Monday 21 April 2008

In Search of Normal

So tonight BBC 2 had a programme: Am I normal? I only switched onto it by accident but I was glad I did. It was an interesting programme with a few things I could certainly relate to about my own search for normality.

What really interested me is how one psychologist talked about the fact that when a lot of people say they want to be normal, what they want is to fit in, to not stand out. I can relate to that totally. I want to blend into the crowd as opposed to standing out for negative reasons - because I am fat or unattractive or whatever it may be. But I don't particularly want to stand out positively either - for being really attractive or slim... I don't want to have the attention of everyone in the room on me. I just want to be one of the crowd - smack bang in the middle of normal, medium I guess.

Why is it that we want to be so regular and the same as other people? In so many other ways I like being independent and an individual, but when it comes to how I look I just want to be a regular size and shape. I have no desire to be a size zero or a size ten or 12 even (well maybe a 12 would be nice). No seriously, I just want to be a size 14 and with that I will be happy.

But still, I do need to consider what normal actually means to me beyond not standing out from everyone else. I am going to try and think about this and then write it down - I guess I will put it on my blog. Unless I can identify what it is then I won't be able to know it when I arrive there, nor will I be able to actively work towards it. So that is a task to be getting on with

This is a bit of a short post compared to my usual rambles but that is all I have to say on this for now. Iwill post again soon though with more about my definition of normal.

LMN

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