Very revealing post from another board I frequent.

[zipplewrath]

47. We are all filled with these perceptions

We are all filled with misconceptions that draw us to conclusions we think are just "common sense". Fat people, old people, young people, blind people. They all have stories of having to regularly face the misconceived assumptions of others.

Someone that was suprised that a skydiver had and emergency parachute in addition to his sport canopy. He was asked in a surprised tone, "Why do you have an emergency chute, I thought you didn't care if you die?".

A fat person was walking out of a gym and someone said "why do you bother?"

My wife is quite thin. She works hard at staying that way (history of diseases in the family). People always say how "lucky" she is that she can "eat anything". Are you kidding? She diets constantly.

A blind person I knew told the story from college. They were sitting around talking about sex. She told some story and someone else said "you have sex?" Yeah, blind people are all celibate.

These things come because the we have separated communities. Of course for a long time we had them because of laws. Now, of course, we have them out of choice as much as anything. People tend to congregate with "their own", whatever the definition of "us" is.