The good, the bad, and the twins

It can be seen across many cultures that there are different views on how twins are perceived. Speaking from personal experience, I would say that there is evidence that there is a twin that is inherently “good” and the other “bad,” but I don’t believe that there is enough evidence to fully support this claim.

For reference, I have a fraternal twin sister who is one minute older than I am, and we have no other siblings. 

Growing up there was always some level of separation between the two of us as we tried to not be too similar because we wanted to be thought of as two individuals as opposed to the lump sum known as, “the twins.” That being said, I almost always chose to explore things in the manner that society has grown to accept, while my sister took more unconventional methods of exploring her identity. 

I do not think that there is a necessarily “good” or “bad” twin, but I do think that in order to feel like separate entities, twins tend to partake in behaviors that are on opposite ends of the spectrum. 

In the case of my sister and I, we were not told we were twins until the age of three or four, as my mother believed individuality was more important than that label. Interestingly enough, even without this label, my twin and I had already started to fall into the category of “good” or “bad” by social standards.

One of my favorite examples from my childhood of this type of behavior would be “The Great Diaper Cream Incident of 2005.” At this time my sister and I were about four years old. My mother had put us down for a nap and closed the door behind her. I, as what society has grown to expect during naptime, went to sleep. My sister, on the other hand, took this opportunity to explore the art of body painting using diaper cream to turn herself a bright white color. How my sister procured the diaper cream is still unknown to this day, but it was obvious that she did not rest during nap time, as one might expect. This was not the only incident of such an occurrence, but in my opinion,  it is definitely one of the funnier examples.

Looking at this incident, I have often had the thought that I must be the “good” twin and my sister the “bad.” In all actuality, I was just following social norms whereas my sister was not.

The idea of one twin being good while the other bad dates back hundreds of years, but again, I don’t put too much stock into this way of thinking. Many cultures believe that there must be some sort of balance when it comes to energies; connecting this to twins, with two fetuses, one absorbs the positive energy and the other the negative as opposed to one fetus absorbing both energies. Balance occurs when both energies are present, but twins cause a split disrupting the natural balance thus creating the belief that one is inherently “bad” while the other “good.”

I honestly think this way of thinking must influence the actions of twins, as one is almost expected to be “bad.” With this expectation society almost implies that a set of twins must have different motives in life. Even in the media you see a plot line where someone has an evil or lesser twin—very rarely do you see the twins represented as equals.

While I would love to consider myself as the good twin and my sister the bad, I think that in reality it boils down to who is falling into the standards of societal norms and who is creating their own adventure.