“So _____ Is Now Suddenly Not Okay?”

As social awareness and sensitivities change resetting norms and expectations it is almost always a slow and bumpy process.

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

We try to do the best we can with the knowledge and information we have at the time. Sometimes that knowledge is sufficient, sometimes extensive, and sometimes it is not. We are shaped by the norms we are surrounded by growing up. Sometimes they are healthy and supportive, sometimes admirably empathetic and inclusive, and sometimes they are not. As societies evolve the collective awareness and understandings change, typically expanding but not always. With those changes come new sets of norms which can at times directly contradict those which came before.

Just because something is a societal norm does not mean it is a good, healthy, fair thing. Nor does it mean it is not. All norms contain some form of inherent bias, the most obvious being the impulse to view that which applies to the majority as being the assumptive standard for everyone. More common does not mean more correct, it just means more common. If the most common height in a certain population is 5’7” that does not mean 5’7” is the ‘right’ height, it is simply the most commonly occurring.

Norms form and take hold for countless reasons but whether they are beneficial or harmful the main characteristic they share is the perception they represent the…