Not sure I exactly agree. It’s more like if you or your friends are able to call yourselves weird, you’re probably alright. If “weird” is what you hurl as an insult constantly at anyone you don’t understand, you probably suck.
Also: are you neurodivergent and have you had that word constantly applied to you in abusive ways
Yeah. I never have been diagnosed as neurodivergent but I’ve suspected I could be. But either way, I’ve heard the word used derisively all my life :/
“Weird” is just a synonym for out of the ordinary (though one often meant as an insult) and being out of the ordinary isn’t quite the insult that “normies” (in the sense of “close to the norm”) think it is: being a great genius is weird, being a top Olympic athlete is weird, being amongst the most exceptional people in a profession is weird.
Absolutely, the other end of the scale is also deemed weird and one can hardly claim that being, say, way below average intelligence is a good characteristic to have.
The point being that merely being out of the norm isn’t by itself a bad thing.
For many people, including me, part of recovering from that abuse is accepting that you’re significantly different compared to the average person. If you’re ND and can’t accept that, you might be masking and that can be really harmful.
That being said, there’s still a difference between being called “different” or “weird”, and if the latter is being hurled at you with malice by friends, they might not really be your friends…
Oh i know i’m weird, and i’m fine with it.
I’m also Queer (and born in the 70’s) so i treat the two words with the same nuance. Certain people are allowed to call me those words. Others can keep a fucking civil tongue in their heads
One day I called a co-worker weird. Simply cus the dude was acting odd.
A whole thing broke out where he was extremely insulted at the remark and wanted to never talk to me again until I went farther than I should have to apologize.
Thinking about it till this day… Dude that’s just fucking weird.
Yeah, it’s a …weird… word. Can be playful, a term of endearment, a reality check, or a horrible insult. And it depends completely on the context. And some people maybe just have trauma from being bullied and called weird all the time as kids. I’m guessing maybe that dude had experienced something like that.
