Clones

Something that I have never and will never understand is people feeling the need to conform to some kind of stereotype. It's not so bad among younger teenagers but when people of my age and above do it I find it incredibly tedious and immature.
I'm not talking about following the latest fashions or wearing 'kooky' combinations from shops in the Northern Quarter because mainstream fashions aren't your thing: I'm talking about the people that choose a style of music to obsess over and make their dress, vocabulary and hobbies all fit in with whatever that style of music is associated with.
On Friday night I met up with a few of my guy mates for a drink in the pub. One of them, Ieuan suggested that we go to a club he's recently found in Manchester, 'Legends'. He told me that it was a rock club but that there were people of all different styles there and that I would love it. Now, without commenting on the music itself, the thing that really annoyed me about Legends was the fact that, as a group of 5 people all dressed fairly differently to one another, we all stuck out like sore thumbs. Now I've listened to my fair share of rock music in the past and I can hardly be described as overly girlie, but stepping inside the club, I immediately regretted the fact that I was wearing bright colours and that I'd washed my hair that day because literally every single person was either wearing a black t-shirt featuring either the name of a metal band or some controversial Satanic slogan, a too-tight corset or those awful black and purple striped socks. I felt completely overdressed and uncomfortable. The atmosphere of the club on the whole was friendly enough with everybody dancing and having a good time, but our group was either stared at in confusion or ignored. Every single boy I was with (with the exception of Connor, who prefers Lady Gaga) is a fan of rock and metal music, but yet because they were wearing fitted jeans and shirts, they didn't fit in and it shocked me just how uncomfortable we were made to feel.
Now, this didn't make me have a bad night because we made our own fun before moving onto the gay village for a chance of scene and it was lovely to get out with some old friends, but it got me thinking: pretty much every single club I go to has some sort of dress code and I don't actually fit into any of them.
Take the gay village for example. In order to get a warm reception by both the bouncers and fellow clubbers, you can't look overly 'straight'. It sounds ridiculous but to get into GAY, you actually have to pass some sort of unofficial 'gay test' if you don't look gay enough. I won't launch into a full scale rant about the reverse homophobia about this but I will say this: if you go to a club and you're not dressed in a tracksuit or wielding swastikas or something equally offensive, you shouldn't be turned away for not adhering to a certain unofficial dress code.
Then there's Fifth Avenue. Every boy in that club looks pretty much the same, as do the girls due to the fact that every single person is dressed head to toe in Topshop and Topman. South is home of the real hipsters, the boys with their long fringes and pouts, the girls with their oversized denim jackets and Doc Martens, need I really go on?
The way I dress doesn't reflect my music taste. It reflects the fact that I think some clothes are nicer than others. I like short skirts, denim shorts, leather and baggy t shirts. I like tattoos and piercings and never wear high heels but as I write this I'm listening to Chipmunk so technically I should be wearing a pink bodycon dress and an entire bottle of fake tan, right? Wrong, I'm actually in a hoody with chewed sleeves with some gold leggings.
Unfortunately this results in me not being accepted into literally any social group among my peers or fitting into any given club. I find this bizarre, although I do have a strange sort of respect for the people that to adhere to these norms, it must be difficult making sure that you and all your friends look like clones whenever you go out, you must put a hell of a lot more thought into your appearance than I do.
For a similar blog but written in relation to people in relationships becoming clones of one another check out of friend's blog at http://paintthesilence1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/doppelganger.html