For my daily routine, I headed to the gym and as soon as I arrived there, I opened the door to see this huge lumberjack looking man. He had semi-long curly hair with a hat on backwards. He also had a scruffy beard that went down to his chest. His arms were covered with various colored tattoos that helped build his alpha persona.
Some sensory details that I thought were important was the way he was working out. He seemed very focused since after he finished each set he sat down on the bench and just listened to his music and looked at the ground. He had very good posture as he would be standing straight up when he was doing bicep curls or shoulder press. The one thing that I did find interesting however, was that once he finished each set, he would mess with his fingers almost like he was trying to crack them after every time he’d use the weights. He wore a white tank top that was skintight, dark grey shorts, and white socks with boots on as he potentially just came straight from work.
As I kept observing him, he reminded me more and more of a bear in the way that he grunts when he attempts each set, how he’s so hairy, and the way I felt his dominance in the gym as I thought it reflected how a bear is represented in the wild.
I actually ended up bumping into him while I was going to get a drink and to my surprise he smiled and let out a big laugh when I spilled my water on me since my water wasn’t completely closed. If I had to guess what he did for work, it would be someone who works on the line as a construction worker of some sorts.
Throughout this time observing this man, I felt as if I wasn’t being very objective. In fact, I felt as if I was being very subjective towards him since I knew nothing about him.
Yeah, that’s how stereotypes (subjective) works. Stereotyping isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as you realize what you’re doing. Stereotyping is how we attempt to make sense out of new experiences.