flipping the bird at social conditioning and conformity

[Weena]

Offshoot from an other topic. How do YOU do it?

Here's some of my weird things... i have reasons to write these (for example, being a vegetarian IS a way to not fit in, since most people can't live without eating meat and most cooking books are all about beef and chicken...)

• i never buy magazines
• i don't watch commercial channels
• i go out without brushing my hair or putting on make-up (sometimes ) and i don't care
• i don't accept advertising material in my mail
• i sometimes buy second-hand clothing just cause i like the style
• i wear chunky crystals instead of mainstream laboratory grown gems
• i am vegetarian
• i have unconventional friends
• i live close to nature, and i respect nature
• i find logging trees upsetting

I'll think of other stuff...meanwhile, Elucidate was keen to join the topic

[elucidate]

Mine are pretty much all the same as yours weena, except for being vegetarian...though I did go totally vego for about 2 years at one stage.

*hairy legs when I was in my twenties was my way of saying **** you to society!

*I volunteered for an organization called FOE (friends of the Earth) which is about as **** you as an organization could possibly be, and hung around hardcore activists who are on government blacklists as dissenters...for about 5 years on and off. They also encourage vegetarianism and caring for the environment, and are against cutting down native forestry.

*I have lived with at least 2 active anarchists

*I didn't watch t.v for nearly 10 years all up. Recently started watching a bit now and then.

*I hardly ever wear make-up or heels or even fashionable clothes, infact I mainly prefer op-shops and second hand clothing. I do occasionally though, just to mix it up a bit.

*I don't drive a car, have a mortgage or kids...I ride my bike and rent. This wasn't so much to flip the bird though...I am truly scared of cars, and people who drive cars...I don't want a mortgage, and I've chosen not to have kids.

If I think of more I'll let you know

[Solipsist]

Not to detract or argue anything, but wouldn't a rejection of social conditioning and conformity be a way of conforming to non-conformity?

Just asking, is all.

[roxyruby]

Originally Posted by Weena

Offshoot from an other topic. How do YOU do it?

Here's some of my weird things... i have reasons to write these (for example, being a vegetarian IS a way to not fit in, since most people can't live without eating meat and most cooking books are all about beef and chicken...)

• i never buy magazines
• i don't watch commercial channels
• i go out without brushing my hair or putting on make-up (sometimes ) and i don't care
• i don't accept advertising material in my mail
• i sometimes buy second-hand clothing just cause i like the style
• i wear chunky crystals instead of mainstream laboratory grown gems
• i am vegetarian
• i have unconventional friends
• i live close to nature, and i respect nature
• i find logging trees upsetting

I'll think of other stuff...meanwhile, Elucidate was keen to join the topic

EXACTLY ALL THE SAME AS ME!!!

In fact I just went to a second hand store and bought a new top for my self. It's very sexy ^-^

except I don't wear chunky crystals ^-^

oh and do watch TV sometimes.....only "some" times

[aelle]

- no tv for... What, 20 years now?
- vegan
- no driving... Although I did learn how to earlier this year.
- all the furniture I own was picked off the streets or built from scratch (very unconventional for someone with my income)
- I make more money than my male partner
- I do maths for fun
- I have short short hair. Hair brush? What's a hairbrush?
- I hardly ever shave my legs. My hairy legs aren't a political statement.
- I wear men's perfume (Grey Flanel)
- I don't care about my weight and don't own a scale
- I can fit all the possessions I care about within the 20kg limit for checked-in luggage. I have moved to radically different places a few times.
- I am half of a binational, bicultural, different-religion, multilingual couple
- I love my mother in law. I hear that's atypical

[aelle]

Originally Posted by Solipsist

Not to detract or argue anything, but wouldn't a rejection of social conditioning and conformity be a way of conforming to non-conformity?

Just asking, is all.

It might be if you purposefully look for non conformity as some sort of statement. I purposefully left out a bunch of things that aren't average, but are alternative trends.

[curiouslyrandom]

Originally Posted by aelle

- I wear men's perfume (Grey Flanel)

I wore that in high school! Yummy scent.

• No TV except for a few DVDs like Dr Who and other sci fi stuff.
• I move constantly because I get bored with people and places.
• I only dress like a girl when I feel like making a splash, so people don't see it coming. I like to throw them off balance.
• I own a lot of second hand things, including clothes, dishes, furniture.
• Never had a conventional job with benefits.
• Never had a mortgage.

...and a bunch of things already mentioned.

[Weena]

Originally Posted by Solipsist

Not to detract or argue anything, but wouldn't a rejection of social conditioning and conformity be a way of conforming to non-conformity?

Just asking, is all.

That's why it's in fun and recreation...not much of a serious topic altogether I'm conventional for some stuff (i do have children and mortgage, and i shave ).

[votoshka]

Originally Posted by Weena

Offshoot from an other topic. How do YOU do it?

Here's some of my weird things... i have reasons to write these (for example, being a vegetarian IS a way to not fit in, since most people can't live without eating meat and most cooking books are all about beef and chicken...)

