An advertisment comes on, it's something new, it's hot, flashy, shows how much you'll fit in, or how countless gorgeous women will be all over you simply because you made this one purchase. What does the lower class do? Crowd the stores, just about kill each other trying to get it. And what does the upper class do? Call up their broker and temporarily invest money in the company itself. These are the things that you could say seperate the rich from the poor, or simply keep the poor from becoming rich. It isn't just clothes, they end up applying it to their entire lifestyle. Go through a neighborhood considered to be upper-middle class, you'll be surprised when you find out how many of them can barely afford it, and even go so far as to stretch their class title to 'lower upper class.' Some people simply cannot accept the fact that they have a fixed income, so they improvise by attempting to create an illusion. A lot of us figured out at or around the time we graduated high school that it doesn't matter what every single person's opinion is on you, mainly because about 99.9% of the people you walk by everyday you'll more than likely never see again, but unfortunately a lot of people are still stuck in this mentality, and feel they must flash every little bit they have to EVERYONE. Sure, there's the old saying 'In order to make a million dollars, you have to look like a million dollars,' but try explaining this to Bill Gates who while in college would often sleep in his clothes, and upon the next morning would simply go about his routine with them still on.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, Lets start off by clearing the air with, I must applaud whoever originally coined the phrase 'I'm so goth I'm dead' since the actual goth scene died 5 or 600 years ago. Now, I agree with the posting titled 'Go black man!' I've worn pure black clothes since sixth grade, but the catch is just that: PURE black, no logos, nothing. Upon having someone ask why I dress like a vampire, I would retaliate with why do you dress like a billboard? It was more of a refusal to advertise, I mean really, I paid for my clothes, if they want me to advertise, they better pay me. As far as the 'individuality' and 'extreme diverse' issues go that you constantly hear of, unless you're a detail freak, yes, most goths look exactly alike. As far as a fashion statement goes, there always seems to be a lot of it, or none at all, there are no shades of gray: some of these people you can just sit and carry on a decent conversation with without having to compare clothing to first, and others are the exact opposite; these are usually the ones that use the dramatic makeup as a mask to hide their true selves behind. Honestly there's no need to hit goth clubs to compare clothing, I'll leave that to the strict church goers. And speaking of strict church goers, please understand and make it known to both of your parents that people in your age group (junior high, high school, and actually way beyond that) if you meet someone claiming to be a 'devil worshipper,' more than likely it's some idiot trying to get a shock value out of you, and/or a disgruntled Christian. I've studied Satanism in the past, it has nothing to do with 'devil worship,' it's actually a very humanistic philosophy, but I wouldn't claim to it simply because I wouldn't want to be associated with a lot of the people that do claim to it. Anyway, this probably wasn't the answer you were expecting, it took my parents YEARS to accept my pure black clothes. It got so bad, when they would say something, I would simply ignore them, not to be 'rebellious' but I felt no matter what I said, it was the wrong answer, and I was just opening the floodgate. It will take effort.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, First off, I have taken note that you are from Australia. I am not familiar with the legalities or common 'moral' issues of that country. Over here, of course, we have our state-by-state age of consent, but I've seen more cases in which the parent had the ultimate say-so. For instance, here in Texas, the age of consent is 17, yet I have seen boys of 18 or more end up in prison for having intercourse with their girlfriend of 17 or even younger, because the parent pressed statutory rape charges. However, I've even seen one case in which a 24-year-old got out of going to prison for having intercourse with his 14-year-old girlfriend, merely because the mother had told the police she was 'all right with it, felt her daughter was mature enough, and she trusted the 24-year-old,' and as sick as it is, the police trusted her judgment and left them alone. So, if you live in this country, or at least in this state, if it's your children, it's apparently your overall choice.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, Yes, this is yet another one of the questions on this category that could easily go both ways. You want to know the big secret on how to differentiate between people who are leading you on and people who are sincere? It's very simple and it doesn't require much effort to notice: Actions speak louder than words. Far too many times I've had to counsil a younger friend who was bummed out because a girl he 'has a crush on is going out of town and told him when she gets back they'll have to hook up...but he's heard her ragging on him behind his back.' Ugh, guys, really, she can straight up tell you shes going to screw your brains out when she gets back, but until she does so, I would simply shrug it off, or at most humor her. I've seen it plenty of times, girls leading on a guy who's kind of desperate, making him believe they are 2 steps from the bedroom, merely so they'll stick around, instead of being straight forward that they only want to be friends. And no, I'm not ragging on females, I've seen plenty of males do it too. On that note, I had a female friend the other day complaining to me that everytime a guy tells her 'he's a nice guy,' he turns out to be a jerk, I said it's no differen't from the girls that tell you that they don't want to live a soap opera of a life, usually turn out to be your drama queens. Guys, does your girlfriend tell you shes crazy about you? or does she show you? Girls, does your boyfriend tell you he cares about you? or does he show you? Anyone see a pattern yet?
