Down with censorship

Been watching MTV's hit cartoon series Daria for the last week or so. It was a highlight of my adolescence, however sad you may think that. Daria is a morbid, sarcastic teenager who (of course) is a social out cast at school. She has one friend Jane, and she has a crush on Jane's older brother, Trent. Her younger sister Quinn is a shallow, self-absorbed annoying little girl who runs with the popular crowd, none of whom quite 'get' Daria. Their parents are clueless, but helpful at the right times. The writing is quite good, and the jokes are hilarious. But that's not why I identify with Daria.

One recurring theme in the show is the fact that Daria doesn't like the labels that society has given her (geek, brain, uncool, unpopular). But she doesn't necessarily want to lose them either. She's still figuring out who she is, and right now it's comfortable to accept those labels and live up to them. She's afraid to act out what she really wants, or who she really wants to be.

Have you even censored yourself? I find myself doing that. Sometimes, it's for a good cause. A friend isn't ready to hear the unvarnished truth about herself yet. The boss doesn't need to know that you're trying to recover from period pains as you type. But sometimes it becomes unhealthy because we forget who we are and what we want. We push our own desires and needs into a little box, hide it, and go around pretending to be whatever that spectator expects at that point.

When do we shed the box? When is it ok to ask for what you want? When is it ok to believe that you can have what you want just because you asked for it? If Quinn doesn't get a compliment from a guy in under five minutes of conversation, she asks for one. I think Daria and I could learn from that.