Producing Prejudice

I have lately encountered presumptions about what I am supposed to be like. Funnily enough, they are often correct. For example: we started the Academic English study group by guessing what the other students in the class are studying. As everyone else, I was being examined by other 3 members of my small group solely based on my appearance. Everybody answered something such as: "I'd say you're a humanist, from the Faculty of Arts - maybe folklore studies or something?". Not single one of them guessed even the Faculty of Social Sciences, not to mention Biosciences or anything like that...I suppose I'm that obvious, then.

Another occasion when I was being judged was one Tuesday evening at the Theatre Academy. I went to see a dance performance by their students and being a bit early, I decided to sit a while at the school restaurant. I was just glancing through their menu when the bartender asked me: "Red or white?". (I chose red :)) Or when someone entered a room mostly filled by our students when we were having a party: "Are you like humanists or something?" ("Te olette varmaan jotain humanisteja?").

So it seems that we are easily defined by outsiders. I do it myself, too. If I see someone who doesn't 'look' like Finnish I often start conversation in English. When they answer me in perfect Finnish I feel a bit stupid, really. Perhaps most common false assumption of me is that I'm a vegetarian. I probably 'should' be but I'm not. On a larger scale just as the French 'should' love wine and carry their baguettes in their armpit (some of them do), or as the Americans 'should' always smile and chat with people (some of them do). Stereotypes don't exist for nothing, but judging people only according to one's prejudice is not that fair either. Next time I'll try to write something about the ethnic minorities in Finland - I can admit already that for sure I have still prejudice against them...

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05 February, 2008 04:01
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