Ugh! Sterotypes!

[Rage]

Most people who bring this up with me get confused when they find out I work in R&D for a medical device mfg. and I'm a Rennie...

I really don't get much of the stereotype stuff anymore, its always fun when the topic turns into a argument....

[Alphonse]

I am in the same category as Trill, my family and friends have always viewed me as eccentric for my interest in such "weird" things as faire, AD&D, SCI-FI conventions and the diverse books and music that I enjoy.Those varied interests are not something that I could change if I wished, but I like to think that I am blessed for it rather than cursed for not being more "normal" then I am.

[beeboy]

my conservative family is horrified that im gonna travel the rennie circuit.

[Rage]

I am in the same category as Trill, my family and friends have always viewed me as eccentric for my interest in such "weird" things as faire, AD&D, SCI-FI conventions and the diverse books and music that I enjoy.Those varied interests are not something that I could change if I wished, but I like to think that I am blessed for it rather than cursed for not being more "normal" then I am.

The more I see of the people who consider themselves "normal" the less "normal" I think they are. If they are "Normal" then I never want to be infected with whatever they have.

I like being an individual.

[Alphonse]

  your completely right in that those who cling the tightest to their belief that they are "normal" are generally people with the most issues. One of the reasons that I enjoy this forum, faires and conventions is that they are places where I am able to interact with people of similar mindsets. You can't choose the people who are your family but you can do so with your friends.I am much closer with and enjoy the company of my ren-friends then I am with most of my own brothers and sisters.

[Terry Griffith]

There's a reason we call them "Mundane".

[Lady Mikayla of Phoenicia]

Ok..does anyone else run into this problem?
*Sets up scene*

I am begining to think that I should indugle them all, dress naked and do a moon dance dripping in rum with a long haired hippie....*sighs*
In short....ARGH!

Sorry I'm late, it was a full moon last night!!!   

[Morgan Dreadlocke]

"Renaissance Faires??? You like hanging out with all those long haired hippies?"

(where it says long haired hippies please feel free to inseret, drunks, crazy people, witches, Satanists...and oh so many other things)

Sounds like the U of A campus or the Pima County Fair. AZRF is cleaner than either.

[Seryn]

I have to say, I've had a few people look at me a little funny when I mentin my love for going to faire, but no one has really said anything.  Mostly, people who have never been express at least curiosity for what it is all about and I've had a few people decide they want to go try it out. 

[ladyecho]

     I have been look apon strangely for going to faires. . . . by my own family!  And the sad fact is that almost all of them has gone with me to a faire at one time or another, mostly to humor me so I wouldn't go by myself.  Friends of mine give me looks too untill I compare a ren-faire with the local state fair. It's the same thing only in different time periods.  That and when I explain that not EVERYONE dresses up to go some get excited and want to go with me!

[Count Adolfo]

OK, maybe it's just me, but when confronted with such ignorance, I prefer to use a heavy dose of sardonic retort... something like:

"yeah, because they're a lot more fun and intelligent than the lackwit, smallminded, intolerant prisswads that make fun of them behind their backs"

[Queen Bonnie]

 I care not what people think! I have always marched to a different drummer- or bagpiper! Join the parade! LOL!
Stereotyping is done out of ignorance I think.

[VIII]

When asked, "What do you do for a living?" I proudly reply, "I play King Henry VIII at Scarborough Faire."

Most people laugh and say, "No, really, what do you do?"

My rehearsed answer is, "I have worked at Scarborough for twenty-one years, but during that time in the 'real world' I have suffered from two 'down-sizings' that have left me jobless , I have had four companies die right out from under me , a buy-out , a 'shift-of-product-focus' (whatever the hell that means) , and one out-right firing BECAUSE of Scarborough!   To which job do YOU think I owe my allegiance?!?"

I may not make much money at Faire, but they sure have been steady work for me.

Had the 'real world' shewen so much faith in me, thou and I wouldst never have met!

[raevyncait]

I generally don't get the specific statement "oh you are one of those drunk, pot-smokin', long-haired, whatver else, rennie hippies?"  I get something along the lines of "are you one of those weird ones that dresses up in costume and goes out there?"  to which I respond "No, but I am one of the weird ones who dresses in her GARB, and goes out there, and I'm damned proud of my weirdness, thankyouverymuch" 
I also have a co-worker who will periodically forget how proud I am to be a wench, and in a pathetic attempt to insult me will say either very loudly, or under his breath "WENCH!" to which I almost always respond "it's bone deep and proud of it"!

my ultra conservative brother in law fears seeing me in person anytime near a faire, because he's afraid I'll show up in garb and embarrass him. 

[Arsinoe Selene]

A quote I heard somewhere, I think in high school from one of my friends:

It's okay to to be a bit off your rocker. It's the ones that don't know they are that you should worry about.

I totally admit to being a bit off. While I am a very happy, fun-loving person, I have a dark streak a mile wide. I pride myself in being a walking oxymoron. It's more interesting.

Being "normal" is boring. So is being shy, but I'm working on that. It's much more fun to be weird and silly. You can't take yourself or life too seriously. You die in the end anyway, might as well have some fun.