Just let people be weird and slightly annoying. Take that with a grain of salt as I am a very weird and occasionally annoying person, but I am vehemently opposed to the idea of ‘main character syndrome.’ It’s really exhausting to exist as a human being, let alone to do so when you’re worried about who might be watching you. People are inherently dynamic. We talk in our sleep and cry involuntarily and blink, breathe and form expressions often without thinking about it. I think we’ve become so desensitised to Botox and fillers that one day a smile will seem like an alien artifact. In this sense, have we diagnosed corporeality as a negative attribute? Whenever I find myself overwhelmingly frustrated with another person I like to remember the droll adage, Hanlon’s Razor: never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity. Perhaps people aren’t striving to piss you off, they just have a devastating lack of social awareness.
This isn’t to say you aren’t allowed to be annoyed by people around you but just to encourage you to experience a moment of sonder. To me, ‘main character syndrome’ is just reducing a multifaceted human being and their temporal presence to something designed to inconvenience you personally. I thought we had done away with the brand of sexism that vilified groups of teenage girls for laughing loudly while occupying a public space or wearing skirts that stop above the knee. The ’Main Character Syndrome’ label feels like part of a larger trend that’s hurtling towards the plot of a dystopian novel I probably read at one point in my life. Emotional displays are prohibited in public, and everyone walks around wearing the same outfit, set in a surveillance state where someone (or big brother) is always watching. I’ve always felt as though the world would be a better place if we spontaneously recited poetry and shared our happy thoughts or paid compliments to strangers on the street. (It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to hear I am an avid defender of Anne Shirley Cuthbert).
If anything, I beg that people phrase the insult in a more creative way. Tell us exactly what type of main character you’re so staunchly opposed to. Are they the foolhardy traveller, tortured antagonist or a foil to your own insecurities? If someone does not feel self-conscious about their own actions, then why waste time feeling self-conscious on their behalf? Some people just have strong personalities that don’t lend themselves to being taciturn. Sometimes people lack social awareness to understand that they’re being disruptive. People can have bad days, and they should be allowed to exist loudly without having to worry about who is watching, just as much as you are allowed to have a bad day and feel overwhelmed by the people around you. No one is immune to the danger of getting wrapped up in their own little world and acting somewhat selfishly.
Even if someone is vying for attention: who cares? Turn away. We are all the protagonists in our own lives. Let them have their bread and the circuses in another colosseum. Let them take the spectacle far away from your concern and their travelling fair to another audience. Protect your own peace. Let people be cringe in public and go about your day
