Biker Chic

This one goes out to Josh who told me to blog every hour during my day off even though that probably won't happen.

This one also goes out to my professor who is gone today and cancelled class.

I was in my basic communication class a couple of weeks ago and we were participating in a class activity. We had been given articles from the Star Tribune newspaper. I don't like the Star Tribune. I don't know why but I have been a Pioneer Press guy every since I was a kid so the Star Tribune is weird to me.

Anyways, my group got an article titled, "Biker Chic," which I pronounced "Biker Chick" until someone pointed out that it was "Chic," pronounced like "Sheek" which was slightly embarrassing for me but understandable. I mean, who ever uses the word chic in a normal sentence?

The article was about a new line of motorcycle clothes for woman which is as weird as it sounds. Pink leather jackets, etc. etc.. I didn't relate to it all and was slightly creeped out by it. I explained the article to my professor and the rest of the class telling them how the article was about woman's motorcycle clothing and how their was some convention coming up where you could find these clothes. My professor asked who the intended audience was and I said woman who drive motorcycles or people who know woman that drive motorcycles.

Eventually we got to how this article defines someone. How it defines woman that drives motorcycles and everyone else. I didn't think that this article had anything to do with my life and that it didn't define anything about me but then my professor said something interesting.

He said how we are defined by what we're not.

This struck me. Defined by what we're not. We define ourselves by choosing not to be something, by not relating to something. Biker Chic helped define who I am by telling me who I am not. I am not a motorcycle enthusiasts or a woman clothing enthusiast. That is who I am. So I got to thinking about other people, famous people, and started defining them by what they are not.

For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was defined by not acting out in violence, same as Gandhi.

So I guess defining yourself goes both ways. We seem to be defined by what we are and what we are not. We sit there and make labels for ourselves usually by what we like and are passionate about but we can also labels ourselves by what we are not. I just had never thought of it that way before.

I still don't like the Star Tribune, but Biker Chic made me not like it less.