Unstereotypical
By Anostus
James was always careful to avoid stereotyping people. He always told himself that they were averages crudely derived from movies and pop culture, rather than anything grounded in reality. In fact, any time he met a person, he always reminded himself that they were probably the exact opposites of what stereotypes would have him believe.
For example, at the mall, he found himself behind an Asian woman in a business suit talking animatedly into her phone about something, and pushing a stroller.
If James had been less enlightened, he might have assumed that this woman was probably smart, good at math, a law abiding citizen, wealthy and a Tiger mom to her child. He might have even guessed that she was a sexually submissive woman with traditional Confucian ideas about the family. And if he was really unenlightened, he might say she had a name that sounded like Ching Chong.
But he had become an expert at thinking around stereotypes, and knew that it was more likely that she was dumb, bad at math, a criminal, poor and had a very hands off, almost negligent relationship with her child. She was probably a dominatrix of some kind who had casual sex or perhaps sex for money, and wouldn’t know Confucius if she read him in a fortune cookie. And her name was probably a normal English name.
As James thought this, Jing Liao started to change.
The 32 year old Chinese immigrant was an up-and-coming executive in a huge tech firm, and today she happened to be yelling into her phone at an underling about some mistake he had made that had broken production. But her voice started to trail off as all of that started to sound wrong.
Why would a dumb whore like her have underlings?
No, she was yelling at her pimp. He had shorted her some cash, and she wasn’t going to let that happen again.
Except, as the pimp patiently explained, he had given her exactly the right amount. He started listing numbers, and they went right over Jing L—, no… Jane Lowell’s head. (She had never been great at math.) But by the end of his explanation, she had calmed down, and believed him. (She really shouldn’t have.)
“I’m sorry,” Jane said into the phone. “I guess I messed up the math again.”
She heard the man on the other end suck his teeth in anger and hang up.
She looked down at her son, who seemed to have something in his mouth that she didn’t recognize. Before, she had been a strict disciplinarian, doing everything she could to set up her son for success, but now she didn’t care. He was just a youthful mistake, and not one she took much interest in.
Underneath her suit, tattoos began to slither up her skin. Nobody could tell, but she was dressed for work as a dominatrix. If she took her business suit facade off, there was leather, latex and her amazing tats underneath. It was much easier to look for work if the po-po weren’t always on her trail.
Jane probably had some Chinese heritage which gave her a nice exotic look that her clients loved, but Jane had grown up in foster care since she was a baby and could only speak English. Jane pushed her stroller, and kept an eye out for a new John.
Meanwhile, James walked on in the mall. He smiled, when he heard the woman ask someone if they wanted to have a good time in a lower class accent. Stereotypes: Zero; Political Correctness: One.
James continued walking through the mall, and saw a gaggle of college cheerleaders hanging out, apparently having just come from cheer practice.
Now, if James was going off of stereotypes, he would have assumed that most of the girls were mean girls, Queen Bees of their schools, and probably didn’t care much about academics. But he did his little trick, and realized that they were probably incredibly kind, socially awkward outcasts, and they probably cared more about their minds than extracurriculars, but were taking cheer because their parents had insisted it would look good on a resume.
His thoughts hit the girls like a truck.
They had actually been much as he had described. All of them were hot, and all of them were rich trust fund kids, and they had always had their pick of the hottest boys in school. Nerdy girls feared them, and teachers never seemed to notice just how two-faced they were.
Amber, the leader of the cheer squad was about to mock a girl passing by, and opened her mouth to ask if her mom had dressed her that morning. But instead, she smiled sweetly.
“Uh, hi!” Amber said timidly to the girl.
“Uh, what was that?” she said. “You’ll have to speak up.”
Amber gulped. She just wasn’t used to talking to people.
“Hi!” Amber said slightly louder.
“Hello?” the girl responded.
“I—, I just wanted to let you know that you look very pretty today,” Amber said.
“Uh, thanks,” the girls said, nodding. “You don’t look half bad yourself.”
Amber smiled, and then awkwardly rejoined the rest of the cheer squad. She noticed that half of them were wearing glasses, and all of them were carrying backpacks full of homework.
“Well, where should we study guys?” one of the girls asked.
“Why did we come to the mall in the first place?” Amber said. “It’s always so full of people. We should have just gone to my parents house or something.”
