Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Mainstream and the Norm
In this article, the point is made that the concept of mainstream is inherently a flawed concept, because there is no single over-arching norm that encompasses everyone. This is due to the fact that no single person adheres to every characteristic which makes up what is considered "normal" by any length of the imagination. This piece resonates with all of us, because this is a struggle we all face at certain intervals. We are all attempting to balance who we feel the real us is, and what we feel is the socially acceptable version of ourselves. We are constantly compromising who we really are (although, how can we say with definitive certainty that one of our sides is more real than any other, even if it does emerge under coercion. How are we to say that this is any less real?) This the point made in the article, and it ties in with a theme we has revisited constantly throughout the class. What exactly is normal, and can anyone really subscribe to the notion that any of us conform to this notion?
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I agree with what you said. You described the answer very well also, by talking about no one person holds all the characteristics that makes up "normal". Also, how do you even describe the traits for normal? Everyone gives a slightly different answer of what they think normal means, which just shows that there is no such thing as the mainstream because it varies from the various people. I found it interesting how you brought up how we are constantly changing who we think we are and what is acceptable to others, in which your definition of what you think is socially acceptable could be very different from another persons, and therefore changing yourself for something that can only really be defined by yourself.
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