When you are in a position where you are the norm in all your visible social circles. you have a unique privilege of security and acceptance. Everything is built around you. Caters to you. Is aimed for your approval.
In North America this means being white and male, with a comfortably upper middle class income. That is the norm. (Note: “normal” doesn’t mean “most common”.) If you’re in this norm, the fact that television beat cops live in apartments that are positively CAVERNOUS doesn’t register on you. Of course they do. That’s “normal”. Ads are directed toward your tastes. Even ads for women’s products. (Do you think pads are stained blue in ads for women’s delicate sensibilities? You know, the women who see the actual colour with monotonous regularity?) It is so normal that any attempt to even reflect the actual demographics of the world you inhabit feels like something being “forced” upon you.
In China this means being Han. (It’s a toss-up if Han-male or Han-female is the norm. This goes back and forth.) If you’re Hui or Gan or Yi or Dani or whatever, you’re the odd one out. You’re the one valued for the “diversity” you bring within very narrowly circumscribed bubbles. Otherwise literally everything around you is Han. Han stars. Han models. Han culture dominates everything outside of your very narrow “autonomous regions”. And if you poke your head outside those “autonomous regions” you’re the centre of attention. Not even hostile attention. Just … you’re the odd one out. All eyes are on you as a result.
The privilege of “normalcy”.
When you are in a position where you are the norm in all your visible social circles. you have a unique privilege of security and acceptance. Everything is built around you. Caters to you. Is aimed for your approval.
In North America this means being white and male, with a comfortably upper middle class income. That is the norm. (Note: “normal” doesn’t mean “most common”.) If you’re in this norm, the fact that television beat cops live in apartments that are positively CAVERNOUS doesn’t register on you. Of course they do. That’s “normal”. Ads are directed toward your tastes. Even ads for women’s products. (Do you think pads are stained blue in ads for women’s delicate sensibilities? You know, the women who see the actual colour with monotonous regularity?) It is so normal that any attempt to even reflect the actual demographics of the world you inhabit feels like something being “forced” upon you.
In China this means being Han. (It’s a toss-up if Han-male or Han-female is the norm. This goes back and forth.) If you’re Hui or Gan or Yi or Dani or whatever, you’re the odd one out. You’re the one valued for the “diversity” you bring within very narrowly circumscribed bubbles. Otherwise literally everything around you is Han. Han stars. Han models. Han culture dominates everything outside of your very narrow “autonomous regions”. And if you poke your head outside those “autonomous regions” you’re the centre of attention. Not even hostile attention. Just … you’re the odd one out. All eyes are on you as a result.