Black Bucket Essays
Volume 1, Issue 2
Normalize difference until there is no space between self and other.
Elena Volkova
Normalization of difference is a communal process. As a child growing up in Soviet Ukraine, I was expected to learn normalizing my differences and to adapt to the average 18% gray of the rest of the Soviet society, to what the government had intended for its people: conformity. It was also difficult for an adult, especially for a woman, to peak her head out of the pool of gray mass, in danger of it being cut off. However, normalization of differences could also have constructive aspects, providing citizens with the minimum of earthly necessities, a life on the dole: a place to live, healthcare, and guarantee of employment. Under the social contract, the space between self and other was being erased: everyone, average, had one goal, to survive, and to be average.
It is interesting to think about normalization of difference in the context of the society where individuality is celebrated, and difference is placed on a pedestal. You are special, we hear parents tell their children. Little girls play princesses to feel unique and powerful. Fostering individuality is institutionalized in higher education, but so is conformity.
Normalization is ubiquitous; it is our social attempt to create equality; but it is also our attempt to retain status quo. It may be true that by being preoccupied with affirming one’s distinctiveness we normalize individuality as a fact. To be a good citizen in a healthy public environment requires normalization. To be an artist requires individuality. However, creating a strong piece of art requires understanding of normalization, understanding of the structures that underline the collective human experience.
Volume 1, Issue 2
Normalize difference until there is no space between self and other.
Elena Volkova
Normalization of difference is a communal process. As a child growing up in Soviet Ukraine, I was expected to learn normalizing my differences and to adapt to the average 18% gray of the rest of the Soviet society, to what the government had intended for its people: conformity. It was also difficult for an adult, especially for a woman, to peak her head out of the pool of gray mass, in danger of it being cut off. However, normalization of differences could also have constructive aspects, providing citizens with the minimum of earthly necessities, a life on the dole: a place to live, healthcare, and guarantee of employment. Under the social contract, the space between self and other was being erased: everyone, average, had one goal, to survive, and to be average.
It is interesting to think about normalization of difference in the context of the society where individuality is celebrated, and difference is placed on a pedestal. You are special, we hear parents tell their children. Little girls play princesses to feel unique and powerful. Fostering individuality is institutionalized in higher education, but so is conformity.
Normalization is ubiquitous; it is our social attempt to create equality; but it is also our attempt to retain status quo. It may be true that by being preoccupied with affirming one’s distinctiveness we normalize individuality as a fact. To be a good citizen in a healthy public environment requires normalization. To be an artist requires individuality. However, creating a strong piece of art requires understanding of normalization, understanding of the structures that underline the collective human experience.
