The Mythical Norm

“Somewhere, on the edge of consciousness, there is what I call a mythical norm, which each one of us within our hearts knows "that is not me." In America, this norm is usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure.” — Audre Lorde

Tara McMullin

As I age, the more convinced I am that the concept of “normal” is the most toxic thing in our culture.

Angela Garbes • Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change

Whatever conditions people grow up with are the ones they generally consider normal. This is a tribute to the amazing plasticity of the human mind, but it means that we tend to take for granted things that should never be accepted.

resilience.org • The Ideology of Human Supremacy

In some ways, the distinction between normalcy and pathology is arbitrarily defined—as well as hard to measure.

Meghan O'Rourke • The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness

During it, we learn to adopt a story about ourselves—what our value is, what beauty is, what is harmful and what is normal—and to privilege the feelings, comfort, perceptions, and power of others over our own.

Melissa Febos • Girlhood

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

— Albert Camus

Dylano | Essayful • Tweet

Many of us have oriented our entire lives around an effort to be “normal,” never realizing that “normal” is not a stationary goal. It keeps moving while we dance a perpetual foxtrot, jitterbug, and paso doble around it, trying to catch up and confused when we finish each day exhausted and uninspired by this party called life.

Sonya Renee Taylor • The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

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