Blonde Stereotypes Research Paper

First of all, stereotypes are destructive and prevent or discourage individual growth because it can cause violence and harm. For example,

But they're not actually funny. Or sporty. They don't achieve big things. So, if you tell a blonde joke you might have to repeat it. But they'll always get there in the end, well most of them will. When you tell a young girl she is dumb, she grows up believing she is. This is a cruel reality that many blondes face today. Hundreds of movies, tv shows and books all have a dumb blonde character in them making young blonde girls grow up in a society telling them that they are dumb. Blonde jokes also add to this. They are derogatory, insulting and wrong. They depict blonde women as less intelligent and very reliable on others. Blondes are always getting picked on because of this, I am here to convince you otherwise!

Stereotypes affect everyday lives, students mostly are affected towards this since children through on out are a branch of life. In Dweck’s article, a group was sent out to study everyday stereotypes that happen in school, “Their studies and ours also found that negatively stereotyped students (such as girls in math, or African-American and Hispanic students in math and verbal areas) showed substantial benefits from being in a growth-mindset workshop” (Brainology, Paragraph 29). And to quote Dweck’s explanation towards those stereotypes, “Stereotypes are typically fixed-mindset labels” (Brainology, Paragraph

Stereotypes are always around. Everywhere, everyday. The truth is that there is no escaping it. Walking down the school hallways sounds of the people around echo endlessly. “Nerd,” someone yells. “Loser!” Another student boldly pronounces. Not one individual in the world enjoys being called mean things, or being labeled with a negative stereotype. Would someone give up the some of the things that they love to make a negative stereotype disappear? Would someone go as far as changing their identity because of a stereotype? Why? People change their identity when they are negatively stereotyped because they are either seen as something that they don't want to be seen as, or they would rather fit in then be themselves.

In certain situations, stereotypes can be negative, which in hand, can harm certain ethnicities, racial groups, religions, and other backgrounds. This often alienates certain groups from mainstream societies, as if they are an "other." This further in hand can, lead to heated friction and division among groups, which is not a good thing, and is the "cancer" of a benevolent, developed society. Certain examples of negative (falsified) stereotypes are that African-Americans are violent, Asian-Americans are bad drivers, Latin-Americans can't speak English properly, Middle Easterners are misogynic, White Americans are racist, etc. Of course, these stereotypes in all cases are NOT true, yet sadly the general population tends to seek them as true.

By stereotyping we infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and abilities that we assume all members of that group have. Stereotypes lead to social categorisation, which is one of the reasons for prejudice attitudes.

Whether people want to admit it everyone has stereotyped at one point in their life. I know I am guilty of it. This can happen without the person even knowing that they are doing it. How a person is raised and their families beliefs growing up can impact their beliefs. So one of the important questions to answer is does being stereotyped have a lasting impact beyond the moment when it happens? A study by science news in 2010 showed that stereotyping does have a lasting effect on that person, (Science News, 2010). People do not forget and this can cause damage in their lives and their future decisions. For example, my cousin became pregnant by an African American as a teenager. She was shunned by certain people in my family, including her father. My grandmother without thinking or meaning to offend the only African American in my small home town told the man that she had a little mulatto (mixed) great grandchild. Her vocabulary was due to how she was raised and taught the biased word.

Stereotyping does make an impact on both sides of the situation. The reaction to the different types of stereotyping differs with the person. This society problem can get to the point where it pushes people to change into something they weren't before. It can also create unnecessary pressure in schools. Starting as soon as the 6th grade this becomes a problem after time. The effects of stereotyping are real and have a lasting impact on

First of all, what are stereotypes? A stereotype is a quality assigned to groups of people related to their race, nationality, and sexual orientation, but there is not only one type of stereotype there are actually two types of stereotypes. There are positive and negative ones. For example, a positive stereotype about asians would be that they are smart and polite. A negative one would be something like asians have small eyes or they’re short. Some people may get offended by these and other people will not care about it at all. These are effects from the stereotypes.

Gender stereotypes create a widely accepted judgment or bias about certain characteristics or traits that apply to each gender. According to Al-Shehab (2008) "There is a danger that children may develop behavioral stereotype subconsciously in spite of the fact that what they view may be biased, distorted, or misleading" (p.50). After analyzing a few of the children's television programs, I found examples of gender stereotype in the shows Cat in The Hat and Arthur. When it comes to the gender stereotype in Cat in the Hat, it portrays the idea that girls should be feminine and that boys should be masculine (a sense of gender role). This was evident in some of the episodes I watched when the two siblings (brother and sister) constantly had disagreements on ideas and other things. For example, in one episode, the brother and sister had a disagreement on worms and dirt. The sister considered it "yucky" and "gross" while the boy considered it "cool" and "fun". The girl adored wearing dresses and playing with her dolls while her brother didn't mind getting dirty and playing with his action figures. I also noticed that their mother was always home watching over and taking care of them judging from the episodes that I watched. In the children's program Arthur, there was a variety of gender stereotypes. For instance, every adult male in the show Arthur was either tall and/or bulky and muscular while all the women were shorter than the male they were with. I also noticed that all the men were either wearing slacks or jeans and a long or short sleeve shirt while the majority of women wore dresses. After watching a few episodes I also realized that Arthur's father was the head of the household and was always leaving the house to go to work. This was evident because Arthur's father showed dominance over his wife and everyone else. Some of the examples that I saw

Stereotypes are known to harm both and the society at large. Victims suffer the emotional distress; anger, frustration, insecurity, and feelings

Stereotypes put individuals into categories. These individuals are placed into these categories based on their looks, gender, ethnicity, social class etc. Should these individuals be placed into such categories? Individuals may be negatively affected by the Stereotypical group they’re placed in. In a study conducted by Steele and Aronson (1995) they researched the effect of stereotypical threats on the test performance of African Americans. They believed that when African Americans perform intellectual tasks that they face the threat of being placed in a negative stereotypical group such as their intellectual abilities and competence. They found that when African Americans were told of the difficulty of the tasks that they would perform lower

Lastly, one of the most common or everyday recurring stereotypes around the world is a woman’s delicateness and feebleness. The generic vulnerability of women has become a seemingly meaningless attribute to our society, spurring jokes and objects of ridicule. Being seen as feminine is still an issue in our society. To many it is belittling and insulting to be called feminine, which enforces the stereotype even more if you already are a female (Greenwood, Ambivalent Sexism and the Dumb Blonde). One of the most common sexist jokes involves the stereotype of the “dumb blonde”. Characteristics of this joke include the stigma of a blonde’s stupidity and inability to comprehend simple subjects. This stereotype of the dumb blonde is more detrimental

Stereotyping can lead to bias, prejudice, and discrimination, sometimes causing exclusion of groups, or oppression, often which are minorities. They are given specific characteristics to fit into, which they often do not. Stereotyping happens all over the world, more specifically in America. They create a facade of a preeminent characteristic. They can have dire consequences, become emotionally damaging attacks, which often results in hurting many people mentally and even physically.

However, no matter how smart, poor, or passionate one is, as a blonde, one is automatically stereotyped. The stereotype points to a human being that is dumb, pretty, rich, and stuck-up. This paper will discuss how the stereotype is used, to received, and branded. Media may have branded the blonde stereotype, but recently media has been debunking it over the years. From the “legally blond” movies and the