I think one mistake we often make as humans is upon hearing of some sort of symbol, we suddenly see it out and about and apply it to ALL situations. It is called the Law of Instrument, credited to Abrham Maslow who said, “If all you have is a hammer, you see every problem as a nail”.
Well sometimes we just need to take things at face value.
The woman wearing an ankle bracelet just likes how it looks on her ankle and is NOT in wife-swapping.
The pineapple was hard to get in pre-refrigeration days and thus was a sign of wealth and NOT an indication the house has neighbor orgies.
And maybe the guy just likes to paint his nails black because he has a finger and toenail fugal issues that otherwise discolor them and is NOT transgender.
Sure, maybe all those things are true, but we get into problems when we just assume.
In all these situations simple communication will tell you how they feel. It takes tactfulness, but asking the woman, “do you know that for some an anklet subject’s wife-sharing”, to which she might say, “yeah I heard that too, but I just like how it looks”. Or a man with black painted nails might say he does so because he supports those who are transgender”. And oh how we could get into trouble overthinking the tangy pineapple.
Um, I asked him because I was truly curious. He gave me an answer. I had no preconceived idea about what it meant.
It’s amazing what people will kindly answer of you just ask in a nice way. No need to look from afar, then go try to figure it out later. When you truly want to know, ask.
That’s how I found out what the thin color spectrum decal, and the blue rectangle decal with a yellow equal sign meant. I simply asked the person. Those were in the days on the dawn of internet, so it wasn’t easy to just go look up.
