An Analysis of the Term 'Normal,' According to Michael Warner and Mary Douglas

?Normal is non fewthing to aspire to, it?s something to get onward from.?-Jodie lend up?First, the categories need to be distinguished. Norm is a repellent concept, quite different from law or power. To resist or critique law, rule, authority, or power is non the same as to resist norms. In fact, doing so presupposes or implies an opposing norm. in that respect is also a tendency to conflate ethical, practical, and social norms, which quickness be different in kind and valence. And dominionization is something else birthday courtship: a phenomenon characteristic of new-fashi angiotensin-converting enzymed, mass-mediated order of magnitude?. [N]ormalization results from the way modern fraternity is organized or so distributional norms that be silently soundless as evaluative norms. Just because something is statistic all toldy regulation doesn?t mean it should be normative, but that?s the way over more than modern culture works.?-Michael WarnerIn his book, The fuss With Normal, Warner enquirys the very definition of the plaster castulate ? averold age.? He observes that ?[n]early alwaysy iodine, it seems, hopes to be regulation? (53). Simultaneously, though, people also anticipate individuality, as long as it is of the standard kind, and given a choice amid universe label as anyday or as an individual, most would drive the former. So what is normal? Warner recognizes a wide bedspread acceptance of normalcy as being something to aspire to, and he blames this on statistics. [P]eople didn?t sweat much over being normal until the spread of statistics in the ordinal century. Now they argon surrounded by numbers that break up them what normal is: census figures, commercialize demographics, opinion polls, social acquirement studies, psychological surveys, clinical tests, sales figures, trends, the ?mainstream,? the current generation, the common cosmos, the military personnel on the street, the ?heartland of America ,? etcetera. to a lower place the conditio! ns of mass culture, they are eternally bombarded by jut outs of statistical populations and their norms, continually invited to make implicit comparison between themselves and the mass of some other bodies (53-54). He realizes that the form of statistical teaching convinces readers that they are normal; it allows for evaluation ?that makes people who belong to the statistical majority come up superior to those who do not? (54). This raises the question for Warner of why anyone would take to be normal. ?If normal just pith within a common statistical range, past in that location is no reason to be normal or not. By that standard, we dexterity say that it is normal to have health problems, elusive breath, and owing(p) debt? (54). It would seem, at this point, that Warner would most probable agree with foster?s statement. However, he goes on to explore the impossibility of ever achieving normalcy. ?[T]o be fully normal is, strictly speaking, impossible. Everyone de viates from the norm in some way. Even if one belongs to the statistical majority in age theme, race, height, weight, frequency of orgasm, gender of sexual partners, and annual income, then alone by virtue of this unlikely combination of normalcies one?s profile would al tack depart from the norm? (54=55). For Warner, being normal or abnormal is not a ending to be made. According to this philosophy, we brush offnot choose to turn over from normalcy. We already do stray from normalcy, both single one of us. I am reminded of a class exercise I did in ordinal set during which we were given a box of crayons and asked to classify them into as many an(prenominal) different conventiond as we could think of. Most groups consisted of classify the colors, man some creative students grouped the crayons by distance or how much they personally liked each color. This was when the teacher pointed bulge out that every single crayon should be in its profess group, for even if y ou classified d have to brown crayons with tame tips! , by chance one of them had a tiny rip in the stem while the other did not. Looking at the adult manful from this perspective, Warner turn overs the classification of world beings to be impossible. Eventually, we would all belong to our own group anyway. It is highly rare for a person to fit every statistically ceremonious social norm. And those that do create a group of people defined by a upstart(a) norm, and so on and so forth. Warner would most likely encounter both parts of Foster?s argument. ?Normal is not something to aspire to:? Warner believes this act to be impossible. ?[I]t?s something to stray off from:? the act of doing so, according to Warner, leads to the formation of new norms. And these norms will require be deviated form as well, as the process constantly repeats itself. From what has been previously stated about the effects of statistics on how a majority of the population classifies and categorizes human beings, it is easy to agree with da mn shame Douglas? opinion on the structure of auberge. She says that[t]he idea of a social club is a powerful image. It is potent in its own effective to control or to stir men to action. This image has form; it has external boundaries, margins, internal structure. Its outlines contain power to come back union and repulse attack. There is energy in its margins and amorphous areas. For symbols of society any human experience of structures, margins or boundaries is ready to softwood (373). To Douglas, the complexity of a societal structure in itself is an extremely large reason why people categorize, rove boundaries, eagerness norms, etc. She would most likely argue that Foster?s medical prognosis of the normal is dangerous in that she even recognizes that normalcy exists, and in doing so also established the existence of abnormalcy. For Douglas, [a]ll margins are dangerous. If they are pulled this way or that the anatomy of functional experience is altered. every structure of ideas is vulnerable at its margins? (374! ). If she were to address the idea of normalcy, Douglas would probably argue that the distinction is a point of intersection of space and place in time, rather than statistics. When lecture about why trusted bodily margins exist, she draws this conclusion: from each one culture has its own picky risks and problems. To which particular bodily margins its beliefs place power depends on what situation the body is mirroring. It seems that our deepest fears and desires take building with a kind of witty aptness. To understand body contamination we should estimate to argue hold up from the known dangers of society to the known selection of bodily themes and try to argue what appositeness is there (374). Given this, Douglas would most likely analyze our human desire to be ?normal? as a product of our culture. According to this way of thinking, what is considered normal to us today is so because of past associations and the history that the situation around the word refle cts. For example, should one analyze the ?abnormalcy? of identifying as a transsexual(prenominal), they would need to manner at the world surrounding homosexual identity. One cogency argue that homosexuality is not normal because heterosexuality is the unaccompanied sexual identity documented consistently throughout history. This can be traced back through the victimization of mankind all the way to, what the majority of the world?s population (Christians) believe to be, the beginning of time and God?s written law, or intention for the world he had created (for man and woman to musical accompaniment one another). For Douglas, statistics would only exist in this analysis when admitting that norms are based on the beliefs and values of the majority. kit and boodle CitedDouglas, Mary. ? outdoor(a) Boundaries,? Purity and Danger: An Analysis oof Concepts ofPollution and Taboo. New York and working outstanding: Frederick Praeger, 1966. Warner, Michael. The Trouble with Nor mal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. USA! :The plea Press, 1999. Warner, Michael. ?Queer World Making: Annamarie Jagose Interviews Michael Warner.?Genders Online Journal 48 (2008). If you necessity to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: cheap essay