What do you do just to keep society off your back?
For example, wearing anything other than t-shirts and sweatpants/elastic waist shorts I do solely to fit in and seem appropriate. Wearing a bra and underpants also makes me fit in but I would do it regardless, since I am more comfortable than way.
I pretend to have even a passing interest in sporting events. Honestly, I could not care less. (Minor clarification: If they’re events where I actually know somebody who’s playing, I cheer for them, but the game itself is mere background.)
As for things like clothes, etc, I used to feel much as you do. Recently, though, I’m starting to see how I look better in “nice” clothes. (Or maybe, I just like the comments?)
Oh…thanks for typing that for me. Saved me a few minutes 
Same for me on sporting events. I just parrot whatever crap the latest sports dude was talking at me about and try to change the topic of conversation.
I quit ordering Hoegaarden at work, because apparently everyone thinks it’s a girl drink in line with a cosmo. I like it because it reminds me of my couple of months drinking German and Belgium beer. Better just to get a manhattan and not have to (unsuccessfully) explain that Hoegaarden is actually a manlier drink than their Coors Light.
I buy clothes almost entirely based upon what other people will think of me when I’m wearing them. I mean, that’s kind of the point, right?
I wear clothes.
I masturbate just to have something to talk about.
Same with the sports thing.
I listen to the AM sports radio station for a few minutes on the way into work just to please the yahoos.
I mean baseball isn’t really even a sport, and these lard asses follow it like they’re on the team or something.
And if you try to discuss a sport you’re actually involved in they look at you like you have three heads.
I’ve discovered the secret to enjoying sports. Find someone you like, and root against their team.
I pretend to give a shit about everyone’s baby/wedding showers. Or babies/weddings.
I refrain from responding to ‘Have a nice day’ with bellows of ‘HAIL SATAN!’
Just to fit in.
I speak to people in the morning instead of simply grunting.
Ain’t no way I’m going to wave to people on the way to work, though. I have my limits.
I smile and talk to strangers at work. You know the kind - the kind you see every damned day; you don’t know their names, but you have to sort of acknowledge their existence because you see them every damned day.
I go for lunch with co-workers occasionally. I shouldn’t have to do that anymore if I go part-time, though - “Sorry, too much to do, too little time. Catch you next time!” My husband says I’m anti-social; I just need my private space and time - even during the work day.
I don’t anymore. Well, I do wear a bra most of the time when I’m out in public, but the girls really do like to be free.
I also wanted to say, I don’t consider it doing it to fit in so much as doing it to just get along. It basically makes my life easier if people don’t consider me that weird, anti-social misfit.
I don’t wear cloaks. I love cloaks. I think they’re beautiful, functional, elegant, and flattering. Truly a noble garment.
But people who wear cloaks don’t get promotions. So…
I don’t tell people what I do all day. It’s mostly reading and watching movies. Whenever I do the responses I get are thinly veiled attempts at saying: “You spent all day reading?! Why don’t you having fun like normal people?”
So when people ask I’m usually having drunken sex like normal folks do.
I also pretend to care about the weather. This is only because I haven’t found a way to tell someone trying to make small talk that I could not care less without insulting them.
“When it comes to fashion, swim with the current. When it comes to principles, stand hard like a rock.”
– Thomas Jefferson.
I was going to say, “What makes you think I fit in?” but this is a good answer too.
Ditto on babies. Sorry, they have no appeal to me until they’ve a few months old and start interacting with the outside world. But I pretend to be all squeee about babies because it would offend the mother if I didn’t gush about how her spawn is the Cutest Baby EVER.
Ditto on cloaks. One of the few things I miss about the SCA is an excuse to wear a cloak.
I also refrain from trying anything too “out there” with my appearance because it’s expected in the corporate world that business analysts won’t show up with electric blue hair… or piercings on their face… or funky clothes. I’ve already been told that my nose piercing is potentially a Career-Limiting Move. :rolleyes:
I don’t make conversation with strangers nearly as often as I would like to, because I feel it would be scare them/not fit in/be inappropriate.
I lie about my former SOs and my means of support. Not so you’d notice - I am not heir to the New England Eye & Hook fortune and I was never set up on a blind date with Sandra Bullock. No, I lie to fit in.