Is being normal a good or bad thing? Some people want to fit in to be normal while others want to stand out. Normal is defined as conforming to a standard or usual idea. But each culture might have different opinions on what is normal and abnormal. In certain countries, eating domestic animals is considered a normal thing to do while other countries find it repulsive or immoral to do so. When someone violates a social norm or breaks a social rule, he or she seen as abnormal. Most of normal human behavior is formed by social norms carried out by society such as eating, walking, and talking.
Allan Horwitz states that, “Conceptions of “the normal” are used to sort people into jobs, screen out allegedly abnormal people from valued social roles, de? ne what deviance is, and set norms by which people judge valued behaviors (2008). ” This is true as certain occupations such as police officers use psychological tests to determine an applicant’s state of mind. Police chiefs would not hire someone who is insane or kleptomaniac as they are not fit to do the job. What I determine is abnormal is something completely unusual I don’t see on an everyday basis.
When you see someone jogging outside in the winter, you usually see someone wearing sweats, hoodie, or underarmour material. But a few days on College Avenue, I saw an elderly man with long blonde hair wearing a zebra-colored shirt and very short shorts. The clothes and the hair is what made me think the phenomenon was abnormal. It was a cold winter day so it was strange to see a person running in shorts. Also, it was uncommon for a man at this age to have such long hair. All of these violate social norm and my feelings were based on cultural norms.This may be biological as he might have been raised to dress like that. He also might be homosexual as society perceives men wearing short shorts as flamboyant.
During this year’s Super Bowl, there were many commercials, but there was one that I found abnormal. It was the one with the model, Bar Rafaeli kissing a less attractive, “geeky” man. In modern society, one does not usually see a very attractive person kissing a physically unattractive person as the more attractive person can be humiliated by peers. But the unattractive person might be glorified by peers for kissing a good-looking person.In the article, the writer states that the actor, Jesse Heiman was contacted by guys who wished they were him and girls who wish they were Bar Rafaeli and wanted to go on dates with him. This violates social norms that usually an overweight and unattractive nerd can kiss a beautiful model which is unlikely to happen in society today.
My feelings are based on cultural norms and personal reasons. Personally, I think this kind of relationship would never happen in real life. Other factors I found abnormal was the sounds they were making while they were kissing. It was mildly disgusting to hear.An article I found abnormal was about a waitress who got fired by Applebee’s for posting a note of pastor not tipping her.
The waitress posted the note on Reddit that shows the customer scratching out an automatic eighteen percent gratuity and writing the number zero and the words, “I give God 10%. Why do you get 18. ” The customer then filed a complaint which got the waitress fired. What I found abnormal was that it is customary to tip the waitress unless that person was a terrible waitress. Most waitresses make their money from tips. Another thing I found abnormal was that the customer used religion as an excuse to not tip the waitress.The pastor was embarrassed by her church and ministry for using God as an excuse. My feelings are based on moral considerations, cultural norms and personal reasons.
The pastor is immoral for using religion as an excuse to not tip and as a religious person, I find this offensive. An exceptionally talented musician is not usually seen as abnormal, but rather unique. It does not make the person abnormal, thus seen as a positive instead. Abnormality is usually seen as negative. A person staring at the people in elevator instead at the doors can be seen as abnormal.
Normal behavior varies between different cultures and societies. This shows that there is no universally accepted definition of normality since what is socially acceptable in one society can be considered taboo in another. Elderly people wearing inappropriate clothing in wintry weather can be seen as normal in other societies while in college surrounding can be seen as strange.
Some religious people might not judge the pastor for not tipping while other waitresses sympathize with the waitress getting fired. Normal human behavior can vary from person to person in the society he or she lives in.