Nocturne Fashion Feed

At the beginning of the year, Loglady Loon and company posed a dramatic project to the creative minds of Second Life: capture the opposite of beauty and present it at the Modasl Freak Showroom. Since then, the question has stuck with me- what does it mean to be a freak?

Sure, the simple way is to pull up a dictionary website and plug it in to get a slew of descriptions certified by some official group. But that completely glosses over the active social construction and usage of the term: why did we choose those definitions? Why does it have as many as it does? How did the term evolve? What emotions does it evoke?

Freak, based on the Random House Dictionary
- noun
1. any abnormal phenomenon or product or unusual object; anomaly; aberration.

That which is beyond our understanding of the world has innately been looked at oddly. This is a basic biological function going back to when our ancestors lived in small groups and were beginning to develop a great capacity for understanding the world around us.

2. a person or animal on exhibition as an example of a strange deviation from nature; monster.

At times we would look at the unfamiliar curiously; other – fairly often – times, we would see the strange as a threat. The reaction was based on survival- if it was not part of your tribe, then it competed for resources and might even harm you.

4. Slang.
a. a person who has withdrawn from normal, rational behavior and activities to pursue one interest or obsession.
b. a devoted fan or follower; enthusiast: a baseball freak.

Industrial cultures have grown beyond the hunter-gather norms, but their influences remain. Though we’re not fighting for our lives so much, there are still ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’, people who are acceptable and those that are cast out. Those that are different may intentionally seek to be separate from the greater society and only blend with those similar is abnormality. In some cases, an individual that was once normal may change themselves to be different and move amongst the various social crowds.

- adjective
7. unusual; odd; irregular.

Sadly, there are many who are labeled unwanted by the larger whole, despite having very little different from the rest. And because they are considered “freaks”, that same hostility that was shown ages ago is thrown upon them.

I’m positive there are people out there who wish I would shut the hell up about these things. Everybody gets kicked to the curb at some point, and some people more often than others. It’s just how nature works. I honestly wish I could just put it all behind me; if I could stop doubting who I am and what I’m capable of. If there was a magical pill, I’d take it. But there isn’t.

However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t something that can’t be done. As humans, we have ascended what is naturally possible- submarines, space stations and heart defibrillators are only a few of the machines we have built to overcome natural barriers to our lives. If we can send a man to the moon, how difficult is it to rethink how we treat each other?