Sink Pink

[lupestripe]

I've just dyed my hair bright pink again - it needed to be done - the faded candy floss colour just looked awful and unkempt. I was starting to turn into Boris Johnson, just without the right-wing views.

Still, what I have found out today is that Middlesbrough is not the type of town to be walking around as a guy with bright pink hair. I have been shouted at and laughed at by strangers who, under any other circumstance, would just have ignored me. This doesn't particularly bother me as it comes with the territory but WHY does it have to be this way? Surely the colour of my hair is irrelevant to anything. Sometimes I despair.

The other thing I noticed is that all these people were pillioring me from far away - either from the other side of the street or from cars that sped off rather quickly. Quite clearly these intellectually sub-normal people thought they were being witty and intelligent yet quite clearly they were cowards. They remind me of the 14 year old schoolboy who calls people a "wanker" on internet chatrooms behind the safety of his computer screen (and in my line of work, I've had enough of THOSE insults to last me a lifetime).

Still, a girl in Leeds commented on how much she liked my hair plus I have just booked tickets to see one of my favourite German bands, Oomph!, play Frankfurt in November as a special birthday treat (they are playing the evening before my birthday). Indeed it's going to be quite a week - spending my birthday in Frankfurt with Wolfie before returning to Manchester for the meet. Definitely something to look forward to *bounces*

Comments

[schnee.livejournal.com]

I still find it mind-boggling, though... why ARE people like that?

[alexf0x.livejournal.com]

Old values, closer family units, macho working environments (heavy industry and mining, ship building, steel works, factories), more military service connections (and the UK armed services are still very homophobic despite the EU saying that they have to let gay, bisexual and transgender people in), possibly more religious.

Just a few reasons, it could also just be that people up North are more much quicker to call out anything strange or different.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

That's not what I mean. WHY do these things make people rag on someone else for having the wrong hair colour?

Well, in fact, that's not what I mean, either. Why does *anyone* *ever* rag on someone else for having the wrong hair colour? If you think about it, it makes no sense - it's just light of certain wavelengths being reflected by organic material on your head due to certain chemical properties of said material.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

Middlesbrough is actually quite a progressive town and, for the North, very gay friendly. Our mayor has called for an enlarged and active gay scene and the view here is as long as people get on with things in the privacy of their own rooms, what does it matter? It's when you take that to a public sphere, that's the problem.

People are generally insecure. It's a fundamental facet of human nature (I would argue THE fundamental facet). I guess people shout out insults to people perceived to be different to get credos in their own social group. Noticeably, everyone who has shouted at me (five people now) has been with someone else at the time. This insecurity and lack of understanding is exactly where homophobia and racism comes from at a larger scale.

Boro is a very Catholic town but I doubt it's that - it's just narrow minded gobshites who think they are being clever. The hilarious one is when they shout "PINK HAIR" as if I don't know it's pink. That one does baffle me. At school, I used to challenge all this, making bigots uncomfortable because I wanted to challenge them. Not necessarily the way to go but if we let people stop us from doing what we want to do and what makes us happy then the world will descend into a very authoritarian place.

I prefer the North to the South, where people are generally ruder and look at you as if you don't exist. I like the spade a spade attitude and everyone who knows me, knows I'm gay and doesn't care. Yes, they take the piss but then I take the piss out of them for other things. It's a unique banter that is prevalent in the North. Regarding traditional, well Boro is a hybrid town, an immigration town so I don't think there is a tradition here really. It's very mongrel like, so I guess that makes it more tolerant than most.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

*noddles* Yeah... insecurity is probably it.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

I imagine that's the case - plus people are too lazy to think about things. A lot of people just like to bumble along, preserving the status quo. As soon as anything challenges them, they either get confused or are too lazy to want to comprehend it. This makes them feel insecure and then they lash out.

Equally, the pack mentality has a lot to answer for too. I guarantee they wouldn't do it to my face when they were on their own, for fear of retribution (not that I would) and for the fact that they have no one to impress.