Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

Over the years, I've been increasingly curious about assumptions. Why do people make assumptions? Who are they making these assumptions about? What are they trying to accomplish by making assumptions? How do they arrive at these assumptions? I suppose one answer is the need or urge to categorize other people based on their appearance or behavior. Another reason could be a need or urge to have an "us" and a "them". When making assumptions based on a person's appearance it is far too easy to judge too harshly and far too quickly.

On the other hand, I believe that there are some assumptions that one can safely make. However, they involve aspects of a person's personality that they are comfortable revealing. For example, if someone is wearing a shirt/button/carrying a bag/some other item of clothing that says I love my (fill in the blank), it can be assumed that they really love their (fill in the blank). The same can be assumed about any other visual representations of popular culture. If someone is wearing a picture of it, it's safe to assume that they like it.