Mike & my brother frequently accuse me of not liking things simply because the majority of people do like them. Mike's prime examples are always "Rent" and "Harry Potter" - two franchises I refuse to have any involvement with whatsoever. Eventually the argument will open up to the number of things that I have mentioned in the past that I dislike with fervor for no obvious reason.
Despite the massive popularity of "Rent", "Harry Potter", "Sex & The City", "American Idol", "iTunes", "Madonna", "Brittney Spears" etc etc etc. what might normally be a general disinterest based on my personal preferences turns into a revolt against everything within that world. What causes me to do this? I must analyze.
Rent. The first time I can recall doing this was when Rent was in everyone's cars early my senior year in high school (along with the god awful Backstreet Boys, N-Sync and the Spice Girls.) I was in 2 musicals my senior year - Godspell & Follies - some of the best times in my entire high school career. I enjoyed musical theater. Someone loaned me a copied tape of Rent. I wasn't particularly struck by the music, it wasn't horrible, but it didn't move me the way Les Miserables had moved me the summer before. I knew the story - I had been in La Boehme only a year or two before with Opera Pacific, it wasn't my favorite production, but I liked it. I knew I wouldn't be a Rent fan, but it would go into the bucket of other musical theater productions that I was not a fan of (that bucket is mostly filled with Andrew Lloyd Webber productions) and I would forget about it.
Only, I wasn't allowed to forget about it. Holy dillywhackers - everybody and their mother was re-enacting Rent right and left. You be the boy, I'll be the girl, I'll be the tranny and GO. No matter where I would hide, I couldn't escape it. Rehearsals, class, after school - everyone was talking about how Rent was the BEST thing to happen to musical theater.
My casual disinterest slowly grew and bubbled into a total vomit fest. I became the anti-Rent. Now I would no longer be disinterested, I would actively be hating Rent. Even a few years later, when Rent (the movie) was out in theaters, I held onto my fiery hate of Rent and refused to even watch the film.
Harry Potter. I think I may be the only person left who has not read a single page of the Harry Potter books and who could care less to crack open a page. Mike has read all the books. Actually, most people I knew read all the books - that's fine.
What would bug the living crap out of me was when people would carry around their massive hard cover Harry Potter books and read them in public - at work, in school, in class, on the sidewalk - everywhere. They were worse than those damned Louis Vuitton bags that everyone had and these books were used as just as much of a status symbol - as if to let others know "yes, I'm reading a very large book, and yes, it's Harry Potter and the Curse of my Hairy Balls and it's so good that I'm reading it for the 3rd time too." I couldn't walk around work or school without eventually having one Harry Potter Ballsac talk to another about how great the book they were reading was and if they already got to such and such part and then look at me as if I were some sort of retard for not already having read the entire book 3 times. As if I had been missing out on some information of global importance. My disinterest warped once again. I became the anti-Harry-Potter.
When Mike & I were dating, I went to watch one of the movies with him. Mike put a lot of effort into coercing me into the theater. We caught an early matinee a couple weeks after opening (so I could avoid the throngs of Harry Potter fans and their books.) I was into the movie. I liked that blonde girl's hair-do. Things were going surprisingly well for someone who hated the world of Harry Potter.
Then it happened. A good kid dies and his dad cries. His dad - a grown man with thinning hair - cries really loud. And a lot. It was really sad. There are 4 things that will prevent me from enjoying movies. 1) hurting cute animals 2) tragic parent-child relationships 3) Eva Mendez 4) realistic violence (unrealistic blood splatter or violence is totally fine.) This moment ruined the delicate thread I was walking on with Harry Potter. It was a well made movie and of a topic I might find myself interested in, but that death threw me back into my dark place of hating Harry Potter.
Now, you might think that Mike & my brother are right - obviously it's the sheer number of inescapable fans that cause me to feel this way - but that's not exactly it either.
I love geeky things (if Harry Potter is as geeky as you get - you're not a geek) I'm a rabid X-files fan. I watch anime for crissakes. Star Trek fans, Star Wars fans, LOTR fans, Morrissey fans - none of them drive me to repulsion in the same way that my short list does.
I'm not into Star Trek. There are trek fans everywhere but I don't find myself ready to punch someone in the face for saying they would totally hook up with Seven of Nine. I knew of Star Wars fans before I knew of the movies. I has seen wussy and gangsta Morrissey fans, but still became a fan myself, and although I don't consider myself to be anything like the majority of Morrissey fans, it didn't stop me from joining in. It's not just the fans. There's something else.
Maybe it's a case of 1 apple spoiling the whole bunch before I get a chance to understand the flavors of the fruit myself. Maybe somewhere along the line I interacted with an obnoxious Rent fan, or irritating Harry Potter fan who forever ruined my experience allowing me to forgive my friends for their fandom, but never allowing me to actively participate? This bad apple may have taken something I would have casually ignored and became the catalyst for pop-hatred.
Whatever it may be, the point is - Mike and Johnal - that I don't dislike things just because everybody else likes them. I have many reasons and they may not be very deep, but you guys only harp on it because everybody else does like them and you can't understand why I'm not one of them. Well boys, it's complicated. Deal with it.
