I’m here today to talk about snowflakes. No, I don’t mean the little white fluffy things we see at Christmas (more like March if you live in Ireland), but the delicate, precious, if-you-touch-them-they-melt, human beings that we have walking among us every day.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I could not care less about what religion or sexual preference you have; I don’t even care if you like to wear Tuesday socks on a Friday. But that’s exactly my point – I. Don’t. Care.
We live in a generation where people care too much. I will never understand why anyone would want to walk through this earth, getting offended by every minor thing they see or hear, when they would be much happier if they just didn’t give a shit. Likewise, I don’t get why people try to offend others for having different thoughts to them. As a wise man, Ricky Gervais, once said, “Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right.” When people get offended by homosexuals, does that mean they’re right? No. When people get offended by someone else’s religion, does that mean they’re right? No. It’s all just opinion.
Once upon a time, there was a big bang (or so the theory goes) and this earth was created. There was nothing but plants and animals. Then society came along, decided what was right and wrong and this created opinions, and opinions, as we can see today, create offence. Now, if you are a woman and one day you wake up and you decide that you would like to be a man, go right ahead. But be warned, someone out there is not going to agree with it. In the same way, people who decide to eat a vegan diet would not agree with someone who eats meat. But which one is right? Neither, because it’s all based on opinion and personal preferences.
Let’s talk about Friends, the greatest TV show on earth (in my opinion). The show that was once so ahead of its time, due to the same-sex wedding and the transgender character of Chandler’s father, that it was actually banned in parts of the US when it first arrived on our screens in 1994. But now, since its release on UK Netflix, some millennials believe that the show is offensive to this snowflake generation. One of the main reasons for this was that they found the fat-shaming of Monica to be extremely problematic. But when you think about it, should they really be praising someone for living an unhealthy lifestyle? (Don’t get me started because I could write a whole new blog post about people who praise obesity). Another issue that has been getting a lot of press recently, is the use of the word ‘faggot’ in the classic and amazingly-brilliant Christmas song ‘Fairytale of New York’. Now, this song has been around for years and yes, I know, times have changed, blah blah blah, but if you warriors stepped back from the keyboard for long enough you would realise that this song is about a heterosexual couple, therefore the use of the word faggot here could not mean a gay man, as this would not make any sense. If you then took the time to do a little research, you would see that early usage of the word ‘faggot’ actually meant ‘a repellent man’ which, when you think about the fact that this couple had a love-hate relationship, would make a lot more sense.
In my 21 years of living, I have learned a couple of things and one thing I know is that if you have a different opinion to someone else, you should not get offended when they don’t agree. You also can’t get offended when someone carries out their own personal practises or beliefs just because you have decided that you believe in something different. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and just because yours goes against what society deems as ‘normal’ does not mean that your opinion has any more significance than anyone else’s.
I saw these Hindu words on an Instagram post today, and I thought it would fit perfectly here. “There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading in the same direction, so it doesn’t matter which path you take. The only one wasting time is the one who runs around and around the mountain, telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.”
Now I am aware that this post has probably offended some people, but really, those people should have stopped reading at the word ‘snowflakes’. And that’s the point, if someone doesn’t agree with what you believe in, or if they are talking about something that is going to offend you, don’t take to twitter and tell them they’re wrong or ‘outdated’, just ignore them! Learn not to give a shit. Try accepting that everyone is unique and different and that maybe, just maybe, there is no right and wrong way to live your life.
But that’s just my opinion.
Niamh Doherty is a final year BSc in Communication Management & Public Relations student at Ulster University. She can be found at: Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/niamh.doc.9 ; Twitter @niamhydoc