Stereotypes (and breaking them)
I’ve been around for quite a long time and I’ve traveled around quite a bit. I don’t know whether I am lucky or unlucky in this regard, but wherever I go in the world I am proceeded by stereotypes about being British. In Japan I am lucky in that there is generally quite a good image of people from the UK (it being seen as a country of “gentlemen,” which I do my best to live up to), but I am also unlucky in that no matter where I go, people who don’t know me try to talk to me about football.
I have literally no interest in football. In fact, football is one of my least favorite things about UK culture. I’ve seen a lot of fights in the UK related to the football culture, I hated being forced to play “the national sport” at school, and I wasn’t fond of the fact that so much of the British consciousness is absorbed in watching overpaid athletes kicking a bag of air around a field and pretending to be injured.
Whenever anyone tries to talk to me about football I don’t get offended. I just tend to say that if they are talking about football then they probably know more about the subject than I do because I’m not into football. But I am happy to talk to them about other things and can talk literally all day about martial arts or running.
Stereotypes exist for a reason. Football IS popular in the UK. So if you like football and meet someone from the UK, there’s a good chance they will like football. But I am not defined by this stereotype. If someone says, “British people all like football,” it is not a correct statement. I am living proof.
On averages
Because I am a runner I am constantly recording my run times. When people run certain distances they often compare themselves to the “average” for their age and sex.
Am I a good runner? It kind of depends what metric you are looking at. I’m in my early 40’s and as of writing this my best 5K time is 19:07. Looking at the chart above, I’d say that’s pretty good for my age. It’s getting towards elite level anyway. But the above table is looking at RUNNERS from beginner to world record level, and I know more people that don’t run at all than people who actually run.
If I take 33.14 as the expected time for people my age to run a 5K, my 19:07 5K is so far beyond average that it isn’t even worth comparing.
Describe an average person
I asked ChatGPT to describe an average person. This is the result it came up with:
The "Average Person" (Globally)
Racial background: Asian (because the largest share of the global population lives in Asia, particularly China and India).
Height: ~170 cm (5’7”) for men, ~160 cm (5’3”) for women.
Weight: ~70 kg (154 lbs) for men, ~60 kg (132 lbs) for women.
Age: About 30 years old (the median global age is ~30–31).
Sex: Slightly more likely to be male, but nearly a 50/50 split.
Hobby: Watching TV or online videos (globally the most common leisure activity, per surveys), but walking and casual sports are also common.
5 km run time: For a recreational, non-competitive runner in average health:
Men: ~30–35 minutes.
Women: ~35–40 minutes.
(This assumes jogging pace, not trained racing speed.)
Which is interesting. I asked ChatGPT again to describe an average British person:
The "Average British Person"
Racial background: White British (about 82–85% of the UK population identifies this way).
Height: Men: ~177 cm (5’10”), Women: ~164 cm (5’5”)
Weight: Men: ~84 kg (185 lbs), Women: ~72 kg (159 lbs)
(BMI trends in the UK put the average in the “overweight” range).
Age: Median age is ~40.5 years.
Sex: 51% female, 49% male — so slightly more likely to be female.
Hobby: Watching TV/streaming is the top leisure activity. Other common hobbies include gardening, reading, and football (either watching or playing).
5 km run time: Recreational UK runners average 28–35 minutes.
But for the true “average person” (including non-runners), if they attempt a 5K jog, expect closer to 35–40 minutes.
You can feel free to try this with any other country or trait that you like and then think about how you compare.
Pointing fingers
Personally, I don’t like to judge people based on stereotypes or averages. If you meet someone for the first time and don’t know anything about them, you can possibly make some educated guesses about them based on some common demographic characteristics to that geography. There’s nothing offensive about assuming someone might like baseball if they are from the United States. But there is a problem when you start saying, “You are from X. Therefore, this is how you think/behave.”
If you use 𝕏 (the platform formally known as Twitter), you can quite frequently come across “conversations” that have devolved into people just slinging accusations and stereotypes at each other. These are to totally non-functional interactions. Regardless, I still try my best to judge people as individuals, but it does get frustrating when people tell me things that I must be based on the group they perceive me to be from.
Who do you represent?
There was recently an incident where an Australian man went to a graveyard in Japan, took an offering from the grave (an alcoholic drink), and drank it on camera while ranting about Japan. (Screenshot below).
Not only is this disrespectful but it is also illegal. I’m not sure what has happened with this situation, but I hope eventually this individual is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
But who does this man represent? Does he represent all Australians? Does he represent all “white people?” Or does he just represent himself?
If you go on 𝕏, the answer to that question depends on who you are asking. And this kind of interaction plays out over and over again. If someone has an axe to grind with a demographic, you better believe if they find a single instance of a member of that demographic doing something wrong then that whole demographic is to blame.
At the end of the day, it’s only you
There are over 8 billion people on this planet right now. If you talk to certain people out there, you might be led to believe that there are not actually 8 billion people that need to be consider, but just three or four “races” that need to be considered . Other people consider national borders to be the be all and end all of what people represent (you are from X country so you act like this).
While I think you might be able to make a few assumptions based on certain demographic traits, such as Dutch people being caucasian and quite tall, it generally boils down to just you. You represent you first and foremost, and everything else comes after that.
You represent you. After that you represent your family. After that you might be a representative of your region/country/ethnic group/religion, etc. But ultimately, the further away it gets from you the less control you have over it.
Impacting the average
It doesn’t matter what the average time your chosen demographic runs. The only person who can change how fast you can run is you. An average is made up of the sum of the parts. You might be able to run a 15 minute 5K. But if everyone else in your demographic runs 30 minute 5Ks, your 15 minute 5K isn’t going to move the needle much.
I represent myself. But if I must represent something else (in whatever capacity), my goal is to improve the average. If everyone aims to be above average, what is average will get better. If people settle for average or fall short, the average will get worse.
If people choose to bring the average down, that’s on them. I run at my speed regardless of what everyone else is doing. “You are a 40 something year old man. That means it takes you 33:14 minutes to run a 5K.” Not even close.
Final thoughts and take home messages
If you know 100 British people and 70 of them like football, there’s quite a high chance that the next British person you meet will like football. But not all. You can call that “pattern recognition” if you like, but even with a pattern like that, you get a 70/30 split on Brits who like football vs Brits that don’t like football. You can’t say to a member of the 30% group that they must like football because of “pattern recognition.”
Averages and general observations can give you some information, but ultimately each individual (however you slice it) contributes to only a small part of that group.
When one individual in a group does something good or something bad, it’s on them. And while people (especially on social media) are very quick to judge or point fingers, it really is up to the individual.
I’ve said this a lot but people in glass houses should not throw stones. If you judge a group of people based on the actions of an individual or group of individuals within that group, it’s fair game for them to judge you and “your group” back in the same way.
At the end of the day, the average person is a 170 cm tall Asian guy who weighs 70kg, watches TV as a hobby and can barely run around the block. If that describes you, you are the global average. If it doesn’t, maybe consider the metrics you judge groups of people on.
Don’t judge people based on solely on simplistic pattern recognition. Consider the individuals.
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Cover photo:
I am also British, and also am not in the slightest bit interested in football...
In fact you could almost say I left the UK to get away from football, only for Japan to get really into in when they hosted the World Cup a couple of years after I arrived here.
My family is also really into football.
There might be more of us over here than you might think ;)