I am no stranger to generalization. It’s happened to me, and I’ve done it to others. Everyone has, and has been.
Yesterday, I was a little early to trivia, and for whatever reason, this geek bar had one of the televisions tuned into ESPN, which was at the time showing the Phillies and Yankees game. Naturally, I have little vested interest in either team, but if I had to pick a team, it would be the Yankees, because any losses that occur to the Phillies are good for the Braves. Unfortunately, that was not the fortune, as the Phillies were obliterating the Yankees all night long.
At one point in the game, I made a quiet remark about how a hit ball “was gone,” since Ryan Howard does that about 45 times a year every year. The cute 20-something bartender took notice, and then turned at the television, and then back to me; obviously the thoughts of me actively watching baseball in a geek bar or something of the sort was in her head.
“Yeaaah… I’m kind of a jock too,” I say, to explain that yes, despite enjoying video games, nerd culture, and geek trivia, I still love me my professional sports.
“I figured,” she responded, much to my surprise. Am I that obvious to my interests on supposed opposite ends of the spectrum?
“The hair kind of gives it away.” Now this was interesting. So for lack of a better term, my hair has been somewhat of a controlled, deliberate mess for the last few years or so. I like it that way, too. But to be indicative of jock-like tendencies, it has never occurred to me before.
So for the first time in my life . . . well, not really, because I’m pretty sure I was generalized all sorts of things when I was 16-18 and my hair was every color of the CMYK color wheel at some point, but I guess for the first time since having somewhat more civilized hair, I’ve been pegged as a type, based on my hair. My apparently jock hair. Fascinating.
