by Riley MacDonell

Created on: September 21, 2009

I'm a punk and I have been for quite some time now. Just for the record, I've never been much of one for labels, since the only people who ever seem to use labels are people who don't know what they're talking about or only use them to describe themselves, usually incorrectly. Just because Alex dyed his hair black there's no reason to call him a Goth kid. Just because Jimmy has an affinity for glow sticks and strobe lights there's no reason to assume that he spends his weekends doing ecstasy at raves. And for God's sake, just because you listen to the radio-friendly pop-punk and emo/screamo bands of today, that does not give you the right to call yourself a punk. And so I generally keep my distance from labels, because as you can see, there's hardly ever a good circumstance surrounding their usage. Real punks don't need to label themselves as such because it just goes without saying. Just like how you have ten fingers and ten toes and you don't feel the need to announce that to the world at every opportunity available to you, real punks don't feel the need to go around asserting their punk status at every chance available.

Many punks fit the stereotype they're pretty easy to pick out in a crowd. Hair dyed unnatural colors put up in unusual styles; piercings and tattoos; band shirts, bondage pants, Doc Martens boots. You know, that whole drill. Not to say that all punk is, essentially, is fashion. There are some people of that mindset, but I am not among their ranks. Sure, you can dress the part, but if you're not a punk you're not a punk and no amount of studs or spikes or Manic Panic hair dye in the world is going to be able to change that fact. It's impossible to get everybody to agree one hundred percent on what it means to be a punk because the issue itself is so deeply personal. Punk may be a style of music but it is also so much more. It is an attitude, a fashion, a community and a lifestyle. Not many musical genres can boast that, now, can they?

If I had been asked the whole what does it mean to be a punk? question back six or seven years ago when I was first getting into the scene, my answer would surely have been much different. When I first discovered punk I was fifteen years old, full of anger, a complete outcast in the world I was living in. I used to think that being a punk meant being that stereotypical kid with the hot pink hair and the shocking clothes the kid who disregarded authority, who questioned everything, who was as abrasive and

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