What happened to the either or?

More and more these days it seems that there is no longer a gray area for certain issues – you either like something or don’t, you either are for someone or you’re not, etc. I’m not talking about if you either love Family Guy or you don’t (a discussion my boyfriend and I have had), or if you eat cake brownes or fudge only (I prefer fudge but I won’t turn down any kind of brownie).

But here’s what I’m seeing a lot of these days. Either you don’t support large business and “corporate” or you do. Either you are feminist or you’re not. You’re liberal or you’re not. Blah blah blah. And one would think, “Well, there are still some gray areas in there, right?” No one is perfectly for one thing or not. But I feel that lately people are judging you so much more on a holistic level rather than listening to your argument or letting something slide here and there than they used to. It’s so much to the point where you can’t even have a normal conversation without some sort of preaching and ideology as an interruption.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all up for debate. And I also think that I’m a feminist, and I’m environmentally-friendly, and I’m pretty tolerant of religion, race, etc. But some people – it’s like you say ONE thing and the next thing you know, you’re a hater.

I ask you this? Can I still watch and enjoy shows like Leave it to Beaver and be a feminist? Can I make an observation about someone’s looks or religion and still be tolerant and accepting? Can I still eat processed foods but be considered friendly to local farmers because I still buy a lot of stuff at the farmer’s market? Can I still make a pit-stop at a Wal-mart because it the cheapest (insert product here) and was the only store around despite the fact that they pay low wages?

Bottom line: Let people be as much of one thing or not as they want. Not everyone has to be an all out environmentalist, and all out feminist, or an all out (insert label here). I say I’ll just be me, and if you want to buy Starbucks and shop at Costco and watch Disney and movies that have stereotypes, then DO IT. If everyone was the perfect person and the perfect do-gooder, wouldn’t that be boring?? And then there would be no debate, right?