Stop stereotyping me, or I'm telling.

A voyage through the gates of stereotypicaldom

I am on a bus. All I can here from the back row of seats is the moronic sniggering and jeers from the "teenagers". While I am digging into a classic Raymond Chandler novel of the accounts of Philip Marlow, they are comparing who's mobile phone can tell you the latest goings on in the world of heat magazine. I want to plug my headphones into my iPhone, but part of me is afraid of being mugged, and part of me is afraid of being thrown into the same section of society as these clowns. Granted I'd be listening to Dean Martin, but when the ranks see a sixteen year old with headphones in, one automatically assumes that the sixteen year old is listening to todays latest crap-pop record and lord knows that, although I am an avid listener to most genres of music, I wouldn't be caught dead with the dull roar of a girls aloud record blaring out of my aural receptors.

I eventually get to my stop and take my leave of the bus, thanking the driver on the way, to which I get no response, undoubtbly because he thinks I am hiding a knife in my bag (but there go again my own prejudices). I walk up the empty and quiet residential road taking no notice of the rain, or lack thereof, with my head buried in the encapsulating tale I have in my hands. And as the road is empty, I decide to read aloud. Walking up the hill, not batting an eyelid to the retirees who water their potted plants as I pass by, I continue to read until I come to my front door. At which point I put my book down and proceed to eat a penguin.

Now if this tale to you seems dull, it is probably because it is. I lead a rather ordinary, uninspiring and uninteresting life and my only real output is that I am different from the stereotype of the boisterous, selfish and inconsiderate teenager that the media rams down our throats. Be it from the lowest of the low brow tabloid newspapers, to the supposed unbiased, clean cut reports from the BBC; everyone is desperate to portray teenagers (I suppose those in the 15-21 bracket, but who am I to judge?) as almost a different species and as the enemy. Why? Sure teenagers are of the age of the internet and have different ways, and many need to learn some manners, but they are still people.

I may be sounding at this point as though I am the most pretensious and self absorbed teenager this side of cambridge, but this is only because this stereotype, that I strive to live against, has made it seem audacious for a teenager to use the word audacious, let alone know what it means. Yes, I go to a public school (it's in Croydon, so it's kind of leveled out) and yes I am white and I may be befitting of the stereotype of the pompous white man, but better that than the chavvy, alcoholic teenage father.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that not everyone is like the stereotype that they are supposed to represent, only most people. Now I hope that this doesn't hurt my street cred.