dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (09/01/84)
[line that does not begin with white space] > I had thought I had no harmfully discriminatory attitudes. I have begun to > re-evaluate this. How much of this is true to how many people: > > Women with blond hair tend to have no minds. They are (submissive) social > butterflies. When they are admitted to, it is on a pedastal. They > don't have to work for what they get. > Women with brunette hair are competitive and often hard to deal with. > They work too hard to get what they want. > Women with red hair are unpredictable, powerful, and have bad tempers. > Women with black hair are predictable and dependable, strong and quiet. Fortunately, perhaps by blind luck, most of the women that I've actually known well violate those stereotypes. Umm, well, maybe that's not quite true. The blondes I've known definitely weren't dumb. But I wasn't aware of the other three until today, and the brunette stereotype DOES fit some women in my experience..... But not others. Ahh, I'm safe. Seriously, I wonder how much my perceptions will be altered now that I've heard the other 3 stereotypes? > Most men I speak to believe that it influences them.... I don't think that I tend to treat people based on these stereotypes. (But I'd be upset if I did, so maybe I'm just hiding it from myself?) However, now that you've started me thinking about it, there may very well be another effect. If I see someone who is acting "dumb", I may be more tolerant of her if she is blonde than if she had some other colour hair, simply because I'll think "she's only doing what's expected of her or easiest for her". If I REALLY believed that such stereotypes were bad and wanted to get rid of them, shouldn't I treat everyone the same regardless of what their hair colour (and thus environment) was like? Or is it unfair not to make allowances for background? (It isn't HER fault..). Confused, Dave Martindale (allegra,ihnp4,decvax!watmath)!watcgl!dmmartindale