I looooove the Backstreet Boys.

Upon hearing this, some will jump giddily up and down. Some will give me a strange look, saying "good for you." And some will instantly start condemning me.

"How could you, you freak?!" they will say, raging against their injured sense of dignity. Next will follow a rapid-fire tirade that is supposed to prove my idiocy: "They can't sing! They're ugly! And they don't even write their own music!"

To this, I will only be able to scream back in my most annoying immature tone that no, Brian Littrel is the cutest Kentuckian singer I've ever seen, that their harmonies are beautiful, that SOME of them write music and play their own instruments, like Kevin who is so gosh-darn sexy when he plays that piano. But there's not that much I can say. It's hard to fight back against a mainstream force of anti-pop culture. It's hard to reason against something that has no reason.

Discrimination-a dirty word, and one that is used in this piece with much reservation-is, in my mind, when one group of people, grouped together for a certain defining trait, is singled out and ridiculed. Shall I say that my BSB-chanting friends and I are being discriminated against? I certainly shall. So, at the risk of sounding vicious, self-righteous, whining, and indignant (yes, this is intended as a warning), here's a message to all of you who start screaming in agitation whenever I even start to hum "I Want it That Way" ...

First off, I know what you're saying is (mostly) in jest. Nevertheless, I'm starting to get offended when I can't express my individuality. If my "individuality" deems that I partake in something that millions of others partake in too, then so be it. Please, don't try to tell me that I'm only following the mob and that it's unhealthy. If I didn't want to, I wouldn't-end of story. I mean it's great if you feel as if you would never stoop to "peer pressure," just don't force your beliefs and values on me. Obviously, I am not you. Stop trying to make me you.

Why can't you deal with the so-called "popular culture" at all? Why are you so afraid of being associated with something that is "popular?" Are you that desperate for self-esteem, to put down a whole group of others in order to show your own worth? I can see how my minority of pop-culturists is so easily tormented-there's no reason for me to like what I like. Therefore, my tastes can be argued against without reason, since there was no reason when I chose my tastes. Well, there's no reason for you to not like what I like. There's also no reason for you to like what I like. Similarly, there's no reason for the blueness of the sky or the blackness of my hair or the maniacal earliness of the UC app deadline.

That is one of my biggest points: there's no reason for all these disputes. Let me be the way I am. I don't rage against your obsessions, as quirky as I might think they are, so don't rage against mine. I think we should all try to live together in peace, harmony, and mutual tolerance. Please. I beg of you.

So let me be obsessed over my BSB and X-Files, and I'll let you be obsessed over... whatever you're obsessed over, be it *NSYNC or taking long bubble baths. If you want to mock me in order to show that you're more fashionable and "tasteful" than I am, go ahead, but quit trying to convert me or restrict me to your boundaries. It's not fair, and I'm sick of fighting.

Keep The Backstreet Pride Alive!!

go back.