Normalcy, Beauty and Ideals

Define normal. If they gave me an apple pie every time someone said that, I would weigh 200 pounds by now. Normalcy is a concept that preoccupies all of us. After all, we all want to fit in. We all fear being outsiders - strange, unusual. Pariahs. But what is normal? If you think about it, normal is that which is deemed acceptable or desirable by the majority of society.

Say what?

By the majority of society. You think only in politics the majority has the power? Think again. All through life people are struggling to belong - to be normal. What that really means is that they try to be like everyone else. No one wants to be part of a minority - that makes you weak. Safety in numbers. Example: Homophobes complain about homosexuality being unnatural. Why do they have to fight to be heard? Because most people disagree. Yes, that's right. The majority.

The majority also decides what is beautiful. You open a magazine and they give you a uniform message: to be beautiful, you need to be tall and skinny. What do you think would happen if the whole media conspired to put chubby girls on their covers? Our concept of beauty would change. Hell, if everyone put two-headed men in their magazines, that would become the norm(al). We'd be queueing around the block to have an additional head sown on. That's a very sad side of the normalcy discussion. It is in our power to change what is normal and what isn't but we regularly miss the mark.

Women have achieved a lot the last two centuries. We attained the right to vote, we started wearing trousers and became career-driven and promiscuous. To understand this movement, you only need to understand the same basic principle of normalcy. Women campaigned for the majority to get these things done. They protested till they were blue in the face to get the vote. And one woman found out that although the first to wear trousers walks a lonely path, others are sure to follow. Yet where are we headed now? We are no longer promiscuous. It has become popular to dress provocatively, to the point of looking like a harlot. How did this come about? Jep. It has become normal.

Let us take the word normal back and return it to its proper meaning. We need values to become normal again. We need elegance and sophistication. The world is becoming completely demoralised, filled with shallow drunks obsessed with vanity. Nowadays, it is a compliment to be abnormal. The pariahs have personality, taste and class.

All hail to the freaks. We should overtake our more glamorous rivals. The world would be the better for it.