Batman wore a skirt?
<utter hijack>
Lots of Canadians use this British form of spelling, (which of course does have its roots in French) not just French-Canadians. It’s just the way many of us were taught, and it tends to stick. It may even be MOST Canadians, but I’m not 100% sure about that.
<plummy British accent> We ARE still part of the Commonwealth, darling. British subjects, you know. </plummy British accent>
</utter hijack>
What thread about posers would be complete without a reference to SUV’s?!?
(and spoilers . . . )
funny one should bring G’n’f’n’R into this. When I was growing up I called em “Guns ‘n’ Posers”.
heheheheheheh. 
LOL
Since I’m to old to be a punk anymore, I’m exempt.
What I hate is people who feel the need to assign a motivation to everything I wear, say or do.
Can’t I just f’n wear my combat boots because they’re comfortable? Why does it have to be some deep social statement? Christ on a cracker folks!
I get where you’re coming from, and I felt that way too when I was in high school. I got pissed off when the preppy girls started wearing fake bellybutton rings (as if!) and fake tattoos. Then they started dying their hair ‘temporarily’ with kool-aid. Back then we wanted to pound their faces in for being poser-twits. But ya know what? I think that even giving a shit is kind of poser-like in and of itself.
I mean, why do you care, really? Does it harm you? Does it threaten you? If not then why waste your time/energy/anger on someone else?
To some extent we all do this, only it’s not always with clothes. We try to fashion ourselves in the form of that which we admire. Those that have no substance behind their form will be shown to be fools on their own – I’m sure they don’t need your help.
Mrs. Bricker has an entire cabinet filled with tea sets - delicate, old, finely-made tea cups and saucers. We are not supposed to actually put tea in them, mind you: they are there for the looking, not the drinking.
Is this “posing” ? If a person has a library full of unread books, how is it different than a cabinet full of untouched tea cups.
- Rick
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
OooH!! OOoooH!! (hand waving wildly) Mr. KOTTER!!
I can explain. See, those books are for looks only (sort of like the guest room towels, don’t touch!!
The real ones are the coffee and donut stained paperbacks in my bedroom (you every try to read a 90 lb hard back while curled up in bed?).
Actually I don’t own any of the leatherbound classics, only the coffee stained dogeared paperback copies. But I always wanted the “pretty” copies.
He did in the movie I watched.
Ok, I admit it, I’m a poser. Didn’t realize it until now.
I don’t enjoy SF, seldom read it (sometimes I read the “literary” kind), don’t watch Star Trek, enjoy the Star Wars films, but am not a huge fan - yet I’ve been known to go to SF cons and try to blend in.
Why? Because I enjoy the company. Many of my friends go, so I go as well. Sometimes I sit in on panels that interest me, sometimes I’ve sat ON panels (generally about SF films, I have a film degree - or on feminism), sometimes I just hang, drink too much and have a good time. Sometimes I helped run the convention.
I’ve never been a fan of rock music in any form - but could convincingly pass for “punk” as a teenager - I hung with kids in leather jackets or black trenchcoats, combat boots, heavy eyeliner, and the occational mohawk dyed purple - is it any surprise that although I didn’t really follow the bands, I owned a leather jacket - and if the rest of the crowd went out dancing, I dressed to fit?
I don’t game at all, but I’ve been known to be seen at gaming cons - in a t-shirt and jeans so I don’t stand out - usually handing out registration packets or coordinating card tournaments for games I don’t play. Once again, friends are there and needed a hand, and I helped out. But I can’t intellegently discuss character generation techniques for Champions or how to develop a winning MtG deck.
And, to fullfill my “poser” credentials, I work in corporate America, own a Brooks Brothers navy suit with a conservative white blouse, yet do not have an MBA and tend to hold liberal political opinions.
Course, I’m also posing at being a poser - since I am far too old to care about any of this.
So if rich kids do it they’re posers but if poor kids do it they are the real thing? Does this work for all non-mainstream scenes? Did growing up in the “suburbs near Malibu” allow you to identify with the '70s punk movement in working class England?
I’m sorry if this sounds snarky, I don’t mean it that way. Any of us who have been involved in any kind of non-mainstream scene knows how much it sucks when our scene goes mainstream - as they all do eventually. We spend a lot of time and energy proclaiming to everyone who will listen that “I was [scene] before [scene] was cool.” You know what, fuckin’ relax and don’t worry about. The basis for many scenes is to do your own thing and to not worry what everyone else thinks. If you stay true to that then the posers will come and go and, with any luck, your scene will fade from MTV back into obscurity and you will be surrounded by your fellow hardcores and you can all reminisce about when you used to be cool!
I’m hardcore old school!
Or at least old, these days.
