It is a difficult thing to explain without upsetting people, I know I've tried before and gotten into a lot of trouble.

I think the problem is you don't want to use the words stereotype or prejudice, because right off the bat people take it the wrong way.

You aren't prejudice if say there is a riot in Rome on the day of the derby and you deduce it'll defo be football fans even if it ends up not being football fans. It is a logical conclusion to make.

Similarly when I cut my hair I didn't care that some people at work asked me if I was a lesbian, it might be a stupid stereotype but it is a general thing, the hair cut I had isn't a girly hair cut, coupled with the fact they knew for some time anyway that I was tom boy it was just a general logical conclusion they came to.

The problem with labels like prejudice is that the moment you say it people jump on you. Like they've never seen a piece of news and thought the worst about some group or the other. Even people reading the news on the Boston bombings MUST have made a conclusion in their head whilst watching it, they might not have aired it, but they would have had something in their mind that could be perceived as the kind of prejudice they told other people they had just for airing that view.

Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. Some people might be offended if you use that stereotype but as long as you don't hate on people purely because they are a stereotype of something it doesn't matter in my opinion. For me Rose in series 1 of Doctor Who is a stereotypical chav, others don't believe that, I call her a chav when arguing about her because she shares stereotypical quirks that chavs have. That doesn't mean that I hate her because she is a stereotyped chav (in my opinion) it doesn't even mean that chavs are evil people, it is just she lives up to the stereotype of a label that people can easily identify with.

I'm never upset when people think I'm a goth because I wear the right clothes and listen to the right music to be a stereotypical goth. I'm not a goth, but I don't get offended. Maybe the stereotype question is more to do with the label you are stereotyping someone with.

Maybe a more interesting question would be whether or not in this day and age there should be "labeling" I personally label myself as a geek because it is an easy way to introduce myself but if someone is stereotypical of a chav they might not like the fact people look at them and automatically think of them as such. Then again if that same person was called something else (I don't really know what labels are popular at the moment) they might love it. The ever changing language barrier doesn't help. Everything changes, when I was a kid I'd hate to be called a geek, as a teenager and now in my early 20s I love it. Times change, labels change, stereotypes change.

Though my main thing with stereotypes is if you don't like them don't do them!

It goes without saying conspiracy theorists are usually prejudice, a lot of people online seemed to jump to the "it must be Islamic Terrorists" when they heard about the Boston bombing BEFORE ANYTHING was known, thus a lot of sites focused on photos of people that looked "a bit foreign" instead of just on the bigger picture. THAT is a prejudice.

Sitting there saying "well this group is more likely to use a bomb then another group who is known for going around shooting people" is not a prejudice it is a logical train of thought. Funny thing is all the finger pointing etc that happened and I don't think it'll be as simple as most people wanted it to be, but that is for another discussion.

Thing is like lots of these words (sexist, racist, prejudiced) people that bandy them about all the time more then enough throw them at innocent people. Just because you are a little bit sensitive to something doesn't mean you can go around accusing people of all sorts when you don't like what they say.

For example, anyone that knows me knows that I'm not homophobic, I think everyone should live the life that they want to live. But at work recently we've had a girl who has to "stick up" for all the "minorities" in the universe. If you told her the grass was green she'd give you a bollocking for being so mean to the grass. I can't remember what the conversation was about but I was comparing being camp to being a "normal" (and I used air quotations too) male as in the stereotyped normal male (gay or otherwise) other than a mincing queen. I immediately regretted saying anything as she had to get up in arms about them being normal and how dare I say they aren't normal. I gave her a blank stare and told her straight, if my friend saw this guy we were talking about he'd be gobsmacked and would call him camp and he's gay. He hates people that overplay campness just to hit home that they are gay (which I didn't accuse the guy we were talking about of doing it was the way the conversation went, she was stereotyping blonde... Well what I've always thought of as American Cheerleader types earlier in said conversation).



My view wasn't homophobic but she jumped on anything, any way to twist your words and make you sound like you were. It is the same with "prejudice" in a way. You could sit there and say "well I know this group probably has something to do with all those cows going missing because its their MO" and you'll get people telling you that you are prejudice to them and this time around it could be some other group that stole the cows (not that I want that used as a metaphor for the Boston bombings I'm not talking about prejudice in a wider sense).

Yeah and my point is that if you are prejudice you are prejudice nothing else. Of course we have idiots that point the finger at everyone, over sensitive types with nothing better to do than be shocked for other people and fight other peoples battles even when there is no battle (or they are battling against the people they are battling for).

There is a reason why we have these types of labels.

Though to be honest deep down we are all prejudice, it isn't the end of the world to be prejudice as long as you ignore it and get on with life and not make it part of your life.