Gender discrimination

[Slaninar]

[size=1em]But as said earlier we all discriminate, but we should not blanket discriminate in a negative way about a section of society or individual that we do not know.[/size]

[size=1em]Positive discrimination is good and healthy and wise.[/size]
[size=1em]Negative discrimination is bad unhealthy and stupid. [/size]

Agree, but not completely. Discrimination is an important survival tool. I'll talk from my background and country (know that best and fewer foccers could get offended   ).

When I wear colours of my football club, and see a group of Red Star (or Partizan) Belgrade supporters, I can expect to get beat up. It's pure prejudice - not all the supporters would bother, want to, nor agree to go into N to one fight, but significant portion of them are.

Same goes for gypsies - at least in my city. You don't want to leave things not very well locked in their neighbourhood. However racist it may sound, in equally poor parts of the city with population of white people, the crime rate is lower.

I've had some experience with Swiss people. First thing that struck me was how "naive" they were - even the obviously intelligent and university educated people. Then I had realized: those people come from a country where no one tries to trick you (at least the standard Serbian tricks, like charging double to foreigners who don't know the prices, selling faulty goods as good, avoiding taxes etc...).  Had they stayed here long enough, I'm sure they would have quickly caught on.

Another example is the police. They have to guess what can be expected of a person and how to approach them the first time they see them. Good, experienced cops often judge that very quickly. They are among the most prejudiced people you can find, but the prejudice is (at least with the competent ones) based on lots of experience.


Not sure how much role is played by society, background, how much is down to genes - but there are certain group traits that can be expected - until proven otherwise, at least that's the way I see it. The main problem, IMO, is when one is not aware of their prejudice and can't let go, even when they get to know the concrete person they interact with.


In my country there have been (civil?) wars and lots of hatred in the past few decades. Hungarian minority in my city has been opressed (not as much as Croats and Muslims in other parts of the country, but not nice). I have always been against that (went to lots of anti-government protests - whatever could be done, whatever the risk). On (more than) one occasion I sat at a "Hungarian" cafe with a Hungarian friend. After some chat, a girl had asked for my name. One of the people said out loud "that's a Serbian name!?!" Most were very reluctant to even talk to me afterwards. Works similarly the other way round - once some guys had started hustling a friend for "speaking in Hungarian" - after I had stepped in it was like "oh, they're with you - you're one of ours - no problems" and they left.

Most people like to be treated well. With respect. Most expect that. When encountering rude situations (like from the previous passage) - those are the things they tend to talk about with their friends. No one will bother to mention: "I was treated normally". But the bad stories are told over and over. That deepens hatred and the prejudice. And it's often rooted in true, first hand experience.

It's a difficult thing to be wise about IMO. What is good, what is bad prejudice/discrimination? I was raised to judge people on what they do. Not on what they say, even less based on their colour/religion etc. Still - if I were given a choice: for an hour, in my garage, would you rather leave a gypsy, or a swiss alone - both of them you've never seen/met before, you know nothing else - I'd go with the swiss. As for drinking - bosnians, or scotts. 

As for the gender discrimination - I don't see that women are discriminated for being women - as if people don't like that fact. What is the case is they often (majority, or at least a large enough percentage of women) tend to put family first. People expect that from a female worker even at the job interview. When/if they get hired, I'm yet to see a hard working woman not being paid more than less hard working man. At least in my city.