(no subject)

[naath]

A thing I am interested in (but not, I think, very good at actually DOING ANYTHING ABOUT; I suck) is in expanding what counts as "normal" in social terms.

A lot of the opposition to ideas of expanding "normal" seem to fret that what I want is to *change* "normal" to be me, not them, and to exclude them. But I don't really want that at all - I want a bigger "normal", not a me-shaped "normal" (if everyone were just like me the world would be a boring place).

I guess expanding "normal" makes it harder for people who conform to the current normal to find like-minded people; because with the narrow normal they get to assume that everyone is "just like me" and that people who aren't will be polite about correcting them (or just let it slide). Whereas in a world where more choices are normal you have to spend more time on working out what option a person has chosen rather than just assuming they are "like me".

I'm not sure how to make it easier for people who are current "normal" to adapt to a new, wider normality that includes them but also many other people.

Comments

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

Do you just mean "people should be more accepting of difference" or is there more to it than that? Because my sense of being not normal was (in the days before I found environments where I'm normal :-) based on there being noone around, in a circle of 100 people or so, who seemed to be anything like me in ways that were important to me. I don't think there was anything much they could have done about that: it was just a fact. [I mean, what I minded wasn't that they didn't accept me; they mostly did their best. What I minded was that with the best wills in the world, we couldn't connect in the ways I wanted.]

[naath.livejournal.com]

I think, yes, accepting of difference. But also not *surprised* by difference, on constantly demanding that difference explain itself (I know I've been guilty of that one before now). And I think more... mixed up, so people meet more people who are not-like-them.

Also I think more willing to make a concious choice, or a concious consideration of one's true self (depending on whether the thing is more choice-like or more inner-self-like) rather than just "going along with the herd" because "that's what everyone does" unless/until it becomes really clear that that's not working for one.