Reblog from Tommington

Another day another dollar! (other currency forms are available)

Well here I am, I finally succumbed to this whole blogging..thing! At last I’ve seen enough of people with the IQ of a small Hungarian doormouse attempting to get their opinions of the world across without first considering their information sources, and decided I’d attempt to give the world a piece of my mind from the comfort of my own bedroom!

(If you havent gathered by this point, I’m a pretty opinionated son of a gun, so be prepared…I did warn you!)

So where to start…hmm…well I suppose a bit of background on me would be a useful starting point! Not too much to tell, which from a writer’s point of view is probably a bad thing, but for you, the lucky lucky reader, you get to avoid a 21 year marathon of the ups and downs of the life of Tommington!

Well, as I just said (stupid repetition), I’m a 21 year old guy, in the UK, the Midlands to be exact, for any other Brits who want to “big up” the area! Erm, I drive, I play the bass, I work…sadly. Job wise I’m not your typical twenty something, I haven’t gone through the degree route the normal way, instead I’m being paid for by my employer, and when I’m not hitting the books, I’m juggling test tubes (Not literally of course…the health and safety guys would go mad!) on behalf of a local laboratory…fun fun fun!

Not a lot goes on around me that I dont normally notice, and more importantly, have an opinion on, sadly most of these I end up having to keep to myself, but that’s the beauty of blogging, if I need to, I can hide behind an internet created facade, and ignore the comments (sound like any old dates any of you have had?)This somewhat annoying ability, is probably something that sets me up well for this blogging malarky, so hopefully, I’ll see some payback from it soon enough!

Now then, as I understand it, the idea here is to come up with something zingy, controversial, opinionated, and conversation-simulating, but I’m going to start off with something that seems to have been catching my attention for the past few days. Sadly, I live a 20 minute drive away from my work, and my girlfriend lives a good 3 hours away (I’ll get onto this in a minute, don’t panic noble readers!), which means I have plenty of time spent in the car to listen to the radio. Most recently, I’ve found myself tuning into Radio 4, there wil be time for mocking remarks at the end of this discussion thank you boys and girls, please rest assured that at least 25% of the time this is because there is nothing of a musical variety being played at the time that shouldn’t be listened to without being first placed in a soundproof room.

The hot topic I noticed tonight was a documentary of sorts on “Black, British, and Muslim”, which I happily listened to, although to be fair, it was rather dull in places. Anyway, this is not my point, what I am going to get onto, is the situation which was portrayed by the title. It seems once again, the unfaltering British desire to categorise and identify everything with, or into, a group, has even spread onto this most traditional of radio stations. The desire to stereotype or isolate individuals from society based on small areas of their personality is rampant, and to be fair, is not really necessary.

Case in point, my better half (that’s the only time anyone will catch me admitting to this!). Now then, I’m going to make it clear now, that the kind of woman which catches my eye, is most definitely not a Size Zero, flat chested bimbo with more artificial hair than a teddy. No, I am what some people, I suppose, might term a “chubby chaser” Now then, this does not mean I’m some mad nutter seeking a metric ton of a woman, as are so often portrayed on the television, no, these kind of people are in a league of their own. (A league that should be disbanded, quickly, with a 50 calibre rifle). However, just because a man prefers a girl who has actually heard of a cheeseburger, and knows where food is supposed to go, rather than living on a diet of rabbit food and lettuce, there are quite a few stereotypes that she apparently must conform to.

The apple of my eye, Toria, is not exactly small, as a size 22/24 girl, she definitely isn’t going to be appearing on a well known page of The Sun newspaper any time soon, however, she is, by no small margin (excuse the pun), the most caring, loving, devoted, and feminine person I have ever met. Although, if we are to believe the popular opinions, she should be, lazy, workshy, exhibit poor personal hygiene, and often be found stalking the bins of her local takeaway. And it started me wondering, why do so many people decide to stay addicted to these preset assumptions? We are all prone to make broad decisions about people, but most of the time, this just makes us look stupid.

I am not going to sit here and pretend that I never make assumptions on anything, nor do I not have the predisposition to make assumptions about people, but sometimes you really do need to question the mentality of individuals. Humans are, unfortunately, creatures of habit, and like most animals, which we all are at the end of the day, demonstrate a pack mentality. A lot of the time, these social decisions mean that everyone decides to agree with a decision just because it means they don’t stick out in a crowd. How many times have you thought someone was a rather good looking person for a quality you find attractive, but because you know your mates will probably have a dig at you, keep your gob shut and try to look the other way?

This is exactly the same situation, so from the local Wetherspoons pub, to the dizzying heights of topical BBC radio, there are thoughts that we can all too easily get away with this pack mentality that people are just another example of a stereotype, something we really should try to fight back against.

So here is my challenge to you loyal readers (hoping you haven’t already written me off as a complete *insert expletive here*), break one stereotype you encounter this week, see if you can catch yourself making an assumption, and slap your figurative wrist for doing it. You never know, you might just surprise yourself at how wide ranging our opinions of each other can be, if you just make the extra bit of effort!

Now its time for me to get some sleep, another day of work beckons….come on lottery win! Opinions, thoughts, questions, all welcome, just be nice, this is my first time afterall!