TEMA#6 – Normality
What is normal anyway?
If you are normal, I cannot be. Do I want to be normal? Normality has advantages – for example, the advantage of acceptance – on an agreed normality because in normality, the majority of a society comes to a common denominator. What is considered normal is what meets expectations. What is normal is average, comprehensible, stress-free and does not disturb - in short: normality is boredom. But perhaps normality is also the place where one can live in peace? And once again the question about the rules for normality arises: Every age, every social group and every culture has its very own definition of normal. In our peer group, behaviors and conditions can be considered normal that others only shake their heads at in confusion. We plead for a normality of diversity. Perhaps normality is also a matter of habits - acceptance grows the longer and more closely we are confronted with something. In the best case scenario, what was initially new and different thus becomes normal.
Camp: challenge the ordinary
Camp embodies the extraordinary, the over-the-top, the artificial, the outstanding, the endless imagination: anything but “normal”. When asking “what is normal?”, answering it with “camp” surely does not come to mind.
Let my vulva be
Since the 90's and early 00's cosmetic surgery on the inner vulva lips has developed into one of the most popular beauty surgery procedures. Editorial by Viola Karsten about the longing for “the normal vulva” and what this tells us about the image of the 'female body' in Western society?
Hysterically normal
On the one hand, hysteria is used in semantic contexts to mean irrational, exaggerated, or theatrical but on the other hand it is associated with women or feminine persons, thus gendered. The article by Xenia Fink shows how the concept of hysteria was defined by men that collectively diagnosed women as hysteric that didn’t act the common way.
The birth of money – Oeconomia
There are things in our world that are so self-evident that we no longer think about where they actually come from. One of those things is money. But how is money created? In Oeconomia film director Carmen Losmann reveals the trail of money – a review.
Life without billboards
From the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown companies started cancelling advertising campaigns and left most billboards completely empty. This series of images serves as an archive of their disappearance.
Bourgeois, normal, far-right.
Parties like the AfD, FPÖ or Rassemblement National claim to be normal, not extreme and right-wing. Is this a strategy or does it represent a shifting normality in society? And what do right-wing parties claim to want by propagating normality?
Impossible territory
“The map is not the territory.”
Artistic work including a series of photographs, video works, photographic objects and sound recordings.
The West and the rest?
The genre of "world music" is a concept that has been dominated by the West through its categorisation of music from the global context in a deficit way. How can a new generation of “world-musicians” dissolve this concept and exploit the artistic potential that lies within this scene?
The anatomy of being
Both as an artist and as a medical doctor, Anne Linde Dejong studies the human body in many ways: physiologically, anatomically, and through the lens of her analogue camera. TEMA editor Viola talked to Anne Linde about how we can think differently about ‘the normal body’ and how this is reflected in her photography.
Groundhog Day, but sick edition
A chronic condition rarely comes unaccompanied. And navigating day-to-day life with multiple chronic conditions can be tough, with lots of added mental load, and time lost to it, especially during a global pandemic.
⚠️Trigger warning: This article contains photos of syringes and blood.
The chronical other
Normal health, normal bodies, normal minds. As soon as you visibly fall out of this constructed normality, something seems to be very wrong for many people. Why? And what does it mean to be chronically disturbed by your body?
Are our bodies still normal?
Shirts get too tight, oversized pullovers become the new normal as well as insulting comments from friends and family. During the pandemic in Sweden, Regine escaped to the countryside. Her Body changes - so do reactions from others. Did we miss our chance to establish a cozier, healthier and more body-friendly normal? – With a photographic series by Luca Gaspard
It’s time, Mr Bond
After a long, anticipating wait, the new James Bond No Time to Die hit cinemas this year. A 27th Bond, a last outing for Daniel Craig as well as many other firsts for 007 – a review
❌ Spoiler Alert ❌
Race for normality
Growing up a marginalised minority is a painful reminder of what normality means. But our author believes refusing to play by the rules of normality, means striving towards a society free of fear.
Blackface: Farewell to tradition?
Traditions, habits and cultural practices either go out of fashion or get banned as a result of ethical advances. Let’s explore a theory that might explain why Europeans stopped being colonizers and one day will stop using blackface if we fight for it now.
⚠️Trigger warning: The article contains accounts of slavery, racism and blackface. If these issues trigger you, please do not read this article or do not read it alone.
Should we be using the word normal?
What is normal to me, is different to what is normal to you. But why do we use the word “normal” as if everyone in the world universally agreed on it’s definition?