Tickle Me Emo

Something I've noticed upon arriving in Brisbane is a new class of stereotype amongst youths, my age and younger. They hang out along the Queen Street Mall, and they're the current majority of Mall Rats, it seems. On a first glance they look like Goths, or Gothics, because they wear mainly black, and even some of the guys wear pale makeup. But the attire also includes comical patterns like green and white stripes; they bear some resemblence to a clown, or acrobat. The hair is dyed black, usually, and the way that it's parted seems to suggest that one side is longer than the other.
Studded belts seem to be de rigueur. The term "Emo" has been given to them, which apparently stands for "Emotional".

This isn't confined to Brisbane, as it turns out. Whilst I'm not sure where it originally stemmed from, the Emo can be found in large herds on the internet; in this very blogosphere. From what I've seen, they have characteristics outside of just fashion (although, some seem to just stick to the fashion). They seem to like punk music, and share some views that the convoluted later day punk movement had, but they probably have never heard of The Velvet Underground, or Andy Warhol. In fact, the image can be described as neo-punk in a way.

The general ideology of the true Emo seems to be: I'm dissatisfied, young, helpless, hopeless and despairing. This consumerist world is cruel, no one understands my plight, but apathy is the cool choice that I make. I'm unique, and superior to those who can't see the truth; and in this way, enlightened in the sense that I'm engulfed by darkness. And don't ever try to judge me, or class me, because I'm unlike anyone else; only I have the ability to see that life is pain.

It's basically Nihilism.

My analysis of the dress code is that the black reflects their bleak view of the world; the nihilism part. The occasional hint of colour is to suggest that they were once happy; to contrast with the blackness they now feel (this provides for them another sadness, I used to be happy and ignorant...). The lopsided hair cut is their lopsided view of the world, their unbalanced opinions. On this note, giving a nod to my hero Thomas Pynchon and his observation in V, it would seem that the position of father-confessor has, for the Emo, been taken by, of all people, the Hairdresser. Society takes the form of Dandruff, the banality to be shed, that's revealed when all is made Black and True, and this clarity is achieved not by Psychoanalysis, but by the painful yet liberating process of Hair Dye and Straightening, which Straightens not only the strands of hair, but the Soul of the Emo.
"I think... I'm getting a bit of... curl" suggests that the Emo may be experiencing the false, the foolish, the forbidden sensation of Optimism. "We'll Steam and Straighten," says the Hairdresser.

The interesting thing is that the Emo doesn't actually seem to bother to read anything that might relate to Nihilism, that extreme form of Existentialism, or any other forms of it. If they did, they might sharpen up their act.

But as it is, they've yet to realise their essential contradiction. They have a big individualist ideal; yet they're a new stereotype, just another class of youth. They dress differently in uniform.

That is to say, they're the "don't-stereotype-us" stereotype.