Aubrey: Oh my Gosh, can you believe what that girl is wearing?!
Sophie: What’s wrong with it?
Aubrey: She looks like she forgot to wear her trousers this morning! I mean, you could hardly call that piece of fabric “a skirt.”
Sophie: She looks comfortable with it, Aubrey. Why does it bother you so much?
A: Because, you can’t just go around wearing whatever you want. There are social norms, and you aren’t supposed to strut around half-naked in a lecture hall! It is regarded as improper and obscene . How could a ditz like her even get admitted here?
S: Listen, you’re judging her based on nothing. I think those norms …show more content…
I haven’t really thought it through before. I think I have been unwittingly affected by the way society treats women who choose to dress revealingly. The kind of language people use when talking about them is very negative and contains insulting slurs; which I think is because of the fear that comes with people not conforming to certain ideals, so they are unpredictable.
S: Are you saying that your bias was instinctual?
A: Well, my bias was something that I have accepted without reasoning first, and I judged the girl according to it before I even thought about other possibilities. So yes, it could be said that my judgement was instinctual. Do you reckon everything that comes to our mind first is like that? Are we not supposed to trust our instinct since it might cause prejudice?
S: Well, if you grew up in a judgemental environment where people act out negatively against each other because of their own assumptions, you would automatically be affected by those negative biases and approach other people having them in mind. Thus, like you have said, maybe ignoring your instincts might just be a better way to operate in …show more content…
S: But what about sense perception as a way of knowing? Didn’t seeing the girl make you instinctively judge her in the first place?
A: I believe the judgement stems from the concept of a mini-skirt rather than the image of it. Although, it could be said that sense perception did not contribute towards my reconsideration of my bias as much as reasoning and memory did.
S: Then, we could conclude this experience by saying that while ways of knowing are a check on our judgements, some are more effective than others. Instead of reconsidering our instinctive judgements however, could we ignore them altogether, seeing as – Ah! Spider!
A: What, that little thing? Relax, it has been there for minutes; if it was going to bite you, it would have done it by now.
S: Alright, alright; I’m calm. It scared me, that’s all.
Zoology Professor: Did someone say spider? Oh, here it is; I have been looking for that little lady for the past