Also, just to point out, judging people based on how they look or dress is not inherently wrong, period. Can it be? Yes, but it's an automatic function of our brain. If someone is dressed like a cop, and you assume they're a cop, is this inherently wrong? If someone is wearing a band t-shirt, is it inherently wrong to assume they like that band? If you're in an area with known gang activity, and a group of people wearing gang colors begin walking towards you, is it inherently wrong to be on guard?
I think the difference with that is willingness to have that temporary assumption be challenged. Prejudice is holding that negative opinion in defiance of knowledge, thought or reason.
This is a security guard:
This is an airline pilot:
Here's a third image. Without clicking on the thumbnail, tell me if it's a security guard or an airline pilot:
Neither, it's a driver's uniform, and it's mannequin, not a person. Appearances are damn hard to judge by sometimes. Their uniforms are fairly similar in appearance. Mistaking one for the other is not an unreasonable occurrence. However, if someone
insists that a security guard knows how to fly a plane just because they look like a pilot, then you've got a problem. If they try to make a security guard actually fly a plane, then you've potentially got a huge problem. Making assumptions is unavoidable, and most of the time helpful to function in life. The problem comes when we cling to our assumptions after they've been proven untrue or harmful. Building up unnecessary assumptions, especially those judging people's beliefs or character, is tremendously harmful to the individual building up those assumptions.
That's the difference between... I don't know what term to use, but let's say "generality" since it's late, and a prejudice. It's one thing to generalize that people wearing t-shirts care less about their appearance, and that those who tuck them in, defying fashion trends, care even less, but it's another level all together to start using such visual identification as social stigma, identifying all those who dress that way as misogynist assholes. It's the level of disconnect from reality, and the steps away from basic assumptions that bother me. I don't like to see such prejudice being perpetuated, because it's wrong. I
really don't like to see people accepting of such prejudice, because it's revealing of a complete misunderstanding of why prejudice is such a problem.