Disgusting Mind
Did you know that the “Disgust” that controls your mind can be very different from the one that controls the mind of an Indian?
In 2015, Disney PIXAR launched the “Inside Out” animation, which brings concepts of emotional intelligence and how our emotions control our actions. In the movie, everyone presents five main feelings that are responsible for controlling everyone’s actions and memories, which are: joy, sadness, fear, anger and disgust. The emotion of disgust is represented by “Disgust”, a female character who “protects” the protagonist Riley from being physically and socially poisoned.
According to Wikipedia, disgust is an emotion related to everything that is perceived as dirty or inedible. In one of the aforementioned animation’s scenes, the character Disgust prevents the human Riley from eating a broccoli, as she considers it disgusting, which is in accordance with the definition discussed above (considered inedible). I wonder what she would do if she knew that there are communities that use their hands to eat and not the cutlery, and that this happens in India with the right hand, because the left is used for hygienic issues, such as cleaning the anus after defecation. That’s right: with one hand they consume food and with the other, they clean their private parts.
I don’t know about you, but it causes me a feeling of absurd disgust and I believe that it would also cause it in Disgust. In addition, according to José Carlos Rodrigues, this reaction would be quite common in Westerner regions in general, because disgust is considered a cultural issue: something that makes you feel it can be normal for someone from a different culture. In DreamWorks’ movie “Shrek”, this cultural issue is very noticeable. The main character is an ogre considered very disgusting by humans, for living in a dirty swamp, for taking a mud bath and for feeding on insects. The human characters in the animation react with disgust to his behaviors considered indiscreet when expressed in public, such as burping.
The reaction of disgust is due to the conventions of what is considered normal or not in a society. It represents a symbolic insecurity. People reject things that they distaste, which can be perceived by the gestures related to this feeling: cover your mouth, hold your breath or turn your face away. These are ways of refusing that message, interrupting the channels of communication with the world.
Disgust is a reaction of psychophysiological imbalance that expresses repulse at something that violates the boundaries determined by a culture. In the West, these boundaries are what is internal or external to the body and/or nature. For example, when you mix something from the bathroom with something from the kitchen (that is, something that leaves the body with something that enters it), or with excretions from the body, such as phlegm, saliva, urine and blood, many people from certain cultures have the reaction of disgust. In another very famous Disney animation, “The Lion King”, the character Pumbaa tells part of his story, revealed in the song “Hakuna Matata”, in which he says he released flatus in the lake while other animals drank water and, with this, everyone hurriedly left with disgust. His partner Timon also confirms in this song: “you disgust me”.
Today’s society understands that each body is individual and, therefore, we are disgusted by others and reinforce each one’s internal and external boundaries. Toothbrushes, bath materials, dental floss and cutlery are not shared. But not everyone thinks the same, and the context also alters that perception: relationships break this boundary, in a way that kisses mixing saliva or exchanging cutlery between people in relationships are not considered disgusting.
And then I ask you: what disgusts most people, but not you?
“Better out than in.”
- Shrek
Original text in Portuguese by Bárbara Caixeta de Carvalho Leão
Translated by Gabriel Ariolli Arellaro
Revised by Amanda Feitoza and Melissa Alves
Picture by Disney PIXAR
>> This text reflects exclusively the author’s opinion, and not the one of MT Team!
