Preconceptions, assumptions, and sterotypes

As much as our society has changed and moved into a new era of lattes, computers, and iPods there is still a modern stereotype when it comes to the appearance of either a man or a woman. A lot, so it seems, to go into ones thinking after viewing a person on the. How we look and how we portray ourselves seems to dictate our judgment of that person. Whether or not its logical or illogical.

Truly, it is saddening to think that in this modern age that certain people, because of the way they dress, cannot be accepted for who they are. The person could be brilliant, intelligent, unique and slightly quirky yet dawn the outer mask of black lip stick, white face, and black eye shadow.

Silly preconceived notions and assumptions.....

Assumptions are beliefs or ideas that we hold to be true — often with little or no evidence required. Which is why such ways of thinking can be extremely counter productive.

It saddens me to think that what is on the outside is how one is perceived, never mind the person on the inside.

Its amazing how many social disorders and mental disorders can occur because of this mindset and way of life. Such a foolish, short-sighted, vain way of looking at our fellow man that has such monumental effects on the human mind. It could be prevented entirely if people could change their ways of looking at each other.

We are often misled by our perceptions. Our perceptions can be faulty which then result in our critical thinking about situations to become faulty as well.

Such preconceptions and assumptions really bother me. One such notion is the stereotype of a man who wears some makeup (even if its just eyeliner) is automatically deemed gay. Pig-headed bullies tease, torment, and even go to the lengths to terrorize these men based off of their looks and noting more. No one ever seems to ask these people their life story, they never seem to bother to ask them out right if they are gay or not. What it all boils down to is a stupid assumption and ill conceived notions that is rarely true to begin with.

I do not know how to even begin to address the faults of assuming something to be true without verifying the assumption to even know if it is even founded on any sort of truth.

Someone wise once said:

"We can really get messed up in our problem solving and critical thinking if we continue to proceed in our actions based on invalid assumptions. We must always validate and test our assumptions to be sure that our assumptions are based in reality. We must always avoid jumping to assumptions especially if they are negative or illogical. We need to never ignore the obvious and recognize that by taking things for granted one can fall into the biggest trap of invalidated assumptions. Critical Thinking is very dependent on the open assessing, validating, and clarifying of assumptions. Assumptions lie at the root and foundation of what make critical thinking different from other forms of thinking and problem solving. So pay attention and heed the lessons to be learned in dealing with assumptions."


I wish all people, epically young and impressionable teens, could read this and re-evaluate their preconceptions and basic assumptions of people.