I felt as if I were in control (at least more in control) because I was now doing something to draw criticism. I got to the point where I sort of took pride in being able to rile the “mundanes” by having the amazing audacity to be different.

Then, one day, I realized, In fact, that I wasn’t all that revolutionary. I was following a well-established pattern and had a lot in common with all the other “rebels”. I was different, just like them. And truth be told, I wasn’t all that radical. I mean I had purple hair, but not a Mohawk, facial piercings or anything really shocking. I was just a rebellious kid looking for trouble. I had conformed. By trying to be different by being provocative and shocking, I had become just like all the others. I had become just another sheep in the flock.

I chose to reflect on the poem by Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear The Mask”. The poem shows how people wear a facade from the world. We all wear masks in front of others whether it is purposely or naturally. It shows how people hide the way they really feel. It seems so many people in this world wear masks. So many are afraid to show others what they’re really like. It’s amazing what problems can come from it; Problems that may not have existed if the masks weren’t there. Everyone wishes to feel accepted in life, and the character in Dunbar’s poem is no exception. We wish to fit in with our peers, so we “wear the mask that grins and lies.” (Dunbar, ). We will hide what we really feel so that we may feel accepted. On the other hand, no one likes being humiliated. It is a horrible experience and most people would do anything to avoid it. Most would wear a mask while smiling “with torn and bleeding hearts.” (Dunbar, ), So we hide our true feelings to avoid humiliation. So, one uses a mask to hide behind.

Whether it is from humiliation or non-acceptance, people will use masks to hide their true emotions, and pretend that everything’s okay. Everyone has his or her own masks to wear. Some people wear their masks by choice, other times it is just horrible fate that people end up with what they have. NOTHING is pe