A stereotype is used to categorize a group. In certain situation,
when people don’t understand the type of a person, they tend to put them into
classifications, thinking that everyone who is that need to be like that, or
anyone who acts like their classification is one. It is true that stereotyping
is something that most people find it difficult to avoid from. In other words,
stereotyping can also be defined as grouping people and simply judging them
without knowing who they really are.
Undoubtedly, people tend to make first perception toward particular
groups and they will stick to their stand until it is proven. This kind of
attitude mostly is not pleasant to the group because most of the time, the
judges or claims are negative. For example, girls are not good at sports and guys
are messy and unclean. Another example is all Arabs and Muslims are terrorists
and all people who live in England have bad teeth.
Stereotype sometimes focuses on several types of categories. They are
culture, gender, individuals and sexual stereotype.
- · Gender > Women can’t do as good of a job as a man.
- · Culture > Punks are Mohawks, spikes, chains, menace to society, always getting in trouble.
- · Individuals > All teenagers are rebels.
- · Sexual Stereotype > Any feminine man is gay and any masculine woman is a lesbian
The downside of using stereotype to make judgement toward someone
or a particular group is that we might misjudge and make incorrect statement about
that particular person which might offend them. This can lose the bond between
the societies itself. The saying
"Don't judge a book by its cover" demonstrates that appearance isn't
enough to understand who a person really is.
No comments:
Post a Comment