When sophomore Tony Nguyen steps out of his dorm each day he looks pretty much like a regular college student. He has a backpack on his shoulders filled with books and homework, and he wears a T-shirt and jeans.
There is one thing that makes him stand out among his peers, though. Perched atop Nguyen’s head sits a set of fuzzy, black cat ears. He doesn’t leave home without them.
Students want to know: Why the ears?
“When you become a topic of conversation it’s weird,” said Nguyen. “In my case it’s a bewilderment. I mean, there is the war in Iraq and the Darfur genocide, but students are talking about me.”
Nguyen isn’t the only student at SMU who has a creative accessory. Junior Allee Wesolowski adds character to her hair with a spork that sits on top of her ponytail. A spork is an eating utensil that has the bowl shape of a spoon combined with the tines of a fork.
She has also been known to wear a Renaissance-style cloak.
“It’s very warm, very windbreaker and water proof,” said Wesolowski. “I don’t know why they ever went out of style.”
Nguyen and Wesolowski are college students expressing themselves in different ways. What many students at SMU call “quirky” and “weird,” Nguyen and Wesolowski find to be creative and an extension of their unique personalities. On a campus like SMU, where the stereotype of conformity is popped collars and pearls, some students still want to stand out and not follow the crowd.
“When you have a society that is very conformist, people often use things that are completely random so they can be saying, ‘I’m challenging this idea,'” said SMU sociology professor Dr. Sheri Kunovich.
Nguyen and Wesolowski’s celebrity status on campus has been confirmed on Facebook. Wesolowski said that a couple years ago she was wasting time on the social networking site, Facebook, and searched “sporks.” A group came up called “What the hell’s with the spork?” It was a group dedicated to her. She said she joined the group and got involved.
“I put a post on the discussion board that said, ‘Yeah that’s so weird what’s with her?'” she said. “They made me an officer and my title was ‘I am the spork girl and I will be more than happy to answer any of your questions.'”
Nguyen had a similar encounter on Facebook. He said his roommate broke the news to him one day that some stranger had created a Facebook group called, “I want to know why that Asian kid always wears cat ears.” Nguyen is not sure if the members of the group know his name, but some of his friends did join.
“They have sightings of me,” said Nguyen. “They make up stories about what I was doing, like I was sitting at the end of the hallway licking myself or playing with a ball of yarn.”
Sophomore Jared Caraway said he created the Facebook group because Nguyen’s eccentricity was fascinating. Caraway also said speculation about why Nguyen wears the ears is half the fun.
“It’s kind of like something that you want to know why he does it, but it is also fun to come up with your own interpretation,” Caraway said. “You just don’t see people go out of their way to put on cat ears.”
So what is the reason? Nguyen said one of his best friends in high school wore them and persuaded him to wear them once or twice.
“We went to Gameworks at Grapevine Mall and I wore them all day,” he said. “It’s just fun!”
Wesolowski has a more in-depth explanation abut her spork. She is a member of an online community where people write stories about their favorite movies, books or television shows. They post these stories, called fan-fiction, online and people comment on them. Many of these authors write stories with “Mary-Sue” characters.
“They have no flaws and they just whine about how bad their lives are,” she said. “In these communities, it is said that the spork is the best weapon against them.”
Wesolowski’s fame isn’t just at SMU. She said that people at her high school still talk about the “spork girl.” People on other college campuses know her as well. Wesolowski remembers a conversation with a student from Texas A&M.
“A spork fell out of my bag and he was like, ‘Wait, you are the spork girl from SMU?'”
Wesolowski also calls herself a “Rennie.” She loves the Renaissance and attends numerous festivals. Of course, she wears her famous Renaissance cloak. At the festivals, her cloak fits right in, but not on SMU’s campus.
“It just makes me stand out,” said Wesolowski. “I’m not wearing designer labels. I’m not wearing the popped collar or anything. I guess everyone knows who I am because of it.”
It is unknown if Nguyen’s fame has spread off-campus, but he is definitely well known at SMU. He said he once came up in a discussion during a friend’s English class.
“The subject of standing out popped up during his class,” said Nguyen. “My friend said random people I don’t know started talking about me and he just sat in his seat and smiled.”
Like Wesolowski, Nguyen doesn’t feel the pressure to be fashionably correct on SMU’s campus. He thinks some things considered “fashionable” are just as weird, if not weirder, than his ears.
“It is completely bizarre to me why girls wear fuzzy snow boots when they live in Texas and it’s 80 degrees outside!” said Nguyen. “And with a mini-skirt! My ears are considered strange and that’s supposed to be a fashion statement?”
Nguyen said a lot of people on campus do come up and ask him about the cat ears. Sometimes when he walks on campus, he sees groups of students peer-pressuring someone to come up and talk to him.
It points to a contradiction, he said.
“I’m the one who is supposed to be socially introverted or awkward, but they are too shy to come up and talk to me,” said Nguyen. “How can you be embarrassed when I’m wearing cat ears?” he said.
Nguyen has no problem being identified as the kid who wears cat ears. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. He unfolds it and pulls out a small plastic card.
“See! Even my SMU ID has me wearing my cat ears!”
