Can you be both "weird" and "mainstream"?

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I believe I am both.

On one hand, I have Asperger's. I am alternatively too quiet or too verbose. I speak about uncomfortable topics, and have some deficits in nonverbal communication. I stim. I have sensory issues. And, I enjoy speaking a lot about specific topics.

However, I am politically a moderate liberal. I enjoy wearing makeup and fashionable clothes from mainstream stores. I like alternative rock as my favorite music. I identify as cisgender and straight-leaning. My favorite movies are mainstream. My hobbies are singing and tennis. And my special interests are religious, historical, or fictional.

I do not think being mainstream is either "good" or "bad". It encompasses a large range of interests, skills, and tastes. I am happy to be "mainstream", because it is who I am.

I am still on the outside though, with no close friends, and my family believes that I cannot be "mainstream" because I am "weird". I disagree. Is "mainstream" the opposite of "weird", or can they coexist?

Yes.

Robin Williams and George Carlin might agree; so might The Artist Known As Prince and Michael Jackson.

Although I would not go so far as to say that Donald Trump is "Mainstream" ...

How society or ourselves decide what is weird or normal i think is based on what is currently acceptable or commonplace. Humans are weird creatures though, so whats considered normal is quite likely not if you really thought about it. Where there is pressure to conform, i dig my heals in, and am drawn to things which are about not conforming. There are some aspects of mainstream i have no problem with, and some, especially the parts that want me to shut up and do as i am told, i am trying to resist. I have a slightly odd way of being around people, this could be said is weird, but i can hold normal conversations and not freak people out too, sometimes it depends on who the people are i am with.

I have both they are present in my day gig and Dr. Laugh programs.

At work a new employee greeted me with __(my name) your about the weirdest person here. He then went on to share about some life issues for about a half hour. During the tone he said weird attracts.
I always like to add a bit of current me to my Dr. Laugh shows
I incorporated a do as I do yoga sequence as part of my warm up today.
The theme at libraries in this neck of the woods is
Exercise your brain aka Ready Set Read

My show - Ready Set. Laugh

The kids all did much better than me on simple poses all with appropriate
animal noises.
Up dog
Cow
Cat
Cobra
Tree to Cactus Ouch ouch

Side note to audience
My doctor told me I got tennis elbow
From flipping my dog
It was ruff.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M2MRYbm5_hU

I also can put on my adult "me" as needed it requested by my loving wife. She asked affectionately. I need the adult Dr. Laugh.

there are a lot of aspie people who are high functioning enough that it doesn't really define them. It's definitely possible.

More generally speaking,outside the context of autism and aspergers syndrome, that's basically what a hipster is, a person who is kind of on the precipice of mainstream society and other subcultures.

Prince and Robin Williams and george carlin are all really good examples that people have made on this thread.

Yes. Simply because it matters not on either, when I like what I like, I do what I do. Matching preferences with the majority is simply up to me, whether it pleases anyone or not.

With time and certain circumstances, the Weird can become the Mainstream, and the Mainstream can become the Weird.

And, things 'are', were not always have the same reasons.
Can I say I "socialize" for sake of learning people, and not for the sake of socialising?
Or liking certain trends because I like it/prefered something specific like comfort, not because it itself is a trend?
I wear flip flops because I prefer loose foot wears and I like it when it's durable, and not because everyone else is wearing it?


And I find a lot of ways to get away with my oddity without sacrifices.
Someday I'll find more ways in other cultures if I ever encounter one.

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Of course. You can have an abnormal nature yet be interested in mainstream things. I believe many people do have interests considered weird but a lot of them are pressured by the social urge to conform. Considering mainstream is partly out of an urge to conform and not entirely out of a majority interest, mainstream interests may very well be more of a fabrication of conformity and not a genuine interest of the majority, and if that's true then your interest in mainstream could actually be weird beneath the surface.

The whole world has gotten so weird that it's become mainstream.

For example, just last night I was watching a video about really awful names parents have given their kids. What kind of a world do we live in when parents think Hashtag (#?), K8tlin, or Chairish are perfectly nice names that their children will be stuck with for life, or at least until they're able to legally change them?

And we're supposed to be the weird ones.

Anyone else into fun socks?

I am.
Seinfield had an episode of naming kids. One was 7.

Weird Al Yankovic is weird & mainstream so yes it's possible to be both.