- Joined
- Jul 17, 2016
- Messages
- 2,001
Normal to me means things that fit within a certain percentage of the average. It’s just statistics. You can fudge around the limit, but it’s hard to argue against 40-49 y.o. adult men in USA shorter than 5’3” and taller than 6’3” classified outside ‘normal’, they are less than 1% of the population. Car and airplane seats are designed for people sized within a certain range, that’s the ‘normal’ range adopted by the engineers.I don't think anyone is denying diversity. More like saying there is definately diversity. What isn't known is just what normal is. If everyone can fit this or that way into something diverse then what is normal? It seems the term normal only applies to oneself when starring into a mirror. How can two people standing side by side both claim normalcy when there are obvious diferences? Which one is normal and which one is lying?
The words ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ have neutral nonjudgmental meanings, just like ‘white’ and ‘black’.
In many respects I’m normal, in some I’m definitely abnormal. Physically I’m within normal range, but health wise my cholesterol level is not, and my eyesight isn’t either.
Perhaps it’s just me, because I had a spirited debate with somebody who claimed that she was on the autistic spectrum. She had an issue with me saying autism is a form of disability (she called me ‘ableist’, a parallel to the term ‘racist’), but she still wanted special accomodation legally provided only to disabled persons. Special provisions are only granted to special persons, if she insists on being no different than the rest of us, then she would get the same treatment as the rest of us. She can’t have her cake and eat it too.
I fully support giving reasonable accomodations to disabled and disadvantaged persons, but getting called ‘ableist’ simply for using the term ‘disability’ (the actual legal term in USA) rubs me the wrong way.