To hell with the group.

I have always felt vaguely insulted by makeover movies. Shes All That was the first of these movies that I ever saw and maybe that started my hatred. What has always bothered me is the concept of taking an outsider and pulling that person into the fold by way of manipulation.

Yes, thats right: I consider all makeovers to be manipulation. If a person dresses or acts in a way that the mainstream deems off, they may find themselves on Maury undergoing one of his famous reworkings of character.

If you havent seen the show, this is when goths, rednecks and other subtypes are subjected to a societal deep-cleansing that will render them fit for the rest of the world.

The last time I checked, I still had a Y chromosome, so for those of you who roll your eyes and wonder what the hell a guy knows about being madeover (I am aware of gender profiling), believe me, I had to put up with that crap in high school, too.

I ended up pulling a stunt (twice), my freshman year that I am still known for, apparently, in retaliation.

It seems morbid to me that people are so obsessed with lumping each other together. Even the goth kids at my high school, who delighted in flaunting their nonconformist tendencies, were victims of this, which was made evident by their shunning of members of their clique whenever they did something that wasnt goth enough for the rest of the group.

As a culture, people need to feel like they are part of a group, and in the Petri dish that is high school this problem was almost terminal; the situation doesnt change very much once you hit college, either.

When Dr. Alfred Kinsey began his sex research in the 1930s, he was operating on the same hypothesis, that all people can be fit into categories. However, as time went on he decided that everyone is different when it comes to sexual practices. Therefore, everyone is different no matter what.

Try to fit in if you like, but because of the simple fact that you are you, you will never fit into the culturally mandated shape that you are trying to morph yourself into.

If that thought depresses you, there is a problem here. Makeovers are not done to make the person receiving it feel better; they are done to make the people around them feel better.

That way there is no longer a rogue element that does not fit in, and the people around that person no longer need to question themselves about who they really are.

At this time, especially, individuality seems to be frowned upon. But why would you want to be like everyone else? What is the benefit of blending into the crowd? Why would you want to force someone else into it against her will?

To me, films like Shes All That only seek to tell the rest of the world that being yourself is not okay. I disagree: Youre stuck with your personality and your experiences no matter what, and so is everyone else. How would you feel if you were told that something about you is imperfect and must be modified for the rest of society immediately?

No one needs to put up with that kind of crap, and neither should you.

People make fine livings off of telling you that you arent good enough; youre being played for a sucker because of your need to be part of a group. To hell with the group. Go with yourself.

Viva la revolucion.

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