Suppressing Originality

Avast, me hearties!

As today was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I dressed up in full pirate costume, along with me first mate, Smitty^*, as well as (of course) spoke like a salty dog of the seas. Aye, full pirate costume, with jewelry and a hat and a hook and even a parrot. 'Twas brilliant.

And once again, I was overwhelmed with hatred for society.

Arrr, take a guess at the numb'r one comment I got today, or heard out of the corners of m' ears. If ye guessed "He's gay," ye'd be hittin' the nail straight on the head.

That pushes me to the edge. Maybe it's just me pirate-y, Spencer-y ignorance, but how does dressing like a pirate on International Talk Like a Pirate Day make you gay? Last I checked, sexual preferences were determined by chemicals in yer brain, or other internal stimuli, not the clothes ye wear, or the lighthearted holidays ye celebrate.

So what if I wanted to dress like a pirate for a small holiday? Does that give anyone the right t' insult me, t' ridicule me, t' laugh at me, t' flip me off, t' call me gay? Narr, it does not. I'm just as much a person as anyone else, whether I be dressing as a pirate or prancing down to Putnam with me best friend clopping coconuts behind me or whatever.

What does society do, though? Does it encourage originality and uniqueness, encourage being yer own person and finding happiness where ye can, even if it be simple? Narr! It laughs at ye, it criticizes ye and ridicules ye, making you feel uncomfortable for tryin' to be yerself.

That's what I hate. Not the insults, or the rude hand gestures. Nah, I can shrug those off fairly easy. No, it be the driving force behind it, the closed-minded arrogance of society that says, "I am perfect, and you're not acting like me. Therefore, you don't deserve to be treated as an equal."

Here ye go, to all ye preps, to ye jocks and ye skaters, to all of ye popularity-fed jerks: Ye're not better than anyone else. Nobody is better than anyone else. We're all equals, regardless of what we do or how we act. Just because someone wears a pirate costume on a holiday called Talk Like a Pirate Day, just because he finds a coconut (bra) at Value Village and adopts it for its Monty Python-esque humor (and then uses it for such), just because he acts differently than you and all yer other brainwashed, unoriginal, shallow, closed-minded "friends" doesn't mean ye have any right to treat him any worse than ye would anyone else, any worse than ye would yerself.

What'll ye say, looking back on these years a half-score, a score o' years away from now? Ye'll look at the faces in yer yearbook, and read the signatures, and they'll be full of lies. The signings may seem happy, but the exultation is only skin-deep. Ye'll find a face, and remember, "That was the kid I teased, the kid I made fun of, the kid who I laughed at mercilessly 'cause he dressed like a pirate," or "because he was different." That's not a fun thing to remember.

Wouldn't it be better to remember the kid who was dressed like a pirate, and how ye simply shook yer head and chuckled a little, or shouted "Arrr!" at him? Break free of yer chains, of the preconcieved notions in yer head for these few moments. If ye remove the pressure from society hissing that a guy dressed like a pirate is just stupid, then what does it boil down to? A guy, dressed like a pirate, walking 'round school. That's funny. How often do ye see that? And yet, ye've gone and smothered those feelings, hidden them away, simply because they didn't fit with society's whispers in yer ear.

Let others do what they do, without hinderance or jeers from the sideline. Funny thing is, the people that you'll feel most challenged to do that with are the ones who already do the same for you.





* Nick