It is said to seek the cult of personality, which is designed to enhance authenticity within equality, which is framed by an anti-branding ideology. And also, a lot of magazines and blogs understand it as a fashion that bets on a basic and casual look, unconcerned with glamour and the stereotypes of good taste and elegance.

Of course, K-Hole (the agency that developed the concept) argues that it focuses on «the representation of a fluidity of identity that is emerging in youth culture: a willingness to give up a coherent individuality in order to embrace acceptance. So it operates more as an emotional state, rather than a style, as a form of empathy and connectedness; it is about fitting in rather than standing out.

Precisely, one of the most remembered characters on TV, Jerry Seinfeld, reflects the above, also showing, as a counterpart, some aspects in which the adaptation with the whole can be harmful and lead to the loss of freedom and personal autonomy: it should be remembered that in every social structure there is indifference and hostility, typical of an ultra competitive economic system, where everyone seeks to defend their dignity to achieve some kind of feeling of security. In this field, being Normcore also implies accessing the dark side or abyss of social dynamics. What is interesting is that while it promotes different forms of becoming a subject, it also leads to a type of totalitarian thinking, where sadism, or the pleasure of suffering others, is not intervened, and is accepted as another component of daily existence.

Being Normcore is therefore more than just wearing «A black kid’s Fruit of the Loom T-shirt, a grey v-neck sweater bought from a half-dozen to a pair of new, roomy 501 black Levi’s, with all the labels carefully removed,» as science fiction writer William Gibson implies when introducing the protagonist of his novel Pattern Recognition, Cayce Pollard. It is also more than the democratic ideal of equality and connectivity with the whole, because of the negative charge implicit in the interactions between subjects. Nevertheless, its intention is interesting since it seeks to make the individual think, feel and act for himself, in a way that is far removed from the usual manipulations of neoliberal marketing and advertising.

An interesting example of what it means to really be Normcore appears in chapter 22 of Seinfeld’s season 5: The Opposite, when a George Costanza bored of his constant failures decides to act completely different from what he normally does, so he orders an unusual breakfast that catches the attention of a woman who ultimately connects him to the New York Yankees. Of course, K-Hole (the agency that developed the concept) argues that it focuses on «the representation of a fluidity of identity that is emerging in youth culture: a willingness to give up a coherent individuality in order to embrace acceptance. So it operates more as an emotional state, rather than a style, as a form of empathy and connectedness; it is about fitting in rather than standing out.

This of course is a sign of how authenticity allows one to connect with others. In a way, if there is such a thing as anti-philosophy, a form of knowledge that goes against a series of systematic constructions that fail to explain the chaos of reality without completely detaching themselves from the fact that it is part of philosophy itself, Costanza would be an Anti-normcore, someone who like Normcore seeks to reflect authenticity but in this case without being a participant in the dramatic consequences of the social game. This is best illustrated in the last two episodes of the series in season 9, when exhausted from the absurd situation he suffers (he must face a trial for having participated in the video recording of someone who is being robbed in a region that condemns those who do not cooperate with other citizens) decides to go to court dressed in an informal way, which does not allow his lawyer, just as when in prison, wearing a shirt unbuttoned a little, is reprimanded by Jerry,

who responds: Does it matter?

Normcore understood in a very basic way reminds me of all the characters that show freedom and be their own authority in Stanley Kubrick’s film Full Metal Jacket (1987). Everyone is free even to hit and torment Pyle, including his closest friend, Private Joker. A good question would be why a guy like Pyle, who despite his eccentricities is happy and enjoys his life, is not considered authentic and free. Normcore should therefore accept the whole, even the clumsy, and appreciate the hidden beauty in his different way of understanding life; from there perhaps a new vision can emerge that illuminates the abyss of adulthood and adaptation to the world.