(no subject)

[austin_tycho]

Last night was Angel night. There were 3 episodes on the disc (we're getting it from Netflix) and each one was pretty good- the second one ('Awakening', this is season 4) was outstanding in fact. It was so atypically cartoony I was starting to wonder what was going on- everything was being wrapped up so neatly. Then you find out it's all a big mind-fuck, yet one that makes perfect sense in the plotline. Beautiful. That is some majorly talented writing.

This morning I listened to a lot of mc chris that hub had dumped on my iPod (and believe me, there's room, jesus). Rap tends to be my least favorite genre of music after country. It's usually way too full of machismo... though I did go through a heavy metal phase, maybe it's just a matter of when I was brought up. Rap just always seemed way too aggressive and I could never relate to the bragging and hostility. It's certainly not a very girl-friendly genre. In any event, mc chris is growing on me; there's a lot of the same violence and bragging but it seems like he's laughing at himself for a lot of it. He also talks about Star Wars and other nerd stuff, so in spite of it he just seems like a really cuddly, likeable guy.

In other news, a couple of times already I've gotten the article about the 14yo boy who got kicked out of school for wearing a bunch of weird punk/goth make-up. He's claiming he's being discriminated against for being Wiccan. Not to be unsympathetic to the plight of teen angst and being different and all that (hey, maybe he can turn it into a rap career someday) but give me a fucking break. Or as I wrote in response to my dad who sent it to me... "you can bet most Wiccans over the legal drinking age are rolling their eyes at this one. They should let him return to school just so he will get his ass kicked and learn the lesson of teenagehood- you have every right to be weird, but I still have a right to think you're a dumbass. This gives the Wiccans that are dealing with *real* discrimination a bad name."

That is probably harsher than I really feel, but if you make the decision to be a weird freak you ought not to have the nerve to be shocked if people don't accept your freakiness with open arms and give you shit for it. If you're not prepared to deal with it, then please go back to normal-ville and quit crying 'discrimination'; it's insulting. Damn, I sound like an old Republican. If I start listening to Tim McGraw regularly and put flag and yellow ribbon stickers on my car, please shoot me. I'm not saying it's a good thing that weirdness is punished, but it surely isn't something that should surprise you, especially if you are in high school fer chrissakes. It's like jumping in a pond and whining when you get wet.

Comments

[marillion.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how his lame-@ss makeup correlates to being Wiccan. Am I missing something? Is it ceremonial to his particular flavour of Wiccan-ness?
There's a lot I don't know about the pagan world, but I didn't think that wearing badly-applied Ben Nye was a deep-seated part of one's spiritual expression.

I did wear black lipstick in high school (oh, the angst and suffering of my teenage Gothood!) but it didn't have sh!t to do with religion--ANY religion.

[mielikki.livejournal.com]

It doesn't, as far as I'm concerned. But Wicca is very customizeable, the thinking being 'whatever makes you feel closer to nature/The Gawds/etc.- do that.' Even if it's wearing freaky-stupid make-up (which I read as 'Bill Nye', which is an interesting mental image itself). But just because the religion says you're free to do whatever makes you feel closer to Whatever don't mean that it demands you express yourself obnoxiously in inappropriate venues. I don't personally believe the Goddess is that mean, setting up teens to get expelled, but that's me.

Maybe he thinks he's the next Rosa Parks. I think he's an idiot. It'd be interesting to ask this kid if he thinks it's okay for the Jesus freaks to preach at him in school- hey, they're just following their religion.

[temujin9.livejournal.com]

Even though I find his choice of makeup and justification poor, he is right. Getting shit from his schoolmates for wearing crappy makeup: not discrimination. Getting thrown out of school by the authorities for it: discrimination. Unless they also throw out Mimieque girls.

Discrimination is rampant in schools, too. The authority teachers and administrators have is amazing, and prone to abuse. Even though I think he should wash his face, I don't agree with his opponents.

[mielikki.livejournal.com]

I agree that suspension is going overboard. My beef is that Wicca was brought up at all. It's like he's slapping that on to get a religious discrimination spin on things, when a cursory look at Wicca ahows it doesn't say a thing about wearing freaky make-up to school. He ought to just stick with the 'freedom of expression' thing and leave Wicca out of it. It doesn't help his case, and in fact hurts the Wicca because it makes us look like a bunch of idiots. We have enough problems being taken seriously by the rest of the country as it is.