Bat-Shit: The Emo Factor.

I'm rather on a roll all of a sudden and while I was thinking about Johnny the Homicidal Maniac I could help but come back to a re-occurring issue that's been chasing itself around my head lately.
It seems all the people I know at one point in time have said something along the lines of "there's something wrong with you" or "you're *insert way of calling someone insane here*". People think I'm on meth and crack, call me a schizo, a psycho, freak, whatever. A few 'friends' I've had were genuinely embarrassed by me when they were around the 'cooler' people. But whatever. I'm not into self-pity. I'm unique, creative, dark and I am not a slave to Ambercrombie and Fitch and if they have an issue with that then I'm better off not knowing them, right?
However the whole 'emo' label has been slung my way lately. Admittedly I listen to metal and hard/punk rock, I think of some very twisted things, I like darker, stranger, true gothic things, love a lot of the typical 'emo' style and to be brutally honest I've self-harmed before. I wear alot of darker clothing, like spikes and studs and black hair. I think 'emo' girls and boys are hot (not the skater punk emo, the darker, poetic emo). But I'm not into labels. And I don't care how FUBAR people think I am and what I enjoy is, I refuse to be subjected to the plastic emo label which has been warped as all other labels have been.
See, my image of emo is someone emotional, who loves things so much and care so much it's more then they can take sometimes, confused, angry, lost, maybe a bit angsty, but this stems from the way the see the world and its faults around them and although the fight for it they feel hopeless some days. But they can love and they are dark and poetic with a sense of humour and good taste. And people abuse this with self-pity, false suicides, pathetic boy bands that all sounds the god damn same and lame ass poetry.
Well that's okay. If you bother to get to know them and don't just grab onto or reject people based on stereotypes you find out who they really are and can make an opinion of them.
Stop judging is what I'm trying to say. Nny could go anywhere without getting attacked by regular ignorant white assholes and goths and emos alike. Yes, the judged judge as well. And it needs to stop. You don't have to love everyone and try and appreciate everyone's differences and complexity. But at least respect it. Stop making people feel ashamed of who they are. Kudos to those of you who are like, the 10% of the population who don't do this. I for one appreciate it.
So I like dark, occasionally disturbing things. The thing is, I don;t find those things dark and disturbing. They seem normal to me, I like them, the inspire and nurture me. I asked my friend if that was a bad thing and he said 'Yes, yes it is'. But you know, it really insn't. People like things that other people are going to think is strange. This adds flavour, variety, uniquiety to human existence. Otherwise we'd all taste like American Eagle and West 49. For all the people who scream about how 'no one understands me' and try to be unique, shouldn't people who actually achieve a level of individuality by praised instead of spat on? And if we all want to be different and special, shouldn't we stop carrying about fitting in and stereotypes? As a culture, a race we have to grow up and move on. Junior high is over, time to face reality.
I don't just like 'dark' things. I like some pretty smile-worthy stuff too. So if I may be all love and peace for a moment, I'd like to close with one of my favourite bumper-sticker philosophies: Label jars, not people.