I have a blog yay!
I've been pondering about it for a while and today I finally decided to make one.
Onto current events.....
I went to the Big Day Out on sunday and for the most of it had a lot of fun. I fainted twice but that's okay I got back up again in a few minutes :3 Something that I did not expect, however, was the amount of stares, glares, and picture taking there was of me and my boyfriend Jared. Obviously coming from an alternative background, we are used to it but seeing as there was a lot of people in one area I should've expected to get more of it I guess.
Being yelled that you're a freak or a fag so many times in one day does start to get to you by the end of the day. So much so Jared had to refrain from punching one man that decided to call him a [insert swear word here] fag from a metres' distance.
This made me start thinking. Why is the fact the we look different such an insulting thing for someone? We weren't doing anything particularly odd, I was wearing a shirt and mini shorts with my pink dreads in and Jared was wearing leopard print pants with a fishnet top. Yes we looked alternative but does that mean we scared people into hostility? Possibly.
Exploring the concept of prejudice has to begin at where it came from. Survival instincts needed in and out groups to survive "us and them". Belonging to a group in primitive times lead to survival, and being suspicious and having hostility towards different groups was also for necessary. Does that mean we are slaves to our nature?
Most people I believe overcome these instincts by telling the brain these instinctual prejudices are false alarms, in this day and age we need interdependence and co-operation between groups but still our instincts arise in our behaviour.
People generally have high positive feelings to their in group. This is no problem, loving your family, your neighbourhood, your culture and/or your country is a wonderful thing. The problem is however, that with these feelings come the negative feelings to an out group "them". Watching football matches turn ugly because of the eccentric and angry fans always curls my toes, as well as seeing any form of outward discrimination like religious wars and racial segregation.
Why do we have to look/behave like everyone else? Why is is so hard to accept difference?
Maybe our primal fears come into play again. I still do not fully understand why people fear difference. As a child growing up in a mainly white community, I really liked seeing different races and religious backgrounds. Difference always intrigued me.
When I was at a bar once waiting for my friend, a slightly drunk man came up to me and kept asking questions as to why I dressed the way I did. I said because I liked the look, what it meant, how it looked etc. He tried in vain to convert me to normality, I couldn't understand why he wanted me to be a normal girl, and he couldn't understand why I didn't want to be one.
Maybe I'll never understand prejudice properly.
I could go on for hours but I have to raid my fridge for leftovers for dinner.
xx.
Kae.
you smell :)
ReplyDeletebecause they dont want their bubble of an existence rocked by anything different.
ReplyDeletei remember seeing a tv show about conformity/peer preassure/media preasure or something aaages ago and what sticks is a comment from a little plainish girl who was asked, "why do you feel you need to have all these (el generico)things?" and her reply was along the lines of
"because if i dont have the same things no one will like me and be my friend"
and the same opinion goes for thoughts and opinions, if you dont appear to think the same thing as someone else your left in an awkward space wondering if its actually okay to think something else. will that person still like you if you dont? what will that person say to all your common friends? will you be outcast? quickly change your opinion, that'll fix it.
which does infact link right back to survival of the fitest.
I love your evolutionary psychology reference up there, I think everything boils down to reproduction and survival.. I actually say that everything can be boiled down to reproduction alone.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it really is all about sex.. Being the same, but better, in the animal world is what it's all about.. The lion with the biggest mane has a good chance to become alpha male and mate, (the aggression works in there too, I mean they fight for the alpha male position) and the one who looks a little patchy, say he got into a bad fight/stuck in a trap whatever has no chance.
Now I'm not saying that alternative people look like they were stuck in traps :p I'm just saying that as a 'pack of animals' conformity = good chance of mating and looking different = shunning by the tribe
You should post more psychology stuff up here! I'm sooo jealous that you've already been doing it for so long!