Thursday, August 20, 2009

Thoughts on "Indie" and Girls vs. Women

I promised my thoughts on the above subjects, and here they are. Let's start with the thoughts on "Indie" stuff and then move to the Women/Girls topic. I dearly hope I offend someone with my thoughts, especially on the latter topic. Those are the best kind of thoughts.


You may have noticed the quotation marks around the word "Indie." This is, quite simply, because I don't think the whole "Indie" business is a valid art style. What, you disagree? Well, I really could be wrong, but the following mentions why, in short, I don't think it's a valid art form:

--The music seems to me to be born of several ideologies, including the "We don't want to be lumped in with any mainstream sort of music style, so we'll make up our own!" and "We don't know what the hell style this would be, so we'll call it "Indie"," and "We don't want to be called Emo, we have more musical taste than that. But we're still going to whine and complain about how much life sucks and our bitter black velvet hearts and all that, but dammit we're going to do it with real style."

(Now, this will probably lead me to have to mention Anberlin, one of my favorite bands, since I think they're classified as "Indie." I don't think they're "Indie," I think they classify as "Rock." This is because they're not whiny, and while not your typical classic rock (though they draw on elements from that), they definitely rock. I think they do their hair funny and stuff, but tall, lanky men with mussed hair, straight jeans and clean shirts seems to be en vogue everywhere anyhow. So there.)

--This kinda goes off of the music style idea, but I think wanting to not be classified as anything normal/mainstream doesn't qualify you to have your own music style. If it's a name-only thing, well, get over it. If you hate mainstream stuff that much, do something truly different. And for the love of, I dunno, something, stop whining.



Moving on to the topic of Women vs. Girls. I really must mention that I'm NOT a misogynist, even if I continuously crack jokes of that ilk. I just think they're marvelously sarcastic. I also am all for women having the same human rights as men, as we are all human. So here we go:

I absolutely can't stand girls.

I'm learning to treat them with love, but I really don't like them, and have, in the past, loathed them.

I do, however, love women.

I've always admired real women, and have always wondered why "female" did not always equal "woman."

Let's discuss- my topic here really hinges on definitions, and so I'll define what I'm talking about by "woman" and by "girl":

--By Girl I do not mean anything to do with age. Young girls (age-wise) can be women, since I do not think the traits of Woman or Girl have anything to do with one's age. Anyways, by Girl I mean the snotty, catty, pecking-order-queenish, mean kinds of female. The kind that are always evaluating everybody else out of jealousy and spite, always nit-picking insignificant things such as hair, weight, smell, clothes, yadda yadda (please note that I don't think that it's wrong to pay any attention to these things. I'm talking about obsession here).

The kind who (to my greatest personal disdain) refuse to get their pretty nails dirty and view men as either simpletons whose sole purpose in life is to be enticed and teased by pretty females or as complete misogynistic scum.

Girls are mean. Girls are nasty and cruel to everybody, male and female.

--Women, on the other hand, are entirely different. Let's use the good 'ole idea of Women in the Kitchen. You know (hopefully) what it's like to walk into the kitchen and your mom or aunt has baked something delightfully tasty? What you're coming into contact with isn't a Woman's Job or something like that, you're experiencing a bit of what a Woman is like: generosity, kindness, a care for people outside herself. Of course she didn't have to make you cookies. She just did.

Real women are people who are generous, kind, strong people who aren't afraid of getting their nails dirty, even broken, and put others first. They're capable and real- earthy and beautiful. Of course, getting fancy and dressed up happens, that's fine. But clothes and fanciness aren't what define a person, any person.



Some closing thoughts- Men share the same qualities as real women do, but I'm not here to discuss the differences between Men and Women (no one will ever understand- which, contrary to what people seem to think now, is great. More on that later). I wanted to briefly mention my definitions of Women and Girls, and my thoughts on them. Of course I didn't define what a Woman really is- that's too complex, same as trying to define a Man would be. I think I accomplished my goals for the moment.

6 comments:

The Cubs Fan said...

I wrote an essay about a week ago on this very same topic, girls vs. women, though I didn't use those classifications. I agree with you 100%. Thank you!!

-Laura

Nagrom said...

Well said. Particularly the Girls vs. Women bit.
I have almost no taste, except the most base, for girls. I have a vast taste for women, in all senses. They are wonderful creatures.

Also well said on the Indie bit, though I'm not the best judge of that. My give-a-hoot is broken on such issues. In the goth days, I cared... mostly so I could prove how Gawfer-than-Thou I was and how much we'd created and was stolen from us.
A lot of these sort of labels are rather useless an silly in reality.

Molly Whitt said...

What you call girls, I'd call bitches.

Hat said...

Laura: I'd be interested to know your thoughts (even though we apparently agree entirely:) ).

Morgan: Your comment of "give-a-hoot" made me laugh aloud. And thanks.

Molly: Lols. Yes, I sadly agree.

Anonymous said...

well said on the Indie bit..I'd be interested to know your thoughts
Kristina

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Natalie said...

Your bit on the women touched my heart. I have a girl who lives in me and I am constantly pruning and training this wild thing to be the woman I love being. When that nasty girl tries to come out the woman gracefully, puts her arms around her shoulder and her hand over her mouth. She can be mad or hurt, but it is not right to be a tornado and a bitch!