Discussion - Stereotypes Essay Example for Free

Discussion Stereotypes Essay Although some people believe that they do not use stereotypes to describe people or even think of others differently, that is false. In this generation, stereotypes are everywhere and are almost impossible to not be affected by them. The true definition of the word ‘stereotype,’ is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Stereotypes can be applied to just about anything; ranging from age, gender, media, social, racial, and even class. These are just a few areas that can be stereotyped. Regardless of what anyone says or tries to do, stereotypes are unavoidable; they are used to categorize just about everything and everyone. One of the most common stereotypes out there is about gender. Many people categorize gender and what they hear about the two different genders and then make judgments based on those things that they heard. For example, one major stereotype about women is that they are terrible drivers. Although this may be true in some cases, it does not mean that all women are terrible at driving. There is proof to this because there are some professional drivers that are women. Also, the stereotype that all men are tough, outgoing, macho men is not true. Maybe some men would like people to think that they are too tough to hurt, but this does not go for everyone. Another stereotype about women is that they are not good at sports, but in reality there are so many professional sports players out there that are women. Granted that not all women are good at sports, there are still so many out there that are great at sports. Also, the stereotype that men or women who spend too much time on their computers or reading books are geeks is just ridiculous. Sometimes people have a hard time fitting in with the real world so instead they like to spend time on the internet where they can easily fit in somewhere with other people easily. In order to fit in on the internet all you need is a couple clicks and you are there. Spending time on the internet doesn’t make anyone a geek regardless of the reason for going on to the internet so much. Another humorous stereotype about men is that all men are slobs. While this is true about many men, it is not true about all of them. Some men suffer from OCD, and will have to make everything they do perfect and neat, but others just do not like to be sloppy or slobs. Also, many people think that men are the slobs and women are the neat ones, but that is completely incorrect. There are so many women who are even bigger slobs than men and are completely fine with being a slob and it does not bug them one bit. Even though some of those stereotypes out there might be true for some people that does not mean that all stereotypes will be true for everyone. While it is true that gender has a pretty big role while dealing with stereotypes, society has an even bigger role. Within today’s society, just about everything has a certain stereotype, if not multiple stereotypes about it. Stereotypes are created towards music, grades, how one dresses, tattoos, piercings, and so much more. While music is one of the most important things to many people, others will change the way they think about someone based on what music they listen to. Some people will even avoid someone completely just because of the music that they choose to listen to. For example, a group of people who like to listen to rap music might avoid being with a person who enjoys jazz. Also, society deals with people having tattoos as such a negative thing; regardless of what the tattoo stands for or is about. Someone who might be saving lives as a doctor who has tattoos can be viewed as a negative person just for the fact that he or she has tattoos. This has to be one of the most unfair, ridiculous stereotypes that our society has come up with. What one person would like to make permanent on their own body should not matter to other people especially if it is not offensive in any way. Some people will get tattoos for loved ones who passed away, but somehow in other people’s eyes doing so is very wrong and the person should be judged as a negative human. Some people will even go as far as think of someone with tattoos as a criminal. As for piercings, it is almost the same way about tattoos, but there is some leeway with piercings. Society thinks it is alright for humans to get piercings, but once someone wants to make those piercings into gauges, everything about it is wrong. A gauge is simply a larger piercing. To make a gauge, one needs to get their ear pierced and then once it heals, they simply stretch the healed piercing making it a larger hole. Somehow this is also viewed negatively and therefore, people with gauges are viewed as bad people. It is actually harder to get a job for a person that has tattoos and gauges than a person without these, regardless of the intelligence of either person. Just about every company does not want to hire any ‘negatively viewed’ people to become their employees. It does not matter how smart the person can be; if the person has tattoos or gauges, most likely the company will hire someone else. This is not fair to anyone and it is all thanks to stereotypes made by society all about society. Although just about everyone hates some stereotypes, everyone uses them and makes more, it is beyond hypocritical, but everyone does it; which brings me to the comic strip. In the comic strip, a man is talking to his therapist about stereotypes and how he hates them, but in the way he is doing so, he is also making a stereotype of his own about people who make stereotypes. This goes to show that even if everyone wants to end stereotypes, it is just about impossible to completely end them. Stereotypes are just too common and easy to create more and more and spread across the world. Although gender and social are two big factors of stereotyping, the largest must be racial stereotyping. Not everyone wants to act in a rude way towards other races, but it is just unavoidable due to stereotypes. In the short video, â€Å"A class divided,† the teacher, Jane Elliot, dared to do something that could possibly end her career as a teacher. She decided to teach her kids about discrimination towards other races. In a class full of brown eyed and blue eyed white children she told her class that all the blue eyed children were better and more important than the other brown eyed children. This caused little chaos within the class, one blue eyed kid got in a fight with a brown eyed child because the brown eyed child was thought to be less important than the blue eyed child. This chaos in the class started within a day of starting this experiment. The next day Elliot did the same test, but instead of blue eyed children being the more important, this day was the brown eyed children. Although this was a very risky testing, the results stuck with the children for the rest of their lives. These children knew first hand just how bad it felt being picked on because of stereotypes. The movie Crash is known for the dramatic roles it plays with racial stereotyping and many other stereotypes. Just about the whole movie is continuously going on about different stereotypes and how it affects different people. For example, in the movie an Egyptian store clerk was robbed and on the walls the robbers wrote stereotypes against Arabians. This goes to show that many people can’t tell the difference between some cultures or races so they will just group them with some other race. Within the in-class discussion about the different races, there were different views on each of the races, but some people thought alike using stereotypes to think that way. Some races were thought of as negative stereotypes while other races had positive stereotypes. For example, while talking about Germany, the class thought of Hitler, beer, and Nazi. Two out of those three statements are negative; beer was the only non negative one that was said. While Germany was deemed negative, Australians were thought of as positive. The Australian list consisted of animals and accents, which both are positive. Finally, in the article, Stereotypes Simply Psychology, the author talks about different races and what some races thought of others. The study done showed that white Americans were seen as industrious, progressive and ambitious, while African Americans were seen as lazy, ignorant and musical. This just goes to show that just about all people think differently about all races, even if the thoughts could be way off or pin point on, stereotypes are included in everyday life. To sum everything up, there are some positive stereotypes, but there are even more negative stereotypes out there. There are labels dealing with just about everything one can think of, ranging from society to gender to age to even the media. Although stereotypes are mostly negative and bad for everyone, they also sometimes help us humans out. While thinking fast, humans use stereotyping to quickly categorize the object or human that they are thinking about. This automatic process of ours can be helpful, but it can also be harmful depending on how one chooses to use this quick ability. While stereotypes can truly be helpful, the vast majority of all people choose to use labels as a negative thing to put others down in a hurtful way. More and more stereotypes pop up each year, some more hurtful than the previous ones. Although these stereotypes are harmful, there is little to nothing that we as a society can do to get rid of them; they are everywhere and always being created. Works Cited A Class Divided. William Peters. Frontline, 1985. Film. McLeod, S. A. (2008). Stereotypes Simply Psychology. Retrieved from Meehan, K. Pros Cons. [Comic]. http://www. thecomicstrips. com/store/add. php? iid=83614.