My Dearest Darlings, much of my contemplations refer to the mainstream print media and it's desire to divide you from yourselves. Alas where some of you are capable of remotely viewing the vileness perpetuated as harmless fodder, many allow your brains to become infected with the thought processes that continuously radiate from whichever 'rag' you 'innocently' purchase. This results in behaviours that idiotically dispense the same ignorance your press want you to display, thus perpetuating your desire to continue to buy and read the poisonous generalisations that fill the pages of The Sun or The Mirror.
From the flippant and cynical exploitation of the feeble to the self serving sycophantic patronisation of the powerful, it would be easy to lay a large portion of the blame on the urine stained doorsteps of Fleet Street. Though as has been said by many before; you receive the press you deserve; all is bite sized chunks of nonsensical conjecture that perpetuates your ignorant view of humanity. Ignorance is blissful unawareness of the harm these myths and stereotypes spread from ill informed observations to cynical accusation.
The 'winners' in the world of journalistic generalities are what are wildly believed to be the 'Normal'. The concept of the fictitious 'Normal' is as ludicrous as it is damaging as anyone who is not 'Normal' is subtly or viciously marginalised from the closed inner sanctum of protection gleaned from the 'privileged' location of the 'Average'.
Though beware; if you are deemed as 'Normal' or 'Average' by your society this only applies until you happen to do something that may prevent you from being included, this then results in you being jettisoned and forced to live amongst the outcasts. In these lands of the extraordinary you will either be honoured or chastised. The extraordinary are thrust into the world of celebrity which offers the 'Normal' something to aspire to. The lowly position of the chastised offers the 'Normal' a selection of deviants to look down on and fear, temporarily comforting the 'Average' who stand little chance of being esteemed, and desperately hope not be punished for stepping outside of the narrow parameters of the 'Average'.
Main stream journalists promote themselves as the definers of 'Normal' deigning this or that as the average version of each particular category of a person. From a 'Normal' house wife to the 'Normal' Muslim to the 'Normal' gay or lesbian person the press are determined to categorise the many into a reductive anthology of the simplest of 'types' in order to present an illusory world that is filed and understood.
What this categorisation of you does is alienate you from your peers. If you are a member of a 'tribe' who is outside the 'Normal' then you have a narrower margin of creativity to explore. If you're a gay person you must be excited by musical theatre and interested in interior design, if you're house wife you must obediently transport your children to school and be an efficient multi-tasker, if you're a Muslim then you must be a religious fanatic who loathes secular society.
Your popular culture herds your sense of identity around the narrow pens of acceptability and 'teaches' you what to believe. The judgemental and ignorant are able to rest in the knowledge that they understand the complex delineations of humanity. Of course this summation is littered with contradiction and hypocrisy, and there lies the crux of the matter, no one is 'Normal', yet you are all 'Normal'. From above you are all the same, no matter how superficially different, you each struggle with your own sense of isolation, wrestle with your doom laden tragedies. Each lives in dread of being utterly alone with out a soul to love. It is this that popular culture wants you to forget, it this single truth that if you completely understood would remind you all of your shared humanity. Each individual 's quest to survive is what unites you.
So My Darlings forget the categorisation that your gutter press attempts to 'educate' you with. Free yourselves from the tyranny of the Red Tops, don't buy them, walk away as I do. Your complex world is a wondrous melange of peculiarities filled with 'Normal' people, each fabulously unique!
With Love the Perfectly Average Ms Coco LaVerne x