Don't Let Stereotypes Influence Your Lives!

There are many different stereotypes in the world today. They can be used for different categories like age, gender and race. Stereotypes are formed by the media, passed down from many generations and also just the populations need to understand the social world around us. Racial stereotypes make up large portion of stereotypes in today's society. Racial stereotypes can be used for comedic effect and our found to be funny by a majority of people, but they can also be depicted as hate to an ethnic group if it goes too far. One example of a race effected by stereotypes are Asian people. They have many stereotypes that have developed over the years. An example of a stereotype Asian people experience is that they cannot drive very well. Some

Labelling – is a form of prejudice and discrimination. Can happen on basis of gender, ethnicity etc. People do label others to identify and differ groups of our community.

People are told and conditioned what to believe the things that they believe. People label others in order to learn more about the person that they are. People examine the ideologies and the actions that other people portray along with those beliefs. People expect a certain label to be followed by a specific attitude or action based off this label, which is not true. This would be unintentionally stereotyping a certain group.

Throughout Everything I Never Told You, you can perceive the feelings of being an outsider, and being measured up against stereotypes. The reader can continue to see how the Lee family is reacting to Lydia’s death, now two months later. They are still treated as different, and they constantly stereotype, only to get some of them wrong later. People continue to criticize the Lee’s, known as one of the few Chinese families in Ohio, for what they look like, and what they think they should be like. In Everything I Never Told You, Jack had “never seen a Chinese person with blue eyes” (Ng 192), likely the cause of a stereotype that all people of Chinese descent have brown eyes. He continues on to mention to Lydia that “you know you’re the only girl in the school who’s not white”

Labeling theory holds that individuals come to identify and act as per their labels. The major tenet of this theory is that the behavior and self-identity of individuals is affected by the way they are described by other people (Vold, Bernard, Snipes, & Gerould, 2016). According to this theory, the act of deviance is not implicit in a particular act, but is hedged on the inclination of the majority to ascribe labels to minorities in society who deviate from standard behavior. Labeling leads to dramatization of a particular act – which propagates the behavioral clash between the individual and the community. Through ascribing labels, the individuals acquire a negative self-image. The individuals accept themselves as labeled by the

Stereotyping and naming can be extremely terrible towards any individual. This is on account of other individuals may judge rapidly or accept something

Stereotypes are unescapable. No matter what part of the world you are at or who you are talking to, everyone has some bias. Claude Steele say’s exactly this in his book “Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do” when he states “ We could all take out a piece of paper, write down the major stereotypes of these identities, and show a high degree of agreement in what we wrote.” His piece addresses the effects of stereotypes, which result in what Steele calls “stereotype threat”. Stereotype threat is being aware that there is an expected behavior or response to a certain part of your identity and being afraid to carry out this expected behavior or response. The threat of proving this stereotype can cause you to lose

Dalton Conley describes labeling theory in Chapter 6 of You May Ask Yourself as “the belief that individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label them, and their reactions to those labels over time form the basis of their self-identity” (Conley, 2011:203). In other words, over time, a person’s self-identity changes to fit the character other people impose upon them. An action itself isn’t necessarily deviant unless society decides it is. Labeling theory can go either way, either positive or negative.

A label has the power to define the individual or group of individuals being identified. That power is equal to control (Koppelman, 2011). Both can have a positive or negative effect. Unfortunately, the labels used by the majority are meant to have a negative effect. In fact, the labels are meant to demean and hurt as much as possible. They are so negative that there seems to be the intent to drive the labeled individual and/or group away, so they are no longer present and able to interact with the majority.

Stereotyping and labelling can have damaging effects on people as individuals who are being stereotyped might start to accept the negative labels and damage their self-esteem .Stereotyping and labelling also can damage people and society by causing conflict between individuals that may not have existed if it wasn’t down to people being stereotyped or labelled.

Labels are everywhere. Whether conscious or subconsciously, they are a fundamental part of our lives. We label together foods, clothing, colours and things that are alike. But what happens when we expand this form of “labelling” to split up types of people? When we assume character traits about those who belong to a certain group, this can intensely affect the way many react in life. Those who are judged for their sexual orientation, gender, income, mental problems etc., may eventually begin to conform to a stereotype that they belong to. In turn, this stereotyping may be the reason for certain people to partake in deviance acts.

Everyone tries to define someone with the label, and this happens in both individual levels and societal levels forming master narrative that explains who they are. However, this master narrative becomes blindfold in explaining others, and can either positively or negatively affect individuals depending on what the master narrative is.

No one chooses to be stereotyped or categorized under a specific title, and no one wants to be the victim of an unfair judgment. Despite those statements, people stereotype others like it is their personal right to label another human being. We all know that its true and we all do it. Everyone in our society makes judgments on people they barely know; sizing up the way they walk, listening to how they talk, and noticing the clothes they wear. It doesn’t take long to pinpoint who we perceive as the less fortunate person wandering the streets, or the lush beauty surrounded by friends and paparazzi who constantly longs for attention. When a person creates a stigma—a disgrace or shameful name to something or someone who is regarded as

It becomes difficult to normally interact with others once there is a negative impact of an individual’s reputation and the conception and expectations of others reinforces that reputation. I am very familiar with the effect that labeling can have on a person. My uncle in Cuba is a great example of what labeling can do to your persona. I grew up very close to him and remember always going on trips and he would play around with all the time; to me he was the greatest uncle in the world. One day I heard a comment that slipped out of the mouth of some friends and they referred to my uncle as a “thief” or “ratero”. It appeared that my uncle due to the need of food decided to “borrow” a chicken from a neighbor’s backyard; got caught and from there he obtained a new reputation. I

Labeling theory is concerned with the effects of labeling on individuals. Symbolic interactionists developed the theory and it focuses on how labels, which are of different forms, affect individual’s self-image as well as the society perceptions about an individual or a group of individuals (Eyetsemitan & Gire, 2003). The labels are often in form of names or reputation and enable the society to create deviants. According to the theory, labeling can alter the behaviors of individuals and make them start behaving according to societal perceptions (Kotter & Hess, 2012). Therefore, the theory focuses on establishing how labels mold the way people perceive themselves. In relation to media stereotyping and the old, stereotypes that perceive old age positively are likely to enhance positive image amongst the old while negative stereotypes may lead to self-denial amongst the old in the society (Eyetsemitan & Gire, 2003)