Was I Completely Out Of Order Here?
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:55 am
Man, I tell people that I like their look all the time:
Huge black lady in the pink velour sweatsuit at K-Mart?
Hey, you look great in pink.
Why, thank you, honey.
Longhaired student in vintage leather jacket?
Man, that's a kick-ass blazer.
Thanks; it was my dad's.
Old guy in totally crazy polyester shirt with some kind of Aztec motif?
Really cool shirt, sir.
[Looks down at own shirt as if unsure what he's wearing. Then smiles drunkenly.]
Maybe the reason my encounters don't end up like Mr. Food's is that people sense my honest exuberance--I really do think it's awesome when people let their freak flags fly, fashion-wise. It's fun. Or maybe it's that Kentuckians are a fairly bold people accustomed to making a certain impression. Or maybe it's that Southerners, for the most part, stand on ceremony and wouldn't think of being an asshole in response to a compliment, no matter how ham-fisted or clumsy the attempt.
I'm not saying that Mr. Food didn't have some kind of vague reason to be an asshole. I'm agreeing with kenoki and others that the world would be a lot better place if fewer people chose to be assholes just because doing so seemed, on some level, justified. There's probably hundreds of people I could have thrown down on in my life--verbally or physically--not without justification, but I'm not convinced that either I or they would be better off if I had done so.
So, my take on this is to get over yourself and let that shit slide. So someone thinks you've got "a look." Why is that such a big fucking deal? How dare the world fail to notice that you put no thought whatsoever into something so meaningless as clothing and are therefore totally authentic and not to be addressed by lowly hipsters. Yeah, why would anyone have the audacity to comment on someone else's attire at a Devo concert?
Huge black lady in the pink velour sweatsuit at K-Mart?
Hey, you look great in pink.
Why, thank you, honey.
Longhaired student in vintage leather jacket?
Man, that's a kick-ass blazer.
Thanks; it was my dad's.
Old guy in totally crazy polyester shirt with some kind of Aztec motif?
Really cool shirt, sir.
[Looks down at own shirt as if unsure what he's wearing. Then smiles drunkenly.]
Maybe the reason my encounters don't end up like Mr. Food's is that people sense my honest exuberance--I really do think it's awesome when people let their freak flags fly, fashion-wise. It's fun. Or maybe it's that Kentuckians are a fairly bold people accustomed to making a certain impression. Or maybe it's that Southerners, for the most part, stand on ceremony and wouldn't think of being an asshole in response to a compliment, no matter how ham-fisted or clumsy the attempt.
I'm not saying that Mr. Food didn't have some kind of vague reason to be an asshole. I'm agreeing with kenoki and others that the world would be a lot better place if fewer people chose to be assholes just because doing so seemed, on some level, justified. There's probably hundreds of people I could have thrown down on in my life--verbally or physically--not without justification, but I'm not convinced that either I or they would be better off if I had done so.
So, my take on this is to get over yourself and let that shit slide. So someone thinks you've got "a look." Why is that such a big fucking deal? How dare the world fail to notice that you put no thought whatsoever into something so meaningless as clothing and are therefore totally authentic and not to be addressed by lowly hipsters. Yeah, why would anyone have the audacity to comment on someone else's attire at a Devo concert?
