I hate it when people refuse to see me as a unique person with dissociation. One day I realized I do the same thing to other people. If I see a wealthy-looking blonde woman, I think she’s a snob. A man coupled with a covered woman is controlling, and/or abusive, and/or misogynist. I don’t know those people, and I know I don’t.
They don’t know me either.
I read an article on Awblogs by Grace Kim titled “I Am Not A Stereotype.” Here’s a quote from the article:
“Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s useful insight about the problem of stereotypes is ‘not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.’ Imbedded in this notion of the ‘only story’ is the relationship-shaping factor of power. Human beings rarely tell one story about themselves – they are far too complex for that. An ‘only story’ is told and retold about people by other people. Adichie adds that ‘power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.’ And stereotypes are that powerful. They can, and do, define, categorize, and shape one person’s relationship with another.
Really made me think.
