Sunday, December 25, 2005
Stereotypes
I met an Irishman at a pub last night. Very quickly he started to rub me the wrong way. He started out being nice and fun, but then it turned weird. He made 2 comments that I think led us down that path. 1) He said he would probably talk in generalities and stereotypes 2) American women are more suspicious than other women. I myself don't mind talking in generalities but what he helped me to realized is that I firmly believe while it's ok to speak in generalities, you can't treat people in generalities. You must always give people a chance to show who they are and they will demonstrate whether they fit the generality, but you can't immediately treat people as they do. This guy hasn't quite figured that out and quite frequently made comments that were mocking and demeaning to me as I am an American (Texan at that). As for the suspicious nature of American women, I think this stems from how he treats them...with little respect and too much expectation. He almost demands that you trust him...makes one think "Thou doest protest to much." I've never had a conversation with someone like I had with him, and it was quite an annoying conversation. One of those that lingers in a bad way, sort of kills a good mood.
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3 comments:
Never said I wasn't...which is the irony of it all. But I'm not suspicious until given a reason.
chris says, "stop drinking so much beer and coming home and writing blogs with a buzz-try writing your blog before you go drink-as it makes you too reflective and too serious." oh yeah, he also called you a drunken irish slush-by:jennifer we love you. take care.
If only I could claim I wrote that when I was drunk. I actually wrote that the next day after much annoying reflection. To expound on the irony is that until I'm given reason to be suspicious, I'm overly trusting, like giving strange men from buses rides in my car. I can't deny being a drunken irish slush...it's in the family as he well knows ;).
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