Culture Shock (or, Ramblings of a White Christian-Born American Norm)

[azook]

I learned the other day that this music artist I like is a member of the furry community. I was all ready to pay money for his work, and then I started looking more into the artist, and my first reaction was just, "Oh. Maybe not." It squicked me, even though it didn't mean anything sexual. All of his albums have different animals on them, but I had

Comments

[vest_button]

Hey! agree with Abby - it is good to hear from you!

One thing that occurred to me as I read it is that one of the reasons we embrace childhood make-believe more might be because it makes sense for children to try on identities - see what it feels like to pretend to be a doctor, or a princess, or a homeowner, or whatever. To some degree they'll have to adopt some identity in the future, and make-believe can be a way of trying these new ideas. That's part of the growing up process - but after a while, we think you're grown up and your identity should be more set - and, perhaps, more helpful to those around you.

I don't know that much about counter cultures like the furry communities, but some of the objections that I sometimes have with people who spend a lot of time with alternate identities is that it seems that they are putting a lot of time and energy into something that doesn't really help others. I guess there's a limited ability to which that could be true, since people have to be useful to eat. Even this guy is an artist and producing enjoyable music, and to a degree it makes sense that after he's done his bit and can do his thing in spare time. But sometimes it just seems that people are interested in assuming and enforcing their identities, and not in helping others - and to me, helping others is a higher end than self-expression, so people who value self-expression more seem odd to me. I wonder if that's something you're responding to, too - the Japanese idea of support and protection can help others, while "not growing up" doesn't really.

Those are my two cents worth of musing. Hope things are going great in Texas!