And
- Posted by CanvasShoes
I’ve always been of the opinion that books should not be for “decoration” or purchased to match one’s furniture. (Just as I would never buy a piece of art because it matches the carpet.) However, I don’t have a problem with leather-bound editions, per se; my problem stems from them remaining * unread* and unloved. It defeats the entire reason for a book’s existance, and somehow strikes me as being almost a sacrilige.
I have purchased a few leather-bound editions myself, of books that I dearly love, and read again and again. (They’re more durable than a paperback.) I will never buy a book just to impress visitors. A real library should be eclectic . . . with books of all shapes, sizes and colors; that is the sign of a true book lover, and not a person who treats books like furniture.
In high school I used to get upset about ‘poseurs’ too, like the people who joined the rugby team for long enough to get the cool jackets, then quit the team and kept wearing the jackets. As I age I have mellowed out on the subject: people can indeed wear/do whatever the hell they want.
But the part I have trouble with is where they wear/do something, only because of the image it will project to others. Like limping, for attention, when there’s nothing wrong with your leg. Or dressing like a punk so people will think you are punk, rather than because you want to get a mohawk and believe in anarchy.
This of course leaves lots of room for fuzzy indeterminate gray area, which is why I hesitate to use the label, ever.
But the gangsta one is a good example: the culture arose out of poor people living in urban ghettos. The things they wear/do came directly from that experience. Wealthy suburban kids doing the same things are not doing them for the same reason, I would submit they are doing it more for image. Getting into gang fights, for instance, is a pretty stupid thing to do if you have any choice in the matter - which kids from the suburbs probably do to a greater degree than kids in the ghettos.
No offense intended Lissa, but just because a specific edition of a book is unread doesn’t mean it’s unloved. I have several “good” editions of various books that have never been opened, prefering to read my old, ragged paperbacks. I bought them because they were great books and I know the paperbacks won’t last forever. I want to make sure that I have a copy for my children when they’re old enough to enjoy them.
As for the OP, I think the only “real” posers are the out and out liars. You know, the ones saying (for example) “I was going to punk shows since '85” when they’ve never even been to a show. If somebody’s reason for dressing/acting a certain way isn’t a valid reason to me, I’m the one with the problem, not them. I used to wear skate shirts all the time because I loved the graphics and I spoke fluent “skaterese” because a lot of my friends were into boarding. I certainly wasn’t trying to fit into a group through posing, it was just that it was what I was exposed to.
I may be wrong, but I thought one joined a gang in order to survive in the rougher neighborhoods, where everybody else was in a gang. One would get beaten and harrassed if the predators had no fear of retribution. Living in that area, I can honestly say I don’t know anything about it, and neither should anyone else who did.
I don’t have any use for the English scene, image, etc… My point was that when people adopt an image, and certain destructive behavior associated with that image, they are just going through the motions. I wasn’t clear on that in my OP, and tried to elaborate in my later post.
Maybe I should have named this “Stereotypes, explain yourselves.” I have always been of the belief that if you don’t want to be associated with a stereotype, don’t perpetuate that stereotype. “Poser” is just a funny word, in my opinion.
I’m really not concerned with any “underground credentials” and the like. Everybody has the right to do as they please, and like what they like, but just because you bought a Good Charlotte CD last week and you like it , you are not required to get a funny haircut, dye it an unnatural color, and engage in behavior previously reserved for jocks.
When CDs were first becoming popular, I knew this guy who frequently raved on about how digital music lacked the sound quality of analog music. I eventually learned that he hardly listened to music at all, and the only album he’d purchased in years was “Thriller”. I think he qualifies as a poser, but at the time I considered him just a pitiful phoney.
But if it looks like a duck, and talks like a duck…
What you are differentiating here is the motivation of an individual to join a group. I mean if poser gangsters are doing all of the same things that genuine gangsters, then doesn’t that make them (the posers) the real thing? My point is that if you engage in the activities that define membership in some group, then you are not a poser. If you present yourself a gangster but your closest brush with THE MAN is detention for spit wads then…well, you can draw your own conclusions.
**
Yes, but poser and stereotype are not synonymous. A poser wants to be associated with a stereotype, and in order to do this will perpetuate the stereotype.
**
I agree. But the point I was (poorly) trying to make is that when I show up at a Good Charlotte show without a “funny haircut dyed an unatural color” then I am reviled because I don’t fit the stereotype of what a Good Charlotte fan looks like, an image that is perpetuated by the “genuine” Good Charlotte fans. So by not going the poser route, I open myself up to condescension.
Does any of this make any sense? I don’t think so. Sometimes I think I just type for the pure joy of typing.
What does england have to do with anything. PUnk started in America…