One qualifies as “frivolous” a person who adopts a light and superficial behavior. This qualifier is often pejorative, since a person is considered frivolous when their behavior borders on stupidity or unconsciousness. In reality, frivolity is a bit more complex, and concerns people who wish to escape the reality of existence and the gravity of life. How to recognize a frivolous person?

The term comes from Latin: “frivola” means “broken, worn dishes”, that is to say which is superfluous.

A frivolous person will adopt an almost permanent behavior called “light”, and superficial. For example, she will rarely have a serious speech, and will only engage in friendly or romantic relationships for a short time. A frivolous person does not assume reality, and does not commit. She limits her actions to amusements, trivialities, banalities, immediate pleasures.

Frivolity is often associated with lust and debauchery. However, this behavior is a bit more complex than this quick shorthand association.

A frivolous person is aware of their frivolity and the superficial choices they make in their life. Why is she doing it? To escape a reality that weighs on him. A frivolous person is by choice, as an escape from their daily life, or quite simply from the gravity of the human condition that they cannot stand. It is generally a very sensitive person, who thus masks his great sensitivity to protect himself. It is thus a shell, rather than a permanent character.

Here are the signs that can characterize a frivolous person:

• First of all, we recognize a frivolous person by his speech. Without constancy or seriousness, this person will quickly tire those around him who are a little more anchored in reality, by his lack of involvement. Everything will be mockery and she will never take things seriously;
• This person will also have a pronounced taste for vain, trivial, superficial things. She will never be in a posture of reflection, even on existential subjects, during discussions. When she evokes serious matters, she skims over them lightly;
• A frivolous person will be incapable of the slightest long-term commitment: whether in his attachments to people, or places, to actions carried out in his life. She constantly escapes reality and lives from day to day;
• We can feel that behind a frivolous person hides a great masked sensitivity: nonchalance and this philosophy of lightness are hide-and-seek in order to make his life more bearable. In reality, a frivolous person is not superficial, and carries a much deeper reflection on life than one thinks, although he never speaks of it;
• This person will thus devote himself, to escape the reality of existence or his daily life, to immediate, light and joyful pleasures: parties, alcohol or drugs, sex, consumption of objects and clothes without real need, games. money, etc. She will have a predilection for social affairs and money;
• The frivolous will also indulge with joy in the pleasure of seduction: he or she will seduce the opposite sex, only sometimes with the aim of seducing, the pleasure of pleasing and conquering. We will then attach great importance to the physical, to aesthetics;
• The love of art and beauty also characterizes a frivolous person. Aesthetes are often frivolous, as well as the impulsive. We will never worry about the why in the “beautiful”, but simply love it for the beauty in the moment and enjoy it;
• Frivolous people will not be in a “self-destructive” inclination, but only in refinement, elegance, worldliness. A frivolous person hopes only for entertainment, carefree and levity in a stressed and overwhelmed world with the things of life.

In conclusion, a frivolous person will not necessarily be a weak or limited mind. Great intellectuals have already shown that this is compatible with frivolity. On the contrary, frivolous people are in general endowed with a great intelligence, to have perceived the absurdity of life, and to escape from it in this way. A sort of intelligent humorous retreat from existence, frivolity is a philosophy of life that oscillates between games of pleasure, light manners, refinement and love of beauty and the moment.