Basic human assumptions?
October 29, 2013 3:07 AM   Subscribe

What are the assumptions that people make of the default human being?

There was a post once in the Steve Jackson forums for GURPS about what were the assumptions about the default human being that GURPS made of new characters.

I can't find it, but the question for me still resonates. What are the assumptions that people make of the default human being? For many, the default is male. It is straight, cis, it's not disabled, not 7 foot tall and not 4 foot tall, not 100 years of age, not 5. Stuff like that.

I'm not too interested in the critical theory that says that these assumptions shouldn't exist, because of course they shouldn't and people assume that default anyways: I would like a big listing, even if they're awful assumptions like that the default human being is male.
posted by curuinor to Grab Bag (2 answers total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: I'm not sure the answer you're looking for exists: who's doing the assuming, etc.? As it stands this veers toward chatfilter, contact us if you want to talk about how to rework this question. -- goodnewsfortheinsane

 
Response by poster: I totally understand that this stuff is culture-specific, btw: assume American midwestern culture, or parametrize answers with culture, whatever you prefer.
posted by curuinor at 3:08 AM on October 29, 2013


Has reasons for things they do, acts purposively, has ends
posted by thelonius at 3:32 AM on October 29, 2013


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