Stereotypes

No stereotype is true all the time, if it were, it would be a fact of life, not a stereotype. Not all stereotypes are bad or wrong either. Lets take an example. I drive to class most days, some days are uneventful, others are littered with people failing to observe the general rules of the road. Now, if I notice that 9 out 10 times that I observe some traffic incident (many of which occur in roundabouts) there is a woman driving, I am going to develop a stereotype that women are bad drivers. Obviously, this is not true because I am sure I pass many women on the road every day whom I pay no attention to because they drive as well as anyone else on the road. But the fact remains, that when I observe a traffic incident there is a 90% chance it is the fault of a woman. Because of this, if I see a traffic accident of some sort, knowing nothing about the driver I’m am going to think it was a woman. Because I am male and I believe no women can drive, or that if it were a man it somehow implies that I’m a bad driver: No. Because statistically, based on my own experience there is a 90% chance that I am correct with that guess and only a fool would go with the 10% option.

Now, the above is entirely fictitious. In the few traffic issues I see, I would estimate that there is equal distribution between men and women, but that’s really not the point here anyway.

So, next time you care to call someone racist, sexist, or any other such label, take a look around you first. If in normal observation, you see a higher percentage of cases agreeing with their view than disagreeing then they may not be prejudice at all, but only logical. It makes more sense to base your opinions on past experience than to ignore that experience in order to be politically correct.