Definition Essay: Does Normal Really Exist?

Let me start off by saying this reading really opened up my eyes. It’s crazy that there is so much that comes into consideration when being apart of a society. High school is a big part of many people’s lives, they need to make it out big in the hallways. This means that people will do anything in their power just to fit in with the “cool kids”. In reality there is such a thing of a higher status and a lower status, but the fact that in high schools it’s a huge problem is sad. When I was in high schools, which wasn’t that long ago, this was a big problem. People needed to have the hottest clothes, shoes, phones, and music, in order to just be recognized. The funny thing is was that, the “nerds” were very high in demand as well. The cool kids wanted to be on their side as

One of John Hughes’ many classic 1980s hit films, The Breakfast Club begins by labelling the main characters: Andrew Clark is “the athlete”, Brian Johnson is “the brain” (his name is an anagram for brain), Allison Reynolds is “the basket case”, Claire Standish is “the princess”, and John Bender is “the criminal”. These labels identify the roles the students play throughout high school career and with these roles come associated stereotypes and status. These labels, stereotypes, and status make the students not want to associate with the each other at first, but nonetheless, thrown into detention together, confronted with a mutual “enemy”, and through self-disclosure, they begin to learn more about each other and learn they are more similar than they are different. They break through the stereotypes, barriers associated with their labels and learn to accept themselves and each other and ultimately emerging as a cohesive group, they have called “the breakfast club”.

Society tends to have a set definition of what “normal” means as well as how people should behave. The view a population has on normality is an outcome of culture, individuals, and the environment that surrounds it. A person is raised to regard behavior in a certain way, which tends to result in them having a fixed opinion of what is acceptable. An issue of this phenomenon arises when people cannot endure others having a different standpoint on what is customary. It causes individuals to argue and leads to the inferior giving in, submitting to those whose views are much more socially accepted. When the majority pressures their opinions on

“Mean girls, jocks, band nerds, geeks, and freaks” are all terms used to stereotype and group teens in the 2004 movie hit, Mean Girls. This film created controversies in the content that it delivered. The credibility of adolescents is questioned greatly in this film. Mean Girls taught us that popularity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, in fact, they taught us that it’s actually meaningless. Through extreme character development, this movie shows the viewer that at the end of the day, all of the teens are the same. They all struggle to fit in, and that’s really the moral of this hilarious, but raunchy story. Mean Girls captures the struggle that every teen seems to have at some point of where they belong and how they relate to everyone around them. The film takes those stereotypes and melds them into what all high schools should aspire to be: a community.

High school, the best times of our lives. But in every situation others don’t experience it as the time of their lives. In specific, the so called, “Loser, Nerds, Outcasts." Sometimes the perception that most high school movies convey for this certain group are the reality. In this article "High school confidential: Notes on teen movies" by David Denby, He describes the functions of an everyday American high school. David Denby uses very effective language and rhetoric to provide the minds of the opposing side. A sample of the rhetoric skills he uses is stereotypes, ethos, and pathos.

Some aspects of these movies portray the truth within each high school. They show what many schools choose to ignore; the fact that there are many cliques that are somewhat excluded from one another. There may be the jocks, band kids, nerds, troublemakers, etc. Although these groups do appear in many public and private schools, movies take these cliques to the extreme. For instance, the popular movie Mean Girls over-exaggerates the amount of cliques and how exclusive

High school is portrayed as one of the scariest steps that one takes after middle school. This is putting a label on the school and assuming that it is going to be the worst experience in one 's life. The Breakfast Club puts its characters into categories that set labels on people, such as popul students, the nerds, and the outcasts. This film brings out a broad understanding about how people should not form an opinion based solely on a person 's social status.

In years past, I felt as if I need to conform to what was around me to fit in or be considered a normal person. I struggled with this for a long time until I realized on how unhappy I was. I thought that if I had done all these things that I belonged with my peers .I learned that I would be much more happy in my own skin and doing things that make me happy as well. I learned that it was okay to be different and have a strange personality and perspective on life.

In all aspects of the lives we live, normal can not ever be defined as a single idea. If normal is such a thing at all, it is a subjective opinion and can only be defined on an individual level. Everything we interpret is relative to our upbringing and our environment. Not one person had the same upbringing or lived in the same environment as another person for even siblings who have lived together their whole lives have different nurturing experiences. The differentiation between normal and abnormal is a topic of much debate. The meaning of normality varies in many ways such as by person, time, place, situation, culture and set of values. Normality is usually seen as good and desirable by society and what society thinks while abnormality may be seen as bad or undesirable (Boundless).

While high school in reality is full of surprises and twisty roads, teen television shows and movies are based off a strict set of conventions that allude to other teen films. In David Denby 's "High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies," he describes the typical movie storyline and characters: the blonde, superficial cheerleaders that make up the popular crowd, along with the buff, handsome jocks versus the social outcasts comprised of geeks and freaks. Denby continues to explain the nature of these two social standings, including how the “cool group” bullies anyone below them. Denby goes on further to discuss how a particular outsider usually becomes the hero or heroine of the story, despite their social discomfort or awkward

I would like to make another point about Edwin and Rosa’s normality. Although these two characters are set as standard, the standard is not seen as something positive. They are living the typical Victorian life of upper-middle class but they are not happy with it. Edwin longs for the possibility to choose his own way of life, where to go, what to do and who to marry and Rosa desires the same. Although to Jasper Edwin’s life seems perfect the young man does not feel the same. It is interesting that in this case not even normal is seen as normal, that is, it does not necessarily lead to

The first reason to support this claim is that normal does not exist in the first place. This is true because we as a society have coined the word normal as a term to describe someone that is just like the others. Although in reality, everyone is different. Whether it is social differences.like in the case of Curtis from the curious incident, physical or mental we

The term normal is created by our society. According to Lennard Davis, “The idea of

We are conditioned at a young age to believe the only way to be normal is to be

Being a concept to celebrate sustainability in durable design, Super Normal is a concept developed by furniture designer Jasper Morrison and product designer Naoto Fukasawa. It refers to timeless products that serve people without drawing attention to themselves (Fukasawa & Morrison 2012). Calling for a re-realization of unobtrusive designs in daily life, Super Normal encourages designers to re-acknowledge the parts people naturally think are good in design. Generally, designers or even people who buy designs do not advocate ‘normal’ as a design concept, they expect something ‘special’ or ‘novel’ to catch eyes. However, the products that make a difference in daily life are invisible (Norman, 2013, p.13). Design is a