Against the grain

[paula]

hate Ipods.  just give me a cd for gods sake.

[BTM]

I just find piercing anything but the ears to be vaguely creepy.  I mean, I look at the piercing and just inwardly shudder, wondering why anyone would want to do that to themselves. 

And I'm not even going to get into getting piercings "down below" if you get my drift.

(shudders violently)

[Trevor]

hate Ipods.  just give me a cd for gods sake.

I agree. I have an MP3 player but that's it.

(I also have my vinyls still)

[Joe the Destroyer]

I'm not against MP3 players, per se, but I don't like iPod.  Everyone thought I was crazy when I said I didn't want one because I thought they were overpriced.  I have a $50 Sony Walkman, and I love it.   

[AndyC]

I just find piercing anything but the ears to be vaguely creepy.  I mean, I look at the piercing and just inwardly shudder, wondering why anyone would want to do that to themselves. 

And I'm not even going to get into getting piercings "down below" if you get my drift.

(shudders violently)

I know what you mean. I don't get this belief some people have that you should stick a piece of metal anywhere you can pinch together enough skin to punch a hole. And it's not like people are putting nice jewellery in there. It's all just plain stainless steel rings and rods that seem to serve no purpose other than keeping the hole open. I don't see the point. But I guess that's why they call it a piercing - seems to be more about just having a hole there than about what you put in it. And I really don't understand doing it in places where it can't possibly be comfortable. Like putting a ring through your lip that passes through your mouth. That would drive me nuts if I had one. Same with a tongue stud. And frankly, putting random bits of metal all over your face is not aesthetically pleasing, it's distracting. I think I'd rather have people paying attention to me than staring at something stuck in my nose or eyebrow.

But what is really against the grain - I don't really even like earrings. Some are OK, but I'm generally not crazy about seeing things dangling from people's ears. Women somewhat and guys definitely. I don't mean to offend anyone, but to me a guy wearing earrings is just weird. Women do that to themselves out of a longstanding custom and an expectation that women should have pierced ears. Why a guy would choose to do that when nobody expects it of him is beyond me.

And the number one thing about piercing I just don't get is people stretching out the holes by jamming larger and larger things in there. Fine if you're some kind of outlaw biker type, but I'm seeing this on normal middle-class teenagers. I've got nothing against kids experimenting with wild fashions and strange hairstyles. I think that's healthy. But kids today seem to be brought up with the notion that they'll be kids forever. Don't do anything to yourself that will require surgery to correct when you grow up and decide it wasn't such a great idea. Besides which, stretching your ears out of shape is just plain gross anywhere outside the African Savannah.

Teenagers get away with lots, but if you want to be taken seriously in the real world, you have to at least be able to clean up well. Hair can be changed, jewellery can be taken off. Grotesquely distorted earlobes and tattoos that can't be covered by a long-sleeved shirt can be a pretty serious impediment. If you're a grown adult and decide you can get away with it, fine. But what kind of parents let their teenagers make permanent changes to their appearance?

But then, I don't understand why some parents get their infant daughters' ears pierced. I've already made it known that my daughter is not allowed to have her ears pierced until she is at least 12. I don't understand why adults need earrings, but I definitely know that little kids don't. Thankfully, my wife agrees that getting pierced ears should be a voluntary rite of passage for a girl, not something automatic. She is trying to negotiate me down to 10 years old, however.

[Mr. DS]

Totally agreed on the piercing issue.  I think it was ridiculous when guys got diamond studs, now they look like they crawled out of some unknown tribe in the Amazon.  As for girls, I've seen some beautiful women totally destroyed with those silly looking lip piercings.  Keep it to the ears ladies.

[KYGOTC]

The only peircings that bother me are the big-plate sized ear-lode ones (those things gotta STENCH to 'em too)and those reely reely tiny onles girls get one the sides of their noses. they just look like zits to me.

[Mr. DS]

The only peircings that bother me are the big-plate sized ear-lode ones (those things gotta STENCH to 'em too)and those reely reely tiny onles girls get one the sides of their noses. they just look like zits to me.

Yeah both of those bother me the most. 

[AndyC]

Totally agreed on the piercing issue.  I think it was ridiculous when guys got diamond studs, now they look like they crawled out of some unknown tribe in the Amazon.  As for girls, I've seen some beautiful women totally destroyed with those silly looking lip piercings.  Keep it to the ears ladies.

Oh yes, the single diamond stud or tiny gold earring. I know a couple of downright conservative guys who opted for that one, and I still can't figure out why. What is really weird is that the guys who were getting that back in the 70s and 80s are hitting middle age and beyond. The guy who might just have looked young and ornery when he was 25, can look downright creepy with his little gold earring when he's pushing 50 or 60.

And yeah, the big plugs and the hollow tubes in ears bother me most. That and the rings that go through the lip and out the mouth. Only good thing I can say about that is it makes me think of fishing.

[Mr. DS]

Totally agreed on the piercing issue.  I think it was ridiculous when guys got diamond studs, now they look like they crawled out of some unknown tribe in the Amazon.  As for girls, I've seen some beautiful women totally destroyed with those silly looking lip piercings.  Keep it to the ears ladies.

Oh yes, the single diamond stud or tiny gold earring. I know a couple of downright conservative guys who opted for that one, and I still can't figure out why. What is really weird is that the guys who were getting that back in the 70s and 80s are hitting middle age and beyond. The guy who might just have looked young and ornery when he was 25, can look downright creepy with his little gold earring when he's pushing 50 or 60.

Yeah you know I think in the late 80s every one of my friends in middle school had one.   Like you said, it spoke to young and rebellious.  However, the balding 40 to 50 something businessman with one I find to be a bit silly in any era.  

My wife's 19 year old cousin got two earings, think they're diamonds.  Guess some kind of fad or something at his college.  It simply looks bad.  

[KYGOTC]

I dont think Mike Jackson was all that great. I like maybe 4 of his songs, but everything else is cruddy. Jackson 5 was WAAAY better than his solo career.

[AndyC]

I dont think Mike Jackson was all that great. I like maybe 4 of his songs, but everything else is cruddy. Jackson 5 was WAAAY better than his solo career.

I liked his early solo stuff, like late 70s. What bugs me most about Jackson is he dies and suddenly everybody forgets what a freak he was for most of his life.

[KYGOTC]

Im sick of hearing about Avatar. the more i hear about it, the more i dont want to see it.

[JaseSF]

I can't stand to see a nose piercing especially on an otherwise attractive woman. Completely destroys her looks IMO. I don't like the looks of most piercings either (aside from ear rings on women) but I have known some friendly generally agreeable people who do have them so it's not right to judge someone because of it but I agree, it may well be a deciding factor against many of them when they do look for jobs. It probably shouldn't be in some cases but in others perhaps it's understandable.

[AndyC]

I can't stand to see a nose piercing especially on an otherwise attractive woman. Completely destroys her looks IMO. I don't like the looks of most piercings either (aside from ear rings on women) but I have known some friendly generally agreeable people who do have them so it's not right to judge someone because of it but I agree, it may well be a deciding factor against many of them when they do look for jobs. It probably shouldn't be in some cases but in others perhaps it's understandable.

I agree. It's never an impediment to liking somebody if I get to know them, but it does make a bad first impression on me. I think too much of that stuff interferes with the natural lines of a face that would look better without it.

One that really messes up an otherwise attractive body part, from my point of view, is when women get earrings all the way up the outside of one or both ears. My response when I see that is usually "What, is she part spiral notebook?"