Late Night Musings: The Trouble With "Normal"

Shortly before the whole Covid thing hit, I was sitting in my doctor's waiting room, reading an article in some random out-of-date psychology magazine. I don't remember the magazine, and I barely remember the overall gist of the article (about educating children), but I do remember the frequent references to assorted groups of children who were described as "falling outside the norm."

Remembering that, I started thinking about how "normal" has become one of the most mis-used words in our culture, and how we've taken to using a proliferation of "normalizing" jargon to excuse almost any and every difficulty in the Human Condition, rather than deal with it. Normalization has become the path of least resistance for an ever-increasing number of people who languor in the world of victimology and learned helplessness.

The notion of "normal" actually seems to be moving all over the map.

We "widen" definitions in some areas to allow people who actually aren't very normal, to feel normal. Pardon my cynicism, but goodness, we wouldn't want anyone to feel "excluded," would we?

Paradoxically, we narrow normalcy in other areas, so a different group of people can be pathologized, rather than be left alone to live normal lives. Goodness, we wouldn't want to deny someone access to Prozac to numb out their negative feelings over their neighbor's dog pooping in their yard, would we? What gives?

Of course, in these days of "Political Correctness" and inclusiveness what I am suggesting here might be considered inflammatory and practically blasphemous. Everyone should be afforded equal access to having a pathology, or not having a pathology. But before you get your shorts tied in a knot, I am certainly not attacking anyone who has genuinely serious problems in their life; many of us do. I am merely shining a light on the way a growing number of people are using the label "normal" as an excuse to not deal with "The Stuff of Life," from weight problems to an assortment of emotional and psychological issues.

It seems to me that "normalization" has taken on near-epidemic proportions in our current society. I am not just talking about the use of the term, I am talking about the inclusiveness of it. Where 30 years ago an "abnormal" behavior pattern might have referred to the 1-2% extreme of a pattern, today it might refer to maybe 10-20%. Or maybe more. Sometimes it even strikes me that the "normal" people within a population have become the minority, not the majority!

Getting Personal...

By most measures, my personality (and physical traits) includes at least 3-4 "statistical outlier" traits that might have been described as "quirks" some 40 years ago, but today gets me pursued by self-proclaimed "experts," trying to convince me that I have some kind of "syndrome" I should seek "treatment" for.

On the other hand, if I mention that it wouldn't hurt me to lose 20lbs, other people jump up and insist that my weight is actually "normal," lest my desire to lose weight "insults" someone else's insistence that the extra 70lbs they carry actually are "normal" and "height-weight proportionate," and that I need to be sensitive to the "body positive" movement.

I am not only tired of being "normalized," I'm tired of what seems to be a growing paranoia, vis-a-vis anyone who doesn't fit some very narrowly defined criteria of How To Be. Why have we become so obsessed with "categorizing" everyone into every tighter little pigeonholes?

Frankly, I'm tempted to say "bite me!" and ask these people to instead consider whether or not I am a content human being, living the life I want.

Of course, that would probably get me classified as having Antisocial Personality Disorder... so I'd better be careful...

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

How about YOU? Have you noticed how more and more things are "illnesses?" Or, conversely, how illnesses have become "normalized" so people can avoid DEALING with them? Give me a shout back... Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210305 23:34 PST
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