Who's the Donkey Here?

So...I'm "assuming" that you've all encountered the saying, "when you assume things you make an ass out of you and me." Well, friends, I got schooled in that this morning. Schooled like you wouldn't believe y'all. Now as we all know I am not very good about being wrong. I hate it, with a fiery passion. I look at being wrong as automatically equaling stupidity, and it has been and still is difficult for me to break out of that hemmed in sort of thinking. I don't especially like admitting that I think in any sort of way that is "hemmed in" or close-minded. I, in fact, like to think that I'm open-minded and accepting and all of those other things that people are supposed to be. But the reality of it is I'm not so open-minded as I thought I was. I'm not so above believing the stereotypes and stigmas put out by society or my small town upbringing as I thought I was. And hell I may not even be fully aware of them until they're pointed out to me. Yeah, it blew my mind too. Straight up BLEW. MY. MIND.

Now I like to think that I'm above all of these things. You know playing into stereotypes, stigmatizing people. I like to think I'm for equality. I mean...I want to be treated equally, so why wouldn't I want equality for others? And I do want equality, and I think that all of the -isms are inherently wrong. But this post isn't about equality or -isms or whatever. It's about assumptions, and just because you think these things are wrong doesn't mean that you don't play into them or even sometimes use them in order to further inequality and not even realize it. I assumed that I didn't play into these things because I "believe in equality." I assumed that I didn't perpetuate any of that discrimination business because I'm a woman and am a marginalized as well, but I'll be darn if I don't do it too. And I'll be darn if I don't use my small town upbringing as a way to handicap myself, as a way to stigmatize myself, as a way to make certain ideas and thoughts ok. Crazy, huh?

I realize that this is kind of a deep post, but I've been trying so hard show that I am open-minded that I didn't even notice how close-minded I am on certain things. I'm not close-minded about everything, but I just didn't realize how judgemental I am about certain things in society or how hard I try to fit into certain stereotypical roles. Today was definitely an eye-opener, and it taught me some things about justification. Just because you can justify something, or attempt to, does not make it right. Just because you can justify an assumption or a judgement doesn't make you any less of a jackass. So here's to being wrong :-)