Why did you abandon the mainstream?

[randomness]

(a placeholder for a more substantive post)

In many ways I was never accepted by the mainstream. By virtue of the combination of my race and upbringing, I was always going to be the "other". So in contrast to many of my friends, who appear to have consciously chose the subculture, I ended up here because integrating into the mainstream was problematic.

And there are many mainstream assumptions which I think are completely fucked-up. That tends to reinforce my decision. Not that the particular social niche I find myself in is lacking in fucked-up assumptions, but perhaps there aren't as many, or at least there are fewer which impact me directly.

I'm still thinking about this.

Comments

[redbird]

Yes. I can pass, for a while, or in casual contexts. Especially here in New York, where even if I looked more stereotypically Jewish, that wouldn't be distinctive. Someone who just sees me with cattitude, like most of our neighbors, will read us as a heterosexual, presumably monogamous, settled couple.

That doesn't mean no sense of alienation, but a different sort, in a number of ways. (Even when I was very much on the outside, in grade school, nobody ever told me why. I'm not sure they could have identified it.)