Response to Rethinking Normal

Take a moment to reflect on the experiences of your own life. What are the particular ideas/values/attitudes that invite us to accept certain aspects of society as normal? You can pull examples from various media outlets, literature, clubs/organizations, etc. The main focus should be on thinking about how we are approached and persuaded to buy into an idea of normal.


I think it's an acceptance of age change that constitutes an adult as normal. If a stranger were to ask me of my music tastes and I name dropped Raffi, the conversation would be considered a waste to all involved. What's funny is that comedians build stage personas around being percieved as immature, and by doing so they make much more money than I could ever imagine. I could think of the biggest number I could, and they would make more money than that by being " a little weird". It's because the media bombards us with images of American adults; well dressed and impossibly beautiful, and we feel an intense desire to follow suit. No one outside of an apple or a UPS commercial will ever appear on TV with a nondescript T-shirt and half beard. It's the corporate bigshots (who I can assure you do not act like their spokesmodels) have us believing that a half million dollar apartment filled with thousand dollar colognes is normal. We don't' see the hour long meetings at Gentleman's Quarterly over whether or not their cover model has his shirt tucked in too far. Or benchmark of normality is born in these hilariously unnecessary meetings, but the results are almost always devestatingly effective. I am here to tell you that drinking only Coca Cola products will not net you a post as king of twenty-something Americans, but instead will leave you a clammy mass of flesh illuminated by the glow of the TV. These are the examples we aren't meant to see, the charicatures of what a companies product will actually do when applied like in a commercial. If you apply a Tag brand body spray, I promise you will not be tackled by women overcome by carnal lust for your branded musk. You may instead expect a compliment on the smell, or be told to stop spraying that everywhere,because like for real its way too strong to use that on a bus.