What does it mean when I read a title like this and immediately say to myself, “I’ll bet it was a pit bull” and I am almost ALWAYS right. I catch myself doing it with crimes too. “Bet it was a black man.” for some and hispanic and white for others. And when I read a headline about a teacher having sex with a student I say, “I’ll bet it was a female teacher.” and so far the last five years I’m batting 1000 on that one.
Actually, I’m pretty much at 1000 on all of them. I’ve got stereotyping down to a science. ;-)
You may call it “stereotyping”, but I’m right there with you and I call it “experience”.
The female teacher one is “man bites dog” bias.
It isn’t even news when a male teacher does it anymore.
Almost all (over 90%) of sex related and/or violent crimes are committed by men.
“What does it mean when I read a title like this and immediately say to myself, “I’ll bet it was a pit bull” and I am almost ALWAYS right.”
Speciesism runs within your heart! LOL! Yes, it’s a real term! The wiki defines it as thus.
Speciesism is the assigning of different values or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership. The term was created by British psychologist Richard D. Ryder in 1973 to denote a prejudice against non-humans based on physical differences that are given moral value.
“I use the word ‘speciesism’,” he wrote in 1975, “to describe the widespread discrimination that is practised by man against other species ... Speciesism is discrimination, and like all discrimination it overlooks or underestimates the similarities between the discriminator and those discriminated against.”
The term is mostly used by animal rights advocates, who argue that it is irrational or morally wrong to regard sentient beings as objects or property.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciesism