The Double Standard of Typical

Often people will call something "normal" or "abnormal" when talking of human behavior, but not only is that inaccurate, it is also a double standard. The term "normal" cannot be applied to anything dealing in biological organisms, especially behavior, personality, and personal tastes. At best we can label it as typical or a social standard, however, to be more accurate it's nothing more than a common lie.

Let's look at one behavior, often thought of as "abnormal" or even a "perversion," the "adult baby." There are so many myths on this matter, so many false preconceptions that a psychologist could write an entire library to simply dispel the common myths. The most prevalent being that it's a sexual fetish. Yes, it is common for many to entwine sexual fetishes into the role playing, however that is not inherent in the term.

An "adult baby" is really just someone who acts, and enjoys doing so, like a infant or toddler, even to the extent of dressing as one and adopting a parental figure to help with the role playing. That's all it is, nothing more, no inherent adult themes or even any psychological traits. Many people enjoy role playing, there are two primary role playing industries that dominate every culture, the role playing games (RPG) and what is commonly mistaken for cosplay.

The role playing of sexual fantasies as a fetish is a subculture in the cosplay style role playing, though not, in any way, the larger portion of the industry. The SCA is the most dominant subculture in the cosplay style role playing, and yes, adult babies fit into the same type of culture as the SCA, the only difference are the types of roles played.

Suddenly this "adult baby" thing doesn't seem so strange, does it? Or perhaps the SCA culture seems stranger? There's the double standard I want to focus on. The SCA focuses on re-enacting the 17th century European life, though with so many inaccuracies it's almost laughable. The adult babies focus on re-enacting their childhood, with control over the way in which it develops. If you ask me, the adult babies are better than the SCA in that they admit they are taking artistic license with their role playing.

Other cultures also have this kind of double standard, the transgendered are another that is often forced into many double standards. First, many homosexuals will often treat transgendered as if they are somehow wrong, a double standard I have observed personally many times. Another is that even many transgendered think it's all about sex, even when some transgendered will be asexual, statistically expected, actually.

The other are video game fans, by those who claim video games make people violent yet go to a sports game where they bash in each other's heads for points. Video games cause complacency if they have any effect, this is something that was actually tested and verified through almost scientific methods. Turns out, when people are playing video games they can even ignore pain during surgery, their brain is too focused on the actual game. Quite the reverse of the common claim, yet we know that football has caused people to be violent on many occasions, the players are always violent during the game, since that is part of the game.

I put a bit more focus on the adult baby aspect for a special reason, I have a medical need that requires the use of something the adult baby types enjoy. But the standard versions fail to work so often. So I found a website that catered to the "adult baby," originally price shopping, and discovered their custom made products, designed for those who want more authenticity in their role playing, are actually superior to the standards of other companies. So, I now use those exclusively, even though it costs me a lot more than the others would since I cannot use insurance to pay for them.

So this double standard hurts me, a lot, and thus I see a reason to begin attacking all double standards like this. It's time we discard such childish things, and I'm not talking about the adult babies, and start advancing our species beyond the need to wrongly classify things as "normal" or "acceptable," just live, and let live.