What’s the weirdest thing society accepts as normal?

[ForFunAquaTurtle]

Cheese on a stick

Boxing as a sport and as an entertainment. I don't love it or hate it - I just find it odd that in this day and age it's legal and televised to cause so much damage to someone's brain that they lose consciousness.

Also sunbeds.

That some men just decide to opt out of parenthood when the couple are no longer together and it doesn't affect their reputation or seem to affect how others view them, or to be seen as a major character flaw. And that the word 'negligent' is rarely or never applied to such men.

Yes, this! I am genuinely shocked at the casualness of binge drinking and the dependence on alcohol that a huge proportion of the British public display.

“…Humans are the only species to pay to live on the Earth. And the only species who work. And we’re supposed to be the most intelligent ….🤔”

Good point @ClairDeLaLune

Not just cigarettes and alcohol wouldn’t be invented or discovered today ( seen as ‘too bad ‘ for health to manufacture ) but also the idea that cars and other vehicles run on flammable liquids ! All of these things have added millions each year to the countries coffers though , without any of them it may not have helped the cost of the NHS (for example. )
The government could easily make alcohol about 100 pounds a bottle overnight and maybe stop a lot of addictions , but they won’t of course although many people don’t smoke now and tend to vape instead.

If this stuff is interesting to anyone, I highly recommend Normal Women by Phillipa Gregory. Incredible book - the history of “normal women” spanning centuries.

I think most parents would supervise them playing out at that age though. It seems absurd to say children shouldn't play outside at all unless accompanied by adults if that's where you're coming from, how restrictive.

Yes, 'recreation' sex.....I often think it would be better if sex was for procreation only, like it is with most other mammals (I know there are some other species who do have sex for simple pleasure too). What would the world look like then? Would violence against women change? Rape as a tool of war: would that still go on or would something else (eg torture) take it's place?

It is utterly ridiculous to be homophobic
It's as daft as opposing heterosexuality.

You love who you love.

Being 'transphobic' is not the same
You can't change sex. Delusions shouldn't be normalised

And that view is nothing to be ashamed about

That it's OK - even admirable - to spend loads of money altering your appearance, especially fillers, plastic surgery, BOTOX etc., unless it's for a health reason.

And - cheese and pineapple on sticks is DELICIOUS!

That we spend hundreds on our dogs, getting them haircuts and paying for day-care for them, and enrichment toys... while at the same time eating other animals.

That we have religious primary schools for our kids to attend and mix only with kids of the same religion.... then they get into the workplace where diversity is celebrated and encouraged.

That random people on the street with no training get to be on a jury and decide the fate of someone else

Yes, that's always amazed me!

And in a workplace/societal set up which suits men, and women are deemed lesser/unreliable for struggling to fit in with this, due to all the other shit we have to cope with that men don’t.

My one - Christmas trees in your house. I love them, but it’s an odd thing to do when you think about it!

I just thought of another one: people wishing their loved ones with whom they live in the same house (or definitely have the private phone numbers for) a happy birthday publicly on the internet via social media channels with effusive sentiments about how exceptional and wonderful the person is. I have lots of friends who do this too. I am not judging it. I just find it so fascinating that this has become normalised with normal folk - probably due to it trickling down from celebrity culture. On my son's birthday, I saw him in the morning and only said "Happy Birthday, son" to his actual face.

It’s not always been this way in the UK though. It’s only in quite recent years that the norm has become around 3 weeks. I remember my grandparents and other elderly relatives dying and their funerals were all within week.

It’s probably in the last 10-15 years that it’s taken longer.

Yes I've been to several funerals in the past that were only a few days after the death. The longer waits are a more recent thing. My stepdad who died recently had to wait almost a month to be buried and that was a shock to me as I hadn't realised that was happening now.

Yes it’s ridiculous now. Used to be the case they were within a week. Now less than 2 weeks is unusual and 2 - 3 more common.

The most bizarre normalisation is the birthday wishes for people who aren't even on social media

My brother called windows looky outys when he was a kid.

Paying extra money to advertise exorbitant brand on clothes you wear. Things essentially just to keep warm/preserve modesty.
Fashion
Wealth inequality that we allow to happen.

There is a word that is whelmed and it’s the root of underwhelmed and overwhelmed. It’s not in common usage anymore.

Non binary being admirable but gender critical a hanging offence. They are essentially the same thing.

High heels. We put a little stilt under one half of a foot and then balance on tiptoes on the other half.

Sex. The appendage of the male fills with blood. He then pokes it into a channel inside the woman and rubs it backwards and forwards until white stuff spurts out into her.