a bit of reflection

During the course of the project, I became much more aware of quick judgements I made on people. While questions such as 'did they vote Brexit?' or 'are they part of the LGBTQ community?' don't exactly pop into my head when looking at people on the street, my day to day life is often full of subconscious judgements. As someone who loves people watching, I sometimes make up whole stories about a stranger in the street in my head, but even innocent daydreaming can be filled with judgement - in my head, the tired looking lady in Tescos is an amazing but exhausted parent, and the suit-wearing, Rolex-bearing businessman in Central London is actually a sleaze-bag cheating on his wife, but desperately trying to hide it. All these stories really come down to a subconscious perception of that person's image. When simply people-watching, these are just stories to entertain me on a boring day, however when initial judgements on a person's appearance shape your interaction with them, then there is a problem. Examining my own judgemental behaviours in this critical way has highlighted the difference between harmless make-believe, and sinister misconceptions we can make about others. Sometimes, however, we make judgements to protect ourselves. Being a woman in any city at night can be a scary experience, and I among many other women have made snap judgements about men we perceive as threatening, for our own safety. Walking home from Surrey Quays on a Millwall match day, I keep my head down and avoid walking past large crowds of rowdy, drunk men. This is not because I'm judging them to be bad people, but because I've seen and heard of more violent incidents particularly towards lone women on match days than any other day. However, even when acting in a way to simply avoid a dangerous situation, I know its important to remind myself that everybody is a human being with a story and my initial judgement about them is based only on assumptions and past experiences. I think it is natural to form these assumptions, however, we should all take our judgements with a pinch of salt because we cannot possibly know them to be true.