English equivalent for "easily blaming the person you dislike"

Question

In Malayalam/Indian, there's a saying "Istam illatha achi thottath ellam kuttam". It literally translates to:

You find fault with anything done by a woman you don't like.

It means that if there is someone you dislike, you are eager to find their faults or flaws.

What's the equivalent expression in English?

EDIT: I already know about prejudice, but I'm looking for something more than one word, some expression/idiom commonly used.

Answer 1

The closest proverb I know of is Give a dog a bad name (and hang him). It is usually seen from the dog's point of view: once you have a bad reputation, you will be blamed for everything that goes wrong. But equally of course, if 'you' are looking for someone to blame, it is easiest to find somebody you already disapprove of.

Answer 2

There are a number of possible expressions that can be used, however, keep in mind that not every culture has a local version of every expression used in other cultures. For example, your malayalam/indian example specifically mentions a woman (assuming the translation is correct) and the concept of 'not liking someone'.

Most western cultures seem to have equivalent expressions, but are broader in setup; they don't distinguish between men/women/children nor between liking or disliking a person, instead focusing on the very general observation that people are always more inclined to find faults in others than to 'see' their faults (a sort of Dunning-Kruger effect).

In Dutch, we have an expression that goes (translated) 'It's easier to see the splinter in someone else's eye than the stick in one's own'.

I think that in terms of idiom, this will be as close as you'll get.

Answer 3

I can't find a heading in the dictionary or other reference, but in common usage, especially when talking about relationships, people will use the phrase "can do no right" in just the way you're talking about. Example: When I married my wife, I could do no wrong; but when we got divorced, I could do no right. Google "can do no right" and you'll find many examples of this usage.

Also, the phrase "they treat me like a stepchild" is often used as a more generalized form of "beat him like a red-headed stepchild."

Answer 4

The word you are looking for is Prejudice (bias). It's one of the meanings, but the general concept is that prejudice means being judgemental(judgmental in legal and lawful contexts, from the BibleTM itself...) with bias and/or lack of information.

EDIT: The expression itself is being prejudiced towards something/someone.

(Bias doesn't contain negativity, just an inclination of decisions/attitude being different.)

EDIT2:

• Don't judge a book by its cover.
• Alternatively: Judging by the cover.

This is a somewhat fitting expression, it does lack actual negativity/bias.

Answer 5

"B*tch Eating Crackers"

When you dislike someone so much that anything they do, no matter how minor or inoffensive, annoys you beyond any rational level - exemplified by the sentence "look at that bitch eating crackers like she owns the place".

• from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bitch%20Eating%20Crackers

• As in "I got so pissed off listening to her talk about her holiday - I know it was just BEC, but I had to leave the room."

• Common when talking about mothers-in-law/daughters-in-law etc.
• Often shortened to "BEC".
• Now, I know this is crude, but I had to mention it because it fulfills OC's criteria exactly: It refers to spontaneously finding fault and irritation in everything someone does due to you not liking them in general, and is also used exclusively to refer to women.

https://ask.metafilter.com/316507/How-to-get-over-a-bitch-eating-crackers http://abbythompsontherapy.com/2017/10/23/bitch-eating-crackers-syndrome/