TypeCasting Couch

They say ‘Never judge a book by its cover.’ But in this era of snap judgement sadly it’s the superficial that matters the most. A red stain on shirt can lead a suspicious wife to believe that her husband has an affair. A guy laments possessing only a 6 pack and not an eight pack and panics if he will ever be able to impress girls. A man with a long mane is considered frivolous in professional sphere. The ideal man is tall dark and handsome and not caring, understanding and funny. Blonde is moron. Sardar is idiot. A person with a long beard and a skull cap is a terrorist. Justin Bieber is gay. Why are we always in a hurry to declare somebody as something just because of a certain way he/she looks, appears, behaves or dresses? Why do we give appearance more importance than substance? Why is a person’s personality judged according to some pre-conceived and mostly baseless notions? Why have we thrown away the concept of individuality and started stereotyping people into clichéd categories. Are we too busy to inspect before coming to a verdict? Probably. Am I taking this whole stereotyping of people business way too seriously? Most probably. In our country there is no person who has not been stereotyped in some time of his life. Nobody can escape from it because stereotypes exist of every sort: Religion, region, caste, race, profession, clothing, mannerism, language, money-worth and so on. So when a man stereotypes someone else, he takes a subconscious pleasure in it, because he has been on the receiving end himself. Most of the time a man does not even realize when he is stereotyping but subliminally he is taking his vengeance for the all the pigeonholing he has been subjected to himself. It’s a tit for tat scenario. Once again is there no time for inspecting what the person really is before bracketing him? Not necessarily. The reigning but hidden thought is: When the other person did not take any time to inspect before coming to conclusion why should I take the pain to analyze him? This might explain day to day stereotyping. But this does not explain everything. When it comes to certain things, a man’s mind is more or less like a non-rewritable disc. Initially the disc is blank, so whatever rudimentary and crude concepts it stores in the beginning, remains embedded inside his mind. And it’s a hell lot difficult to change the already established notions of the mind. And a man’s mind is insecure. He thinks stereotyping is the safest bet and a shortcut to knowing somebody and assuring that the person concerned is harmless. So in a way, though stereotyping is unpleasant, it’s a basic human tendency. We cannot be really blamed for what we are. And nobody can claim that he has never stereotyped anybody. NOBODY. But then I don’t deny there are people who stereotype out of sheer malice. Such people are mainly frustrated, non descript souls. But all said harmless stereotyping can be really fun.