Listen, did we have a little TOO MUCH FUN ranting about our various icks? Maybe so. And now you can have some fun with us, too, delving into the various things that give us pause, squick us out, and just straight up annoy or piss us off. Also, hopefully this goes without saying, but we’re mostly having silly good fun here! Don’t take it too seriously! And please, tell us YOUR icks! Let it all out!
What’s a Normal Human Behavior That Gives You the Ick?
Did You Like This?
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Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is the managing editor of Autostraddle and a lesbian writer of essays, fiction, and pop culture criticism living in Orlando. She is the former managing editor of TriQuarterly, and her short stories appear in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Joyland, Catapult, The Offing, The Rumpus, Cake Zine, and more. Some of her pop culture writing can be found at The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Cut, and others. When she is not writing, editing, or reading, she is probably playing tennis. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram and learn more about her work on her website.
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya has written 1069 articles for us.
Comments
Most of these focus on things people do that are being inflicted on others by dint of us all being crushed alongside each other and trying to rub along on things like public transport.
However, I laughed out loud at:
only doing cardio and not strength training
Like, what? Unless this is someone painstakingly detailing their workout (in itself annoying) how hard would you have to work to get this ick, are you stalking people at the gym and checking their medical history?
“The biggest problem with the US is that everyone is too divided/polarized” and other sanctimonious centrist sentiments (alternatively, people who proudly read the New York Times, Atlantic, or Wall Street Journal). Also people who are afraid of/hostile towards birds, bats, insects, or other non-human lifeforms.
Oh I love these and so glad to see AI ick popping up in multiple places! And Ashni is so right with “we” for couples and I have a reverse ick for that also! Multiple times new potential friends have invited me to a hang/event and then been like “hey could [partners name] not make it?” surprised that an invite only expressed to and about me wasn’t just assumed to include them! It’s exactly as you say – why WOULD I assume they were invited when you say “you’re invited to my 30th bday/house party/movie viewing”?? Sorry I’m a unit now who must always sense the plural “you” with my mind.
I Dunno Jackie off or PDA? But that’s not normal it wierd. In appropriate kiss on cheek
Not having ANY taste in music, or listen to “just what’s on the radio.” And I don’t mean they have to like one genre or band over another, they just don’t care about music at all. Don’t read fiction or books in general? Might have attention difficulties or dyslexia. Same goes for movies, or television. But music? Not even something completely generic like Ed Sheeran? It’s like you’ve told me you don’t have a soul! If you listened to something problematic, you’d still have a soul, just a bad one.
I have a an intense ick for Princesses and Brats : I use this word as gender neutral for people with too many icks (and who are very vocal about them)! Those who feel entitled to tell you how you should speak, behave, take you hostage with their emotions to silent or control you . I mean, if what i do have zero impact on you, why should you scold me about it ? 9 times out of 10 those people have class privilege or they’re white. In queer or activist circles, they use the safe spaces as an excuse to dictate absurd rules and foster purity and call out culture.
I am still working on getting rid of the internalized sexism and racism which controls my body, so don’t tell me to not sneeze or lick my fingers, that’s ridiculous and it sounds like your problem not mine !
Abuse, my abuser, anyone in contact with my abuser or in my abuser’s circle. Friends, work, acquaintances, doesn’t matter. I can’t have connection with you.
Some of the abuse took place online and there are people here and everywhere that share mannerisms like the abuser. I really can’t be that active online. Or in person.
I’ve lost so many people and fail to make new connections because I struggle to tolerate the ‘normal human behaviors’ that my abuser had. I’ve had lots of mental health support but it is still difficult.
Forever lost
My ick is When straight women younger than 50 use “girlfriend” to mean a friend who is a a girl. If you don’t enjoy sleeping with her, she’s not your gf, she’s just a friend, maybe even a best friend. Save gf for romance.
The feeling when both your mom and her mother have done this your whole life.
Normalizing the word “girlfriend” as an exclusively friendship term and never a romantic term.
Growing up in this environment.
Not confusing at all. 🙃
This was an entertaining list! Mine is when people capitalize the first letter of every word in a sentence (not talking about in a book title, for proper nouns that should be capitalized, or someplace where capitalization would be appropriate, but in general). Or when people put a space between a word and a comma MY GOD sends me into a burning rage
Bad tippers, people who don’t bathe regularly, patchouli., pushy religious people..Sandals seriously gross me out, because feet are disgusting. I can only deal with them if you’re at the beach or poolside. I don’t need to see your feet unless we’re close friends, family, or dating, and even then, I won’t be enjoying it. And I agree about the previous posted point about people always using “we” and talking about their partners like they are the same person all the time. I don’t even like it when people who are not the pregnant member of the couple says “We’re pregnant.” No you’re not, dude. Unless you’re carrying the baby, you’re not pregnant. You’re life is still getting taken over by it, so I get it in that way, but it’s not the same as having to physically carry the baby (This is directed toward cis het men, especially). Also I get a visceral reaction to watching people eat shellfish of any kind, and it’s been hard to serve it at bars I’ve worked at without throwing up on the plate (I never did throw up on the plate, though I sometimes did after, in the bathroom. For over a decade). I may be a overly-sensitive, but it’s never gotten less disgusting for me. It’s like, you do know you’re basically eating a giant insect, right?
I also can’t handle when people post or talk about the following:
-their diets/what they ate that day
-their workout routines
-whatever they are giving up in general or for Lent or whatever (Good for you; stop rubbing it in everyone else’s faces/being so smug about it).
-self-improvement stuff in general
It’s like, who cares! You do what’s best for you, and that’s great. But I don’t tell you about how I blow my nose or shave my legs or whatever, so I don’t need to hear about that kind of physical personal stuff from you, especially with an attitude. Just keep a journal or something.
My icks are eating a lot of meat (girl, the planet) and flying a lot (see prev), spitting on the street, being very online (ofc, my very presence here means I am very online so this effectively just means being more online than me), smug introverts (misanthropy is fine in adolescents but unbearably dull in adults), believing in astrology (basically space racism) and not reading books. Also people online who ask questions that they could find the answer to in seconds if they had any self-motivation, though I’m easing up on this now that every search engine has onboarded AI bots that often straight up lie to people :/