I’ve been going back and forth about writing an entry on this for a while now. I wasn’t sure if it was worth addressing, but the more time goes on I find myself becoming incredibly irritated. I’m glad that people of my generation are stepping outside of the box a bit in terms of their appearances. I typically find challenging the status quo in any shape or form to be a good thing.
Yet, to me there is a fine line between daring to be different and dying to be that way.
Everyone wants to be “different.” No one wants to be like anyone else. I’m all for individuality, but I never feel like I go out of my way to garner a certain perception from people.
You either are different or you’re not. A change of clothes, or in Cassie’s case, a change in hairstyle can only go so far.
I read a lot of the comments about her new hairstyle on her Twitter and some were gushing about how much of a ‘rock star’ she was, how ‘edgy’ she now appears, and how ‘different’ she is.
Even Cassie herself seems to be quite proud of her decision to put half her scalp on display:
“Sometimes in life you need a change. Something deeper than what you thought you were capable of. Something that displays the “I don’t give a f—ck attitude. Something that makes you look at this whole wide world differently…and something that will shock your mother, but make her call you a ROCK STAR.”
I twittered back to her: “Girl, it's just a haircut. You going hard on Good Fri, huh?”
And added: “But I'm sure you're about to have a bunch of girls walking around like 1983 this summer. Love the single.”
She didn’t respond. Shocker.
Maybe it’s my own way of thinking clouding my better judgment, but all she did was cut her hair and give the blogs a reason to talk about her throughout the weekend into Monday morning.
I’m inclined to think part of her rationale was based on the fact that she has failed in her efforts to try and create a buzz for her sophomore album. I mean, she caught a brick with Lil’ Wayne last year. How do you catch a brick with Wayne on the track?
She had to do something, no? It was either that or be naked. I believe she’s already tried that, and when you’re that thin, there’s only so much you can show.
I don’t really care what she does with her scalp, but I’m more annoyed by the intent and the subsequent response.
Everyone wants to be the cool kid and now more than ever people get way too pretentious about something aesthetic – which in my opinion shows just how shallow people can be. And surprise, surprise it’s innate for everyone to posses a hint of shallowness. Someone send this to all of the “different folk.” Let’s see if the truth about their own roles in homogeneity shakes them.
Generally speaking, I’ve been tired of all of these pseudo intellectuals who base their self-worth on what they're wearing, or better yet, who they're copying.
I read a lot of different blogs and I see how seriously people take themselves over what decade they choose to dress like.
Funny that when Britney Spears chopped her hair she didn’t say anything about it; she didn’t have to. We can tell it was a statement: Her ass was losing her mind.
I’m not saying Britney Spears is the deepest ocean, but I’m sure you get why I’m saying.
Oddly enough, the only artist who seems to share my viewpoint is one whose sac some would be cool kids cling to (at least on the rock end):
"Don't try to be different. Because when you try to be different, you end up being the same. Because everybody's trying to be different. What you've got to do is to just be you. But if that doesn't work, then that isn't what you should be doing.”
Thank you, D.A.R.E. don't. Young moolah, baby. All that.
In closing: Please read more, people. That way you’ll realize shopping at Nordstroms, listening to Solange, N.E.R.D., Chester French, and dressing like a nerd with an exposed scalp doesn’t make you that different or that deep.
It just means you’re like everyone else: Trying to find yourself and in the same breath be noticed by people…only possibly with a better sense of style.
Let me repeat it again: Please read more, people.
That way if you ever find yourself to be a celebrity (that is, outside of your mind and on the internet), you won’t take to your fan site ala Jessica Simpson and write drivel like this:
Why do we let the sun SET with its beauty, then find ourselves ugly.
Didn't God, whoever he may be to you, create both? If a sunset is beautiful, then so are we.
Love yourself morning, noon, and night. Sunrise. Sunset.
Xo jess
Bless Jessica Simpson’s heart. Oddly enough, I still buy this way more than Cassie’s fake-poem about her haircut.
The Cynical Ones.