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, Do something, anything, everyday for 30 consecutive days, this creates a neuron connection (habit) inside of your brain. Whether it be 'non-addictive' drugs, or something like talking on a cell phone, after a while you try to get on with your life without it.....Even if it was something small, or to most people, something considered 'petty,' one can't help but to get this really eerie feeling, like an old friend is missing.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, I believe this is yet another thing becoming more common as the years progress, along with the problems described on other follow up posts, it can also cause psychological problems.. I did the same exact thing my late teen years. One of my nicknames back in high school was 'terminator' due to the complete absence of voice tone, facial expressions, etc. In response to doing this so you 'can't hurt others,' you may unknowingly do so. Not expressing yourself around someone who feels strongly for you, even if they know how you act around others, may cause them to mistakingly believe that you do not care for them. Also, for people you don't know, it's easy for them to mistake your lack of emotion as an arrogant 'I don't have time for you' vibe. With a combination of both people that do and don't know you, you'll have to answer the questions 'Are you alright? You look like you want to kill someone' multiple times a day. As far as 'hurting yourself' is concerned, sure there's nothing selfish about that, and it's always your own mind, body and life. The only warning I heed with this, is getting so far into a phase of absense of emotions: it can consume you. Lets just say the reason I decided it was time to come out of that stage in my life, was the day I found sex to be 'annoying' rather than pleasureable for the first time in my life.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, Please keep in mind, that not everyone is desensitized to the fact that people can actually do things like that to themselves, therefore they need help in not having their stomach twisting so hard to the point of nausea upon seeing it in person. Then again, with as popular as body piercing has become these days, they may simply ignore it thinking you're in a more obscure or extreme phase of it.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, Well, while I was living in the ghetto of New Mexico, a boy ended up getting gunned down while performing sign language, and the gunman had mistakingly thought he was 'throwing gang signs.' One little trick I do know of to help, if the deaf person has the palm of their hand on your chest, so that their fingertips can barely curl over the your shoulders, this will enable them in a way to 'hear' you.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, You're still very young, and have yet to even meet half the people you're going to meet throughout the course of your life. Yes, people will almost always tell you it's what's on the inside that counts, but I say if they can't accept the outside, forget it. What you see is what you get, if they don't like it, they aren't worth your while. To answer your question, you seem to have a very cat like personality, in this I mean I've had plenty of cats who when seriously injured would rather find a place to die alone, rather than burden anyone else with their problems. On that note, you may have gut feelings of selfishness upon telling others your problems, and sure, at the age of 16, your immediate peers may not take it seriously enough, or just try to top your problems. This is why we have families/counselors etc, they are there to listen to you. It may seem a little ackward coming out of your shell at first, like a sudden butterfly in the stomach sensation, it just simply takes time to get used to.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, If in fact, you are dealing with a person who believes there are no brains in the 'family,' this strikes me as a vague attempt to make lack of higher education almost hereditary, hence all around laziness. I have also ran into individuals who believed merely that they had no brains, reluctant to mention the rest of the family, the most recent and popular reason for this: Bad SAT scores. So my family couldn't afford a 4 year college for me to go to, I still got what I could. Back to the mentioning of the entire family, parents play an important role, if the person finds out that their parents didn't have any schooling post-high school, or that their parents made bad grades when they were in school, they may suddenly feel that they are or should be absolved of anyones expectations, once again it's general laziness.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, This is very typical in society at this day and age. Just about anyone will be quick to point their finger at who or whatever they can in attempts to absolve themselves from responsibility. I also am very glad the McDonalds lawsuits got thrown out. There was also a recent study that had a group of obese teenagers, and group of very fit teenager taken to McDonalds for lunch. The amount of food ordered between the two groups was not too differen't, however, the main difference was the majority of the fit group didn't eat the remainder of the day. No wonder they 'eat all that crap and stay skinny.'