• i never buy magazines
• i don't watch commercial channels
• i go out without brushing my hair or putting on make-up (sometimes ) and i don't care
• i don't accept advertising material in my mail
• i sometimes buy second-hand clothing just cause i like the style
• i wear chunky crystals instead of mainstream laboratory grown gems
• i am vegetarian
• i have unconventional friends
• i live close to nature, and i respect nature
• i find logging trees upsetting

I'll think of other stuff...meanwhile, Elucidate was keen to join the topic

Well mostly the same as this... I don't wear much jewellery at all, in fact, the last jewellery I wore was something my daughter bought for me at the mothers' day stall at school (although I wear earrings all the time... I keep them in so the holes don't close up, but I can't be bothered changing them... I just wear the hypo-allergenic ones you get from the pharmacy).

I don't watch much TV, although I do love Doctor Who, and British murder mysteries.

Umm...I don't listen to the same music as anyone else I know, and don't really care whether it's popular or not.

I don't shave my legs much...but then again, they're not very hairy so you actually have to be up pretty close to notice it!

I was getting tattoos before they were mainstream among average middle class women (don't have a lot though lol when I first got one everyone was like "OMG you've got a tattoo...but no one cares now!).

But the thing is, I don't set out to be non-conformist... I don't even think about it... I just do things my own way

[Federer]

Originally Posted by Weena

Offshoot from an other topic. How do YOU do it?

Here's some of my weird things... i have reasons to write these (for example, being a vegetarian IS a way to not fit in, since most people can't live without eating meat and most cooking books are all about beef and chicken...)

• i never buy magazines
• i don't watch commercial channels
• i go out without brushing my hair or putting on make-up (sometimes ) and i don't care
• i don't accept advertising material in my mail
• i sometimes buy second-hand clothing just cause i like the style
• i wear chunky crystals instead of mainstream laboratory grown gems
• i am vegetarian
• i have unconventional friends
• i live close to nature, and i respect nature
• i find logging trees upsetting

I'll think of other stuff...meanwhile, Elucidate was keen to join the topic

All things looks for females, what about males?? It will be interesting. What do you think??

Make this thread for both sexes. For male i will start...

- I am vegetarian, so unmarried males prefers vegan woman.
- I have big group.
- I have big home, but has big heart. problem.
- We always apply jelly on hairs, i don't.
- I like to be known as lazy man. It's fun.

Just this comes in mind... Anyone else!!!!

[elucidate]

I also don't and will never own a credit card, and I like to take regular naps. I've managed to get to the point where I manage to over-ride any guilt about doing so.

With letting hair grow on my legs, I remember, at the time, it was more about just genuinely not knowing what all the fuss was about...I mean, it's just hair...and it grows there! It amazed me how strong some womens reactions to their own leg hair is. If I'm totally honest though, it was also about getting away with it...which I did(:

Oh, and I am a thinker, who likes to encourage and provoke thought in other people.

[Federer]

Originally Posted by elucidate

I also don't and will never own a credit card, and I like to take regular naps. I've managed to get to the point where I manage to over-ride any guilt about doing so.

With letting hair grow on my legs, I remember, at the time, it was more about just genuinely not knowing what all the fuss was about...I mean, it's just hair...and it grows there! It amazed me how strong womens reactions to their own leg hair is.

You know eluci, generally hair growing on male body starts after 16or 17 years. But mine started two year early. I was Even one day my one lady family relative ask to me, You have hairs on your leg so youngish. I smartly said,"It's all because i am proud of being male."

Now i think, it's all on hormons, we can't control them. Something natural.

Edited reply.

[elucidate]

Originally Posted by Solipsist

Not to detract or argue anything, but wouldn't a rejection of social conditioning and conformity be a way of conforming to non-conformity?

Just asking, is all.

Talk about Buzzkill!

I suppose it does happen, and I'm sure I've had people think that about me before...though I know it was more about having strong feelings at the time that led me to make those decisions...not some way of secretly trying to belong by not belonging...that's just silly! I didn't want to fit in, and why would I...with people who are mostly brainwashed and moronic and don't think for themselves. Why would I want to fit in with them?

I just reacted to what I felt was not aligned with my own thinking about these things...not to necessarily make a conscious political statement of any kind. I went with what made sense to me at the time, which was contradictory to what I'd been told. I do have issues with authority though, but I think that's a good thing.

It just seemed silly to me to bother hurting myself constantly to please males who rarely ever expressed any sort of gratitude or appreciation for the pain I went through to wax, and that it was just hair. Maybe it was partly laziness, but it was mainly just wanting to see what I could get away with!

I also remember feeling like hair was something similar between men and women...though I've heard other women express waxing and shaving as their way of differentiating themselves from men, I saw it as a way in which we were similar and equal...all monkeys deep down. It just seemed so silly the extent we go to. So it came from my feminist ideals I guess, and had a lot of meaning behind it for me... more than a desire to "conform to non-conformity".
The guys I knew didn't mind that much, though their preference was shaved or waxed legs of course...they didn't make a big issue of it though, and it isn't really!

I don't have any tattoos or piercings other than my ears pierced twice. When I was in my late teens and early twenties everyone was getting tatts and piercings, so it seemed like it was more different to NOT get one.

[Medea33]

I think I appear to be very conventional. I also don't think it has ever mattered to me one way or the other, because the conventions I don't have much use for have to do with ideas rather than presentation. Although I suppose my sexual habits are a little unusual.

Oh, and I just realized that it might be a little odd that my nose is pierced and my dogs go everywhere with me, but those are more in the area of personal eccentricities and I have lots of those.

[elucidate]

I love eccentric people!