today, i saw a guy wearing brown suede penny loafers. i look at those shoes, and it reminded me of my dad. it's the only type of shoes he would wear. either that or sports shoes. never really anything else. and it thought what a funny idea it was, that now that we're living in an era, wearing clothes our parents would probably have worn in their era. fashion is a cycle, i know that. it ends somewhere and begins all over again, trying to modify bits and pieces, making everything seem new but really it isn't. everything is just recycled.
let's take this image i found on Google for example:
minus the slightly bright-coloured flannel shirt he's wearing as a second layer, can you not picture this on your dad or heck, your grandpa? slightly looser jeans, too, maybe.
i just thought it to be rather interesting.
we grow up, often wanting to run away from how our parents had molded us to be, wanting to seek new ideas, new images, new everything to experience. and after the process--or even during it, we find ourselves to look and behave like our parents. we never really escaped.
as for those who love the way their parents brought them up, bravo. we end up looking like them even more than we can imagine. the clothes may vary, but the vibe will be the same. and we will exude the same kind of excellence and awesome.
on another note, i'm still trying to reset my own mindset. as far back as i can remember identifying as an introvert, i had always find it easier to befriend boys, most of the times thinking that girls who wear make-up and pretty, girly clothes, are the kind of girls who only talk about the 'girly' things. until now i find it harder to open up and befriend girls, because we seem to be so different (what with my boycut now and me really embracing the comfortable, tomboy kinda look) on the outside, that i sometimes assume we're probably very different inside also.
what i forget is that, opposites should attract. this competition between women must stop. i need to stop thinking that girls are often the source of drama in relationships. i need to stop thinking that all girls who like to put on make-up are girls who only talk about nail polish and gossip and how amazing that dress looks. sure, there are girls like that, but it doesn't mean i can befriend them either. this girl-on-girl stereotyping needs to stop, and it needs to start from one self, which is what i'm trying to do.
because girlfriends need to stop looking just like this:
but more like this at times:
not bashing Disney here, but sometimes Disney princesses who still don't represent enough ethnic groups and backgrounds can be pretty limited. the second image is a new series by one of my favorite authors/artists of ALL TIME : Noelle Stevenson. the series is called Lumberjanes (which is about these five girls who fight yetis. i don't know how much cooler that gets).
stop making stereotypes and start breaking them.
note to self.
1 comment:
The second half of your post is SO IMPORTANT though. I perpetuated a lot of girl-hate when I was teenager for a lot of the same reasons; I thought I was inherently better and more ~enlightened than girls who wore makeup and nail polish. Or that ridiculous, RIDICULOUS notion that relationships between girls are supposed to be catty and petty and full of jealousies and betrayals (which is nothing more than a reflection of how society THINKS female friendships work).
I think we as girls are generally so used to being sorted and categorized ("girly girls", "easy girls", "tomboys") that we start applying labels to each other and start thinking we can't have anything in common. Not to mention that those so-called "girly" things like nail polish and dresses are consistently portrayed as shallow, vain items that only shallow, vain girls can like. What makes fashion or jewelry such frivolous interests anyway? Why can't an interest in lipstick or boybands be just as valid as any male's attachment to cars or sports? Why is one category more worthy than the other?
Sorry for the ramble but yes you're absolutely right ; we need to STOP subscribing to stereotypical views of girls, and what we're told female friendships should be like. All girls are different, with very diverse interests and likes and dislikes, and there's no checklist or set of rules that any one of us needs to live up to in order be validated as female. Especially not to each other.
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