Another girl agreed, and after some discussion they decided to abandon the mall and go study at Amber’s house.
James smiled overhearing the girls conversation. See, appearances could be deceiving. He mentally patted himself on the back for being so enlightened.
James walked onwards, and found the store he was looking for. A book store.
He walked in, and noticed a girl in the corner with thick glasses pouring over a thick book.
James’ first thought was that she must be a college student of some kind, a total nerd who loved reading and had always been a virgin. She probably had never even had a boyfriend, and preferred to sit at home drinking tea and spending a quiet night in reading.
But James kicked himself mentally for thinking such unwarranted thoughts. No, times were changing, if such people had ever existed. This girl was probably a total party girl most of the time, and was probably only taking staged pictures for her Instagram. Or better yet her OnlyFans. She was probably a sexually liberated sexpot who barely knew how to read and dropped out of high school to pursue life as a camgirl. She probably had a technical boyfriend that helped her set everything up, since she wasn’t very technical herself. Though her and her boyfriend probably weren’t exclusive, and she might even have been considering escorting for the right price.
Elizabeth Stutton frowned as she read through the Mechanical Engineering textbook in her hand, as James’ thoughts flowed through her.
She had already bought the recommended textbooks for the classes she was taking, but she loved studying and she knew it wouldn’t hurt to try a different approach to make sure her understanding was solid. Besides, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. She didn’t have a boyfriend, and hadn’t made a lot of friends in college so far.
Suddenly, she pulled out her phone, and snapped a picture. Then she giggled when she realized the book was upside down. She could be such a ditz sometimes!
Lizzy flipped the book over, and tried to look brainy and thoughtful holding the book as she snapped a picture for OnlyFans. She couldn’t sell the look at all. It was just too obvious that nothing was going on behind her empty eyes.
She put down the book, and tugged suggestively at her outfit, snapping another picture with a bit of her bra showing. She looked around. She didn’t want to get kicked out again.
After her photoshoot was complete, she put the textbook back where she had found it. She frowned at the spine. Mechanical Engineering? Something like that was way over her head!
She got a text from her boyfriend, and had the text-to-speech read it to her. She could read, but it was really really slow. She was so happy her boyfriend had set up text to speech for her.
Apparently, there was going to be a party at one of the fraternities at the local college. Lizzy had dropped out of high school herself, but she loved frat parties. There were so many cute boys, and her boyfriend and her had an open relationship, so…
Lizzy giggled as she thought about what clothes to wear to the party.
Meanwhile, James picked out the book he was interested in, and walked up to the check out counter, where there was a blonde girl dressed in pink, looking incredibly bored and blowing bubbles.
He had never seen her before, and assumed she must be a new hire. If he was being mean, he might say she looked like a total airhead, who only cared about fashion, and only got this job because her parents insisted on it.
But he knew better. She was probably a genius, maybe even the manager of this store as well as several others who only came in because her employees were out sick, and she was dedicated to a good customer experience. She probably didn’t even care much about fashion, just wearing the old clothes she used to have in college because she was so frugal.
As he looked at her name tag, which said Mary, she began to change.
Mary hadn’t really wanted to get this job. She would have preferred to work at Victoria’s Secret or Forever 21, but she had messed up the last two retail jobs because of how clumsy she often was, and her dad had pulled a few strings to get her a job at their family friend’s bookstore. She knew it wouldn’t be long before she was fired. She had already made 12 mistakes today, and cost the company a lot of money. Why couldn’t she just shop all day, and find a nice man to take care of her?
Mary blinked at the strangeness of these thoughts. Didn’t she actually run this store? She was a great manager too. Her employee had asked for the day off on short notice, and while she had tutted about professionalism to herself, she had granted it.
Mary was a cultivated woman with a high degree of education and sophistication. She loved reading, and had read all the classics in her spare time and had recently started studying Russian literature.
Her dad was so proud of her, but she knew that the future held even greater things in store for her. She had ambitious plans to expand her store, and was in discussion with several investors to improve things.
“Will this be all, sir?” she asked James, straightening up.
“Yes, this is all,” he said. He noted her sophisticated accent. She had so much going on behind her eyes all the time, like she was seeing more than anyone else did when she looked at you.
James handed over his money after being told the total, and walked back to his car.
He was satisfied with his trip to the mall. It was always so good to be reminded that people almost never fit into the little boxes you try to put them in.