Offensive Lineman vs. Mall Shopper
Analogy★★★★If I identify as a offensive lineman in a football game, you follow me? Realizing I might have picked the wrong example. Mostly we have ladies in the room here. You probably have never identified as an offensive lineman in a football game.
You know what I’m talking about though? You know what football is. You’ve seen people watching football. Okay, so if I identify as an offensive lineman in a football game and some guy comes running up to me and just smacks me with his forearms, how am I gonna interpret that?
I’m gonna say that’s part of the game and dude I can smack you too, so here we go, right? That’s the game. Bam. What if I identify as somebody that’s shopping at the mall and that same thing happens.
Somebody runs up and arm checks me right in the face. I’m going to say, that’s assault, where’s the police? Somebody call security. I probably need a doctor, because I’m going to be hurt.
It’s the same exact physical action, but a different context and a different set of beliefs about who I am and what we’re doing.
Azelton, Kimberly; Hess, Mike; Mills, Philip, “Building New Pathways of Change” (AudioVerse teaching 41423).
The point
The illustration contrasts the reaction to being hit by an offensive lineman in a football game versus being hit while shopping at a mall, highlighting how context and identity shape our understanding of events.