Preconceptions

Everyday on the way to school I listen to Chris Evans on Radio 2. The other day Chris was interviewing a hairdresser, I can't exactly remember what they were talking about however, the hairdresser said at one point that he was bald.

There is nothing unusual about that, I know, but my first thought when he said that was that "oh he doesn't sound bald". Now that's the weird thing. Someone can't sound bald yet that was my immediate thought. Funnily enough Chris Evans said the exact same thing and when I looked at my mum, she said that she thought the same thing as well.

I started thinking then, how weird it was that we all had the same preconceptions of what every person who is bald looks, sounds and acts like. We have a whole preconceived view on a person simply based on one feature which has absolutely no correlation to their personality at all.

When I look at a guy with a beard and tattoos I think that he's probably a biker dude and he's probably drunk and therefore probably dangerous. To be honest, I shut down that view pretty quickly however it is my first thought.When I see a bunch of guys walking together towards me, my immediate thought is DANGER and I will cross over the road to avoid them.

This preconception is probably more wise than the previous as if you are a female who is walking anywhere alone and a group of guys walks towards you, chances are that you have been taught to avoid them. You never know who is a danger to you so it's better to be safe than sorry.

The other day I was out somewhere with my brother and we saw a girl wearing a full face of makeup and a pretty short skirt and my 12 year old brother said she was a "slut". As a feminist, that isn't a view that I support and I told him so, but at one point that would have been my view as well. That girl might have been one of the nicest people on the planet and my brother didn't want to stop to try and get to know her because he had already labelled her on sight.

Katie Hopkins caused a lot of controversy on the news when she said that she judges kids solely on their name. She judges what kind of person they are, the kind of parents they have and also the kind of intelligence and background they have based on something that they don't even have control over. It caused shit loads of controversy and she got a load of hate.

Although the hate that she received is completely justified and the fact that she refuses to let her kids play with a boy called "Tyler" simply because that's his name is outrageous. But are any of us much better?

We all do the same thing.

We judge people and their personalities based on their looks, on their names, on their accents or their jobs. There's no point in trying to deny it because everyone does it.

There are people at school who I used to avoid because they looked like someone I didn't want to associate with. But I didn't know that. They may have been wonderful people, but I will never know.

I just wanted to write about it because I realised that it's probably one of the biggest issues that the world faces.

Judgement and prejudice.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism are all the biggest issues that the world faces and the core issue with all of these hate crimes are the preconceptions that we have of other people.

If there is anything that we should be teaching children, it's that you should NEVER judge a book by its cover. Don't let your children hear you doing it either because they learn from you. You tell them one thing and then do another. Actions always speak louder than words.

I think that if we can just approach every person and situation with the same amount of respect and kindness then the world would be a better place.❤️