Sometimes I hear that I'm a weird person. For different reasons and it's happened many times. But that's not how I view things. I think the world is a strange place, where we do weird, senseless things all the time. It's not just me who's weird, everyone does weird things. I might be different, though. Meaning I do some weird things that other people don't. Just other, different, weird things.
Weird has a negative implication. Weirdness hints at something being awry, not quite right. Different, however, does not. We often misinterpret or mislabel things that are different as weird, just because they're alien to us, and this might scare or shock us. Which of course makes no sense.
If a man of a tribe met a man from the city, both would think the other is weird. But in reality, weirdness doesn't exist, there is only difference. We look at other cultures all the time, non-western cultures specifically, and we think "Wow, that's strange, why do they do that?". A macabre example, in Asia, eating dog meat is quite a normal thing. In other parts of Asia, they believe that cows are holy. So strange, right? Cows. Of all animals. That's weird to us. And dog meat is downright taboo here. Dogs are our best friend, and cows are born, live, and die, just to be eaten.
Meanwhile, they think we're weird. To them, it's perfectly natural that dogs are food, like any other animal (Except cows. Cows are holy.). Everyone's weird. To someone. Does that make no one weird? It's a strange word that doesn't really mean anything. It's just an insulting way to say something is different, and it stems from a simple lack of understanding. And sometimes, a lack of will to understand. Sometimes, you get so ingrained into your own circle of thought, everything that differs from it becomes offensive to you. For no real reason at all.
This hatred for the different is everywhere, and it always makes very little sense. This animosity can be found between individuals, peoples, cities, languages, countries. It can be found between different brands of cars, branches of academics, and between separate yet similar religions. This fear of other has many names. It's racism, homophobia, and sexism all at the same time.
You should be very careful in labeling things "weird". You'd probably save us all a lot of time and trouble by accepting that it is simply different.
Okay. That drawing MIGHT be kinda weird. But just a bit. I like it a lot.
Personally, I think it's more of an insult to call somebody "normal" than "weird". If people perceive you as normal I feel like they find you quite boring. There's nothing special or interesting in "normal". Just plain mainstream. If some people perceive you as weird it just means there's something special, interesting or even mysterious about you and in my opinion that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI apply this same theory to faces, but we've had that conversation and I know you don't agree with me on that. But yeah, I still think a slight imperfection in a face makes it more attractive than a conventionally handsome face. It makes it memorable and memorable's good. It's like perfume, you have to have that one slightly bad odour in order to make a perfect perfume. (And then apparently a 13th master scent if you want to make people believe you're an angel and have a huge orgy at the market square, but that's a completely ~different~ topic.)