Seventeen-year-old Orangeville, Ontario, Canada high school senior Sean Waring is fearful for his safety. So much so that he has taken different routes home every day so his followers won't know where he lives.
Why? He said he's singled out because of the eye make-up he wears:
“I’m not going to stop because of this; it’s just something that’s not going to happen,” Waring says of wearing eye make-up, which he acknowledges is “kind of unusual.”
“I would say there’s only two guys in town that actually wear make-up.”The high school senior has been expressing himself through eye make-up for about nine months now. He says he was inspired to don a design on his face by the Jrock music movement in Japan, which he describes as a combination of emo and metal.
“It’s all about emotions and what’s going on ... but they express it through a visual way,” he says.“Commonly, when I go to school and stuff, everyone listens to the same kind of thing — Metallica and all that. I’m just not into that whole hatred kind of thing. When you listen to Jrock ... it’s more exploiting the good side of someone.”
Dirty looks, snide comments and threats are commonplace for Waring, who notes they come from a range of age groups. He says he’s even been told by a local business to either wash his face or get out. Of course, he left.
Link - Thanks Edi!
I did the same stuff in 1994, I wore eye makeup, leather pants, cut-off camo pants with fishnet hose, fingernail polish, dyed hair and combat boots around the capital city of Kentucky. I was told all the time to get out. It wasn't J-Rock it was NIN, KMFDM, etc. Where's the story here?
Did I fear for my life, no. I occasionally expected an ass-whoopin' but it never came.
A story about J-Rock would be more interesting but if that's the case you've just got the headline wrong.
OK he wears make up, so do almost all hard rock bands. Nothing new, move along folks, the bodies already been removed.
At the end of the day, there's always gonna be idiots in the world bothered by people who don't follow the norm, you've just got to remember you're better than that...
Congratulations, you are now an intolerant asshole.
Is it ironic that he complains about attention when he's so obviously crying out for it? "Look at me - I'm an individual!"
Reminds me of the South Park episode where the Goths don't wanna dance because they're non-conformists, but the one Goth decides to dance to prove he's an even bigger non-conformist.
Hypocrisy: it's okay for boys to wear makeup, but girls should be learning science and math and not worrying about makeup.
Tool.
i go to highschool
and while i don't really care whether guys wear make up
that doesn't matter
people usually get harrassed for bein tools or nerds
they get harassed for bein weird not lookin weird
so my guess is that this kid isn't liked because of the way he acts
In the adult world, many of those same attributes suddenly have value. Those that stand apart from the rest are the ones who make a name for themselves and often do well for themselves.
But eyeliner? And that rediculous halloween costume? If he keeps it up, he'll be ridiculed or ignored his whole life. What a waste.
Regarding all the "I know better... He's a tool..." kind of comments... He may look silly or lame to you, and it is your rightful oppinion, but the line must be drawn at this point since your oppinion does not justify harrassmet and/or violence. Furthermore, saying that he is a "tool" or something along these lines for the way he looks is just plain hateful, and hate is violence.
I just wish people were a little more tolerant, understanding and nicer of/to each other. Why say things that you know are going to hurt another person? Keep them to yourself!
...I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day ;)
Kids always think they are so cutting edge. They aren't. It's pretty much all been done before, and there will always be someone there to tease or bully. That's just how it works whether one likes it or not.
Tolerance is a shitty word. I always hated that they were trying to *teach* us "tolerance" in school. If you tolerate something, you don't have to like it, you are just dealing with it.
How about ACCEPTANCE. You shouldn't have to "tolerate" women having jobs, or black people being free, or gay people being gay. How about you ACCEPT IT. And move on. And stop being such a bigot.
There is no such thing as normal.
On the other hand, those who do do it for attention, deserve the attention they get and should shuttup complaining.
righto!
And as others have said, intolerance and singling out in high school is nothing new; it's been going on for probably the whole history of high schools. Only the thing for which the kid is singled out has changed. I can feel for this kid in that I didn't always fit the cookie-cutter image myself, but on the other hand this doesn't seem much like news to me.
One of my stepsons is a big Slipknot fan and dresses accordingly. He got mad at me once when I pointed out some teenaged mall-crawlers and said I could pick out the Slipknot fans by how they were dressed. I said it was just another kind of uniform. Same stepson also liked to get his feathers ruffled if anyone made fun of how he dressed. I kindly advised him that he was setting himself up as a target by choosing to dress that way and he needed to grow a thicker skin and a sense of humor about it.
It makes me happy knowing that there are nice people out there... And sad knowing that there are very mean and unaccepting people, too.
There is a large population of kids who dress this way in Orangeville and even in Sean's own school. Claiming that he's unique and being singled out is just false. His claims of being told off by buisness owners is most likely a lie as well. Orangeville is a very diverse and 'artsy' city, and given that there is a large amount of goth and other 'scene' kids living there already, I just can't see this happening.
Regardless, it isn't right to treat people cruelly for dressing a certain way. But this particular kid seems to be a total liar.
And there's no only 2 I did when I was ODSS.
Anyone Bugs Knockthem the Fuck out
P.S. I Didn't wash it off either, and It got much worse
Makes me happy
An I'm willing do get beaten mind
An body too be happy I'm not Emo or a metal head or goth I'm me another thing I didn't want to be in the paper I did it for my mother because she was scared for me an I was looked as a hero for slot of kids because parents these days raise kids to be a clone an not be able to be them self around friends an family. Now for all u people think u know me u don't like I said don't judge a book by it's cover maybe some of u should stop worrieing so much about me u deal with it own things but I'm proud of what I did I was asked to speak for a elementry schoobecause they thought of me as a hero standing up. Now u tell me wouldn't u do it if it helped that many people be them self for once an not be scared or giving them a real hero or makeing a family member happy?
Stop teaching your kids to discriminate against others!!! STOP thinking that all kids that wear black or kids that are different are EMO that is not the case, they are ONLY expressing themselves and for the odd kid that might be EMO instead of giving them a hard time and talking crap about them behind their backs, be a friend and help them..............