Are we animals? | Teen Ink

Are we animals?

April 11, 2011
By Fragment BRONZE, Dublin, Ohio
Fragment BRONZE, Dublin, Ohio
2 articles 1 photo 1 comment

I am a victim of natural selection. Then again, so you are you. So are we all. Humans are still animals, there is no denying that. I realized soon after taking Biology that the gap between these “animals” and “humans” is smaller than I expected.
Natural selection is all about producing viable offspring, and to have offspring, you need a mate, correct? And so hormones course through our veins, making us look more closely at others, judging, judging for fitness. Will he/she be a good mate? It affects all of us, no matter how we try to deny it.
But we are also infinitely more complex. One of human’s oddest innovations is this society, were standards for beauty go completely backwards to ones found in nature. It is us who force each other to dress, talk, eat, in a certain way.
Humans are pack animals in a sense; we thrive on the adulation of others.
Even those who attempt to assert their individuality through radical clothing, lifestyles, whatever, they all are the same. They carry the thought that others admire them for their individuality, which ratifies all their actions. Why? Society commands them to stay the same. They do not. Nature demands they find a mate, but failing that, nature will simply force you to look, even if you not wish to. No matter how many adults repeat it, no matter how many times we tell ourselves it doesn’t matter; we care what others think. We simply do, it’s ingrained into any schools’ students that others will reject them. And we cling to the hope that it will not happen for the innate opinion that, if isolated, no more potential mates will arise. Should a cheerleader indulge and gain a few pound, suddenly, the jocks don’t even look at her. But what about the so-called “Freaks”? Should they stop being freakish, they would be rejected by the other “Freaks”, no? We are pack animals, seeking the protection of numbers. After all, the more people, the more mates.
See that science geek in the corner? Do you know his name? Do you know the fat girl’s inner nature? Or do you taunt them because a combination of hormones, nature, and society tell you inside that they are unfit mates, useful only for taking the bitterness we all hide inside out? Drive them into themselves, until the only road that lies before them is death? Why? Because we are teenagers, a product of each other.
Sure, drive them away. Drive everyone who doesn’t fit into your spectrum of mates away. After all, you’re just a victim of generations of natural selection are you not? Follow the path and we shall all become a shallow body of perfectly tanned, beautiful, tall, disgusting people. Or maybe some people can resist your ridiculous ideals and actually breed before that happens. You can’t stop society, you can’t change it. You can just hope it evolves for the better.



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.