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, Deaf or partially deaf people 'scream' unknowingly simply because they are trying to hear themselves, mind you it sounds perfectly normal to them, in their mind.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, There seems to be a very rapid growing trend upon parents to alleviate the fact that they unfortunately raised a nonconforming child. It isn't just them, the mass these days are very hasty to point their finger at whoever, or whatever, just to rid themselves of personal responsibility. God forbid they simply accept it and deal with it head on, perhaps severing a far more serious problem in the not so distant future which was snowballing. To quote one of my favorite musicians, King Diamond (who, by the way makes Marilyn Manson look like a boyscout for all the overly concerned and uninformed American parents) 'Everything in this album is made up, no attempts should be made to reenact any of it for any reason, and if you do, you're too stupid to be alive.' Seriously, whatever age your child may be at, it does not take rocket science to figure out that because the band members haven't killed themselves already, or that the creators of video games such as Doom haven't gone gun crazy, is simply because they do not practice what they preach. One of the big all around issues, is the hypocrisy of the situation. Lets not forget, anyone ignorant enough to point their finger at Marilyn Manson for their childrens problems, must of forgotten that their generation grew up on their own versions of him: Ozzy Osbourne's albums date back to 1969, then in the 70's they had Alice Cooper. Hey, what's the latest from Karen Finley? I haven't heard anyone gripe about her recently.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, Things of this nature date so far back it's not even funny. I wish I could remember his name, but there was a famous poet back in Victorian days that wanted a divorce on the night of his wedding, why? He was appaled by his wifes pubic hair. Apparentely all he had to go by as far as imagery is concerned his entire life, were statues. So, with this in mind, it's always important to just be yourself, the primary answer to your question if it really does bother men, as with the above stated anecdote, it's simply something they may not be used to. However in Europe where women grow freely, it doesn't seem to bother as many men. Now here's something not all men know: Women who seem to have more body hair than the average woman, the reason is simply they have more horomones, hence stronger sex drives. So, the only reason it should bother them, is if they're afraid to not be on top.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, Let me go ahead and clear the air by saying, it's safe to assume I am an atheist, as in I have no belief in any form of high power or entities. However, I do not contribute to any atheist group, since I have huge problems with organized religions doing it in the first place. I was raised in a very strict Christian family, and I have nothing against it, it's just something I choose not to subscribe too. Often I am asked, 'Why do I hate god?' The answer is I do not believe in your god, I cannot love or hate anything I don't believe in, its pointless. I believe ones religion should come out of your own personal thoughts and feelings, not what a book or preacher tells you, unless deep inside, you feel it is right. For instance: try explaining hell to an eskimo. Anyway, the point is, with that in mind, I do have respect for all religions (except Star Trek) because of my previous statements; To me, not respecting anothers religion, is showing disrespect towards their personal thoughts and feelings. Besides, there's so much belief in the world, how can anyway have the slightest idea of what the 'truth' is? For someone to tell you that 'I am right and you are wrong,' the least one can do is elaborate a little as to why theyre are right and the other party is wrong, but since we're giving a 50/50 chance, with no stable reasoning behind it, I say they are easily the wrong party. Speaking of which, the correct answer to your boyfriend would be that you also have to admire the fact that he doubts a god that he can't scientifically deny. With that in mind, if you look at the big picture, the arguments, the reasonings, the pro's, the con's, whatever else, can go both ways infinitely. So pick what best suits your needs, whether it be god, the devil, science, buddah, allah, lucky rabbit foot, whatever, there's tons of them, there's bound to be something out there to fit your needs, lets just all practice the 11th commandment: Thou shalt keep thy religion, to thyself.
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Name : Joe, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 23, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : I.T., Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, 
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