Preconceived ideas. How many of them do we carry around and do we realize that we have them? I have been experimenting with this…Naughty, I know. Fun? Oh yes.
3 different experiments; 1) clothes 2) my company 3) walking with a bad limp. Results?
- Clothes: I go to a hardware store all dressed up in a pencil-skirt, heels, make-up and nail-polish and ask about really “macho” things. (Here you need to know that I am a very capable woman; I clean my own chimney, change bits and pieces on my car – if I have to – and repair things around the house. I am the total Macho woman
) When I am dressed up, the people talk to me like I am stupid, telling me to get a handy-man or they ignore me. I LOVE setting them straight… - Company: I spent a day going around town with a young male-friend of mine. We are very close friends and intimate in our bantering. He’s 24, I am 50. More often than not we are greeted with leers and outright rudeness. They think he’s my lover…People have really dirty minds.
- Walking with a limp: Now this is tricky. It is not to make fun of disabled or handicapped people, it is about testing reactions and understanding how it would feel. People move aside, pretend they do not see, whisper and point behind my back. I feel like a pariah.
All these people probably consider themselves to be upstanding citizens, even pillars of society but the moment the “picture” doesn’t fit with their preconceived notions they draw their own conclusions without even stopping to check. They become rude, obnoxious and out-right nasty. Do they ever excuse their behavior? No, they get even angrier for being “found out”.
Moral? Don’t ever think you know what is going on with people, more often than not you might be wrong, so be very careful in your judgments. Keep an open mind and learn something from the world and the people around you.
(Pic: Denis Tombal)
