Talk:Alternative lifestyle

Supporting the weasel
User:Mombas, since you asked...

Here's WP:WEASEL: This page in a nutshell: Avoid "some people say" statements without sources. (plus other varieties of weasel statements.)

Examples from Alternative lifestyle:

"The following may be examples which are considered by some to be examples of alternate lifestyles:"

"people who might be said to"

"Alternative lifestyles are sometimes thought be an expression of social rebellion. ... in what they characterize"

"Some psychologists today, however, believe..."

"This is considered by some to be nothing more than an excuse for deviant behavior."

IMHO, that's a pretty high percentage of weasel phrases in this short article.

Fallen out of favor?
I guarantee 100% of the people who visited this page assumed it would mean homosexuality, primarily if not exclusively. It can't be offensive, it's a bleeding EUPHEMISM. From WP:WEASEL: "It is acceptable to use some of these phrases, if they are accompanied by a citation that supports the claim..." (IMHO as is done in the last paragraph of this article.)

From WP:WEASEL: "The following questions can be used to determine some instances of weasel words. Who says that? When did they say it? How many people think that? How many is "some"? What kind of people think that? Where are they? What kind of bias might they have? Why is this of any significance?

We should improve this article by fixing and avoiding weasel phrases. Have a good one. :-) -- 201.50.248.179 18:24, 6 February 2007 (UTC) (Originally edited this page as "201.50.248.179")


 * Sincere apologies if you took offence. While I don't entirely disagree with your assertion I would have thought that simply editing out the offensive material may have been sufficient. Or following the tag with an explanation on the talk page. Keep up your good work and I will back you on any changes you feel necessary to make this subject more credible. Probably a facelift could be on the cards. Cheers mate and best wishes. Mombas 22:23, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

GUEST:"some psychologists say,,," I agree that it would be helpful to know who you are talking about here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.138.52.53 (talk) 22:06, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

WEASEL, cites
This article still has problems re WP:WEASEL. I'm not going to do it today or tomorrow, but sometime soon I'm going to come back to this article and remove all weasel statements. If there's anything in here that you don't want removed, edit it now so that it doesn't have WEASEL problems.

Also, the article needs cites! Citing is a core Wikipedia policy. It is not optional. Per Wikipedia:Citing sources, "Any material that is challenged and for which no source is provided may be removed by any editor." -- Writtenonsand 14:51, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Removed Vegetarianism/veganism
Vegetarianism is by NO MEANS an "Alternate Lifestyle". It is NOT "outside the cultural norm". The word 'culture' is very diverse, and in countless cultures around the world, vegetarianism has been, since ancient times, the norm.


 * Uh, just no. Even in India (Hinduism/Buddhism) vegetarianism used to be (and to some extent probably still is) primarily an élite (and urban) phenomenon, associated with religious people (priests/brahmins, monks and presumably ṛṣis and sādhus), not regular people, who may have eaten little meat – including fish, of course – (partly out of a sheer necessity), but would probably never completely avoid it (going as far as declaring seafood as "plants of the sea" in Eastern India); they did not have that luxury. Strict vegetarianism or even veganism is something you have to afford in the first place, a choice in the face of having alternatives, and therefore mainly a phenomenon of the modern society where at least food is present in abundance.
 * Anyway, it has been added back, and rightly so. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 23:35, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Homosexuality
Must be kept off this page, while often called an 'alternative lifestyle' by bigots, this is actually part of the cultural norms of all civilized cultures. --2.98.220.212 (talk) 20:29, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Wow. By bigots?  Ironic considering the early use of 'alternative lifestyle' to refer to homosexuality was by gays themselves, as a counter to assertions by bigots that homosexuality was a mental illness or a shameful sin.  In any case, an article on alternative lifestyles that doesn't even mention the most common use of the term?  Just wow.  184.19.137.128 (talk) 12:52, 30 December 2012 (UTC)


 * since conservative culture sometimes look down upon homosexuality, i think it should be mentioned. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.141.115.25 (talk) 03:41, 14 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I have a few different thoughts here: A. It's not necessarily bigoted to use the term "lifestyle" to describe homosexuality, but I can see why it annoys people. B. Because a term's origin doesn't necessarily dictate its future use, "retarded" wasn't an insult when it was first conceived. The fact is that a lot of people DO go, "Well, if it's a 'lifestyle,' then I can say I 'disagree' with it & claim that things like promiscuous sex are related." C. So it doesn't even really make sense just from the standpoint of describing an actual set of criteria for a "way of life" & the article does not describe these criticisms. D. But yes, it should be mentioned because it is one of the most common uses of the term. E. So, overall, I guess the article needs more information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.5.170.72 (talk) 21:13, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

I think given that alternative lifestyle is, by its very name, subjective, examples should not be provided as those examples only show some things either the author considers alternative or believes others to consider alternative. Either way, it's unrelated to the definition or history of the term. If it is in a context showing how the use of the term influenced or is influencing culture or policy, there should be sources with specifics. HarrisonNapper (talk) 12:11, 14 June 2020 (UTC)


 * I have done this, you're welcome to check it. Sxologist (talk) 00:11, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

IMHO, all the letters in the LGBT should be instead considered an Alternative Life, hell it makes sense to call it that then several letters. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.204.144.50 (talk) 03:12, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

The Furries
Should the Furry Fandom be part of the list? It seems like more of an aesthetic preference than a lifestyle. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.121.173.64 (talk) 23:51, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
 * See Furry fandom for further details about this topic. Jarble (talk) 22:33, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Flappers
"Alternative lifestyles and subcultures originated in the 1920s with the "flapper" movement..." Oh no they didn't. There are many examples from Europe dataing back centuries. e.g. the Paris "left bank" artists, the Morris movement, the Chartists... An article of this kind needs to be written by someone who actually knows history. 212.159.59.5 (talk) 16:49, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Homegardening is an alternative lifestyle?
I thought that was just a hobby or something? Please Explain.--Jack Cox (talk) 06:40, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Patriot Movement, Survivalists, Far right extremists? Page cleanup.
Should these groups be considered as part of the article on alternative lifestyles? They are certainly outside of the cultural norm and they are in the extreme minority as well. However, their voices are disproportionately loud, and, as of this writing, Also, I am concerned that more is not being done to clean up this page since it is the 'authority' on what an alternative lifestyle is considering it is the first result in a Google search.

I agree. Looking at Google scholar, there is a rich history of research and case law to lean on to improve this article. There are also, to your point, a number of monumental things happening in the news that should be given some additional context by this page. HarrisonNapper (talk) 12:58, 14 June 2020 (UTC)

History section, flapper reference
As the lifestyle article mentions the term lifestyle was coined in 1929, it seems unlikely the term alternative lifestyle preceded it. Want to check for any opinions or context before deleting to pare down to what is well sourced. HarrisonNapper (talk) 12:54, 14 June 2020 (UTC)