This morning I chickened out of cycling in the rain and walked to and from the market instead. It wasn’t raining desperately hard but I just didn’t fancy riding in the wet. Because I wasn’t stuffing things in my panniers, I bought bedding plants, which don’t travel well in panniers. Now I just need a bit of fine weather to repot them or choose which bit of the flower beds to put them in.
Later in the day the window cleaner came. There’s something ironic about a window cleaner coming in the rain but there it goes. I took the opportunity to pay the window cleaner. We owed him for his last visit as well because the last time he came for some reason I didn’t see him and Phil did not pay him. As I paid him for two visits I made a (very poor, possible sexist) joke about this being the kind of thing that happens when you leave your husband in charge! This led me to reflect on stereotyping, especially after my yesterday’s post on racist attitudes.
It’s very easy for us to fall into all kinds of prejudice - young people dressed oddly, old people being slow, scruffy tramps, disabled people - they all suffer from people’s reaction to how they look. A fair few years ago now, when my now 16 year old grandson was still a toddler in a buggy this happened. My daughter was returning from Manchester in the train with a toddler in the buggy, a four year old trotting alongside and a ten year old “helping” to carry odds and ends of purchases. On the train was a suspicious-looking young man: grungy clothes, dread locks, tattoos and piercings - the sort of young man you avoid looking at in case he reacts in a rude or violent way. They sat as far away from him as possible.
My daughter and the children, the grungy young man and a mass of more respectably dressed people all got off the train at Mossley station. To exit the station you have to go up a flight of stairs and across a bridge, not an easy thing to do with a heavy toddler in a buggy, a load of purchases and a four year old who needs supervising on stairs. All the respectably dressed people rushed past, indeed pushed past, intent on leaving the station as soon as possible. The grungy young man stopped and offered to carry the buggy, complete with toddler, up the stairs. You can’t judge a book by looking at its cover!
Then this lunchtime on the radio I heard about OAGs. OAGs are Old Age Gamers. It was “novelty” news because most computer gamers are teenagers, or young men. Even young women gamers, such as my 23 year old granddaughter, are regarded as oddities by some people. And it is generally accepted that beyond a certain age, people don’t play computer games. Indeed many of them don’t understand computers at all. My own slight aversion to IT has nothing to do with growing older: I have always resisted learning IT skills that are not immediately useful to me. I was remarkably suspicious of the word processor when it came into our lives - why should I not continue with my trusty type writer? That specific attitude soon changed however!
Anyway, it seems that a large number of older people have got into playing computer games during lockdown - from Super Mario to Red Dead Redemption to Pokemon Go. That last one has the advantage of getting the player out and about, one elderly gamer said. Some have done so in order to be able play such games with their grandchildren. Many have done so just to keep their minds active. I was reminded of my father in his sixties discovering the fun of ping-pong tennis games on the Atari ST long ago. We need to be careful about putting people into boxes for whatever reason.
Some parts of social media are trying to police what goes on their sites, trying to eliminate prejudice and abuse. On the radio (again) I heard a discussion about male lingerie adverts being rejected by Facebook and other online media. A company who produce men’s lingerie reported the difficulty they were having advertising their ware. It seems it’s okay if it’s David Beckham in his undies on a poster but not male models in general. Apparently it’s okay for people to see images of women in their undies but not similar images of men. Are men’s bodies really so provocative!
The BBC sorted it out for them, which seems a bit over the top, and Facebook and Instagram and so on apologised and reinstated the adverts.
Another case of things being misjudged because of appearance.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.
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