I hate to disagree with Jeri on any subject, but my experience (echoing Bonnie perhaps) is that the only way to dislodge most people's fixed notions of what you are or think is to do or say something completely outrageous so that you startle them into perhaps changing their mind. I am always doing this with my students. Two weeks ago at a student seminar I said that I was a curse upon the earth and had caused more damage to the earth by trying to protect it than everyone else in the class combined, and far more than the vast majority of people in the world could ever aspire to. They all looked at me like I was insane, until I pointed out that I have been to hundreds of environmental conferences around the world, and therefore I have logged many thousands of air miles, which percentage wise is far above any damage they could have caused.

That is the sort of thing that breaks stereotypes. The same thing seems to me to be true in personal situations as well, though an example doesn't spring to mind.

yours, Peter T.