Difference vs Similarity

Ok so I was only going to post the previous post referencing Zeitgeist but I picked up on something, and it has been running around in my head.

Although not directly mentioned, it was inferred that the media is perpetuating the problems we already have by focusing on pointing out and vilifying our differences instead of celebrating our similarities. It is done so subtly that most of us probably have never and would never even notice it. But it’s definitely out there whether it takes the subtle form of the ideal of this height, this weight, this hair colour, this designer, this school being the socially accepted norm or the more in your face racism, religious intolerance, sexual stereo types and things of that ilk that are perpetuated.

This whole thing of your differences being unacceptable is something I can identify with on a personal level since I am by no stretch of the imagination the media’s ideal and never have been. Some of my most vivid memories are of incidents where I was picked on, teased and in some cases even shunned by my peers precisely because of those differences. Instead of dealing with the issues of growing up as a united front as children and later young adults we all (and yes I’m ashamed to say even I’ve done it on occasion) pick on those that appear in any way, shape or form different from what the prevailing media standard is at the time. There is little if no acceptance that we are all human and on the most basic levels the same, instead the things that make us different are the things that are concentrated on. And until we realise and accept that as humans we are all in search of and in need of the same things I guess the media are going to just keep feeding us this line of this is the norm and anything outside that is unacceptable.

Well I’m making the conscious decision to accept our differences and celebrate our similarities and in my own small way make a difference to the way people who are different are perceived.

So yes today I have learnt a lot about others, the media and myself, I have laughed at the absurdity of it all and I have loved those that do accept me just a little more but most of all I have actually lived. . . . . . .