Kira
Schiavone tackles Pop Culture adiction and the shallow obsession to conform in modern society...
Cries of the Vintage Warrior
"Naïveté"
- Opinion by Kira Schiavone-
June 18th, 2005
Well, pop culture and fitting in is certainly important to most of
America’s teenagers. I am unusual, and quite possibly unique, in that I
have no care for any of it. For some reason, at school and online, this
instantly makes me a target. I’ll ask who someone that people are
talking about is, and I’ll get this look, and then someone will break
the shocked silence with “Don’t you know anything?” As I walk down
every hallway, whispers follow me, as do shouts of “skipping is weird.”
I watched as a conversation took place in my school.
They were talking about what I now know to be the area baseball team,
and something about a “Bambino.” So I asked what that was, and I was
greeted with shocked looks and astonished gasps. They never did explain
what they were talking about. Recently on a forum, I asked who Batman
is. The response I got was the jaw dropped smiley and the comment “I
think I just lost a brain cell.” That was immediately jumped on by one
of the forum moderators as being a direct insult, but that wasn’t the
last of the discussion. It continued through three more pages, with
nearly everyone else in the forum ganging up on me. (Actually, I think
it was everyone except for that one moderator, including a couple of
other moderators.) Why is it such a big deal that I have no care for
it? Can you give the Greek and Roman names of the children of Cronos
and Rhea without stopping to think about it? Well? I didn’t think so.
Can you tell two versions of the story of the Irish Queen Blodeuwedd?
Can you pronounce that name? Do you know who Iris is in mythology, and
what the Rainbow Bridge is? Do you know that the days of the week come
from the Norse gods? I specialize in more esoteric knowledge than most
of the people around, but that doesn’t degrade my value. Why do you
care what I know of pop culture? Why do I get greeted with strange
looks because of an innocence that I’d really rather not lose?
And why should I need to change to fit in? I like to
wear pink; I like to wear long skirts. I like to sing, and I like to
dance in the hallways. I like to skip to get where I’m going. I like to
talk to and kiss trees. People call me weird for this. I’m far more
intelligent than they are, and they know it. Why should I have to
change the way I look, the way I dress, just because some people don’t
like it? Why should refusing to change make me the target of sexual
harassment, and why should those harassing me go unpunished? The world
pressures us to conform. I refuse. I stand up, I make my announcements.
In the school meeting, I state what I think needs to change, and I get
angry when it doesn’t. I refuse to break the rules; I refuse to swear.
Why does this matter to any of you? Why should being good earn me
teasing and harassment? Why is the world like this?
Don’t judge me based on how I look, or how I walk.
Don’t judge me based on the way I sing, or my fear of reading my
compositions in public. Don’t judge me based on what you hear. Don’t
judge me from one experience that happened three years ago. Don’t judge
me based on my Halloween costume. Don’t judge me because I talk to
trees. Don’t judge me at all. Look at me, look at who I am, look at my
personality, accept our differences, and then decide if you want to be
friends. If you don’t, that’s fine, but don’t make that decision
because you want to be with the in crowd.
Don’t look at me because of some dumb rumors, and
laugh. Don’t malign me because you don’t understand me. Don’t try to
hurt me because you’ve seen that you can. Don’t base your thoughts on
what others say. The in crowd is only popular because everyone else
wants to join them. If they teased everyone that was teased over the
course of the year at the same time, there would be no one left to want
them, and they would be the hated. Consider that, the next time you’re
tempted to conform.
Kira Schiavone is a high school student who's working on becoming a
professional writer, and enjoys reading and writing rants for the
Fedora Chronicles.
Read Kira's Previous Articles...
