Stereotypes And Stereotypes Of Stereotypes

Stereotypes have great impacts on people all over the world. One of the reasons why people believe stereotypes blindly is that they know less about the objects. In order to decline the uncertainty of this new object, people choose to believe the stereotypes to feel safer. For the purpose of understanding the world more objectively, we ought to treat stereotypes critically and at least not be convinced of stereotypes blindly anymore.

In today’s society, many people use stereotypes, a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing, amongst these are race, gender, age, social class etc. Stereotypes are essentially used as categorization. Categorization and stereotyping are both fundamental to human nature; helping make the world more predictable. Stereotyping is most often used by everyday people who don’t know a person, so they judge them by how they look, or by how they carry themselves. Everyone, at some point in their lives, has been stereotyped based on different aspects of their person, such as “acting like a man” or “manning up” because I am a male.

In life, there is a common ground on which most every person can relate. At one time or another, we have all been promoters of or victims of the unremitting nature of stereotypes. According to the Webster’s dictionary, a stereotype is defined as “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.” Most stereotypes take on a negative form and are based on characteristics such as age, gender, race, status, and personal beliefs. Generally speaking, the greatest problem that arises with stereotypes is that they judge group of people by the characteristics and actions of their ancestors, rather than on an individual basis. More often than not, these assumptions will

What if I were to tell you that you that for the rest of your life, you would be unfairly judged, and possibly even discriminated against, based on false perceptions and ideas gathered from influences that only resemble you in the vaguest of ways, most likely being, skin color? And what if no matter how an individual person chooses to carry oneself, they will still commonly be regarded as a member of said misconceptions? Enter, stereotype: “A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.”(1)

Research in psychology has revealed that stereotypes, when factual, are an aid to information processing and facilitate accurate judgment and smooth social interaction (1). However, such research has also revealed that, unbeknownst to the perceiver, when the stereotype is invoked it also typically triggers inaccurate beliefs about the social group that ascribes predominantly negative qualities to the group and its members (2).

Although stereotypes may not always be negative, stereotypes can lead to prejudice and/or racism through the inaccurate beliefs of some people about the social and cultural beliefs of others (Stuurman, 2004). The tragic consequences of these predisposed assumptions are that

Perceptions and stereotypes are very important aspects of human socialization. They help us decide what is and isn’t appropriate to say, do, or otherwise bring up with others. In the TED Radio Hour,“Playing with Perceptions”, Paul Bloom explains that the problem is not stereotyping itself, it’s how it can be applied. Having preconceived notions about groups of people can often help one navigate life, but while our subconscious’ intentions may be good, often we apply these stereotypes in a rude and offensive manner.

In today’s society there are many different stereotypes, many of which can be applied to every single ethnic group. At one point in any person’s life, they would have experienced some form of stereotyping. Every individual, whether young or old, is labelled with either a negative or positive stereotype. For example, it is often typically said that lawyers are deceitful, females tend to be less aggressive than males, all African Americans are extremely virtuous at basketball, and the list is simply endless. Stereotypes are often heard every day and everywhere, at any given moment. They are usually very widespread and used so frequently that they have seemed to become a natural behavior for human beings; and it is a part of our everyday life. At times we can find ourselves in situations where we make stereotypes and or assumptions for a large group of individuals. Stereotyping is a way in which people categorize and group one another. Stereotypes can affect people’s social lives, along with their emotions, and also how people interact within a particular environment as well. Stereotyping is a form of prejudgment that is as customary in today’s society as it was many years ago. It is a social attitude which has stood the test of time and attracted much attention from social physiologists alongside philosophers. Many approaches to, and theories of stereotyping have consequently been raised.

What are stereotypes?Can they hurt people?Or even help someone?Well stereotypes are generalizations that everyone puts any given group of people under, now saying this from personal experience i find that there may be both positive and negative effects of others doing this. The ways i have experienced stereotypes range from my own parents to random people like teachers and peers, what i got the most was that I was childish and immature from mostly my Dad and that “typical teenage boy” from my teachers also even i told myself i was more mature than the peers around me.

Most people have encountered stereotypical behavior, either by being stereotyped or by stereotyping a particular group of individuals themselves. This simplistic or overstated vague notion may occur consciously or unconsciously depending on a person’s perspective, his or her exposures to diverse cultures, as well as immediate social influences. Moreover, stereotyping has the potential to result in negative generalizations that may progenerate displaced anger towards scapegoats; however, may also result in inflated positive perceptions of a specific group of individuals. Stereotyping, most commonly, is geared towards a specific race, culture, gender.

In today’s society stereotypes are being used, all the time without knowing it. The problem that stands and will remain is people in society cannot accept we are all different in our own way. This leads to the issue of social discrimination occurring because people see themselves different from others, but believe they have a minority group that happen to be similar to them. According to the website “Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination”, Stereotypes are oversimplified generalizations about groups of people. Stereotypes can be based on race, ethnicity, age, and gender.

Recently, increased awareness of stereotypes has spread throughout society, often halting open discussions of these stereotypes. Many people have become hypersensitive to comments even acknowledging race or language for fear of offending others. Though awareness of stereotypes is a positive step, the approach taken has significantly decreased open dialogue among the different cultures. Comedian Russell Peters mimics socially recognizable dialects and language varieties using their linguistic stereotypical features to add a unique sociolinguistic element to his humor. By discussing these serious social issues in a light-hearted manner, Peters restores open communication of these issues. During his Green Card Tour, he imitated many accents, including Indian, Spanish, Chinese and Arab. These four accents will be discussed separately, followed by a sociolinguistic analysis of all three accents and Peters’ sociolinguistic comedy style as a whole.

Most people find stereotypes to be obnoxious, especially when they have to do with sensitive subjects like gender or race. “Stereotyping is a generalization about a group or category of people that can have a powerful influence on how we perceive others and their communication behaviors” (Floyd, 61). Because they underestimate the differences among individuals in a group, stereotyping can lead to inaccurate and offensive perceptions of other people. Although stereotypes are prevalent in almost every society, becoming aware of our perceptions of others, as well as differentiating between both positive and negative stereotypes can help us overcome those stereotypes.

The presences of stereotypes are overwhelming and are developed by both the environment a subject is raised in and their family. Stereotypes, which are pervasive throughout different societies, become intertwined in the collective values of the society as justification for all forms of social, economic, and political inequality among groups (Devine and Elliot 2000;Kaplan 2004; Operario and Fiske 2004). As people become more exposed to stereotypes they start to become a permanent part of a person’s life, they begin to stereotype themselves almost always involuntarily.

Stereotypes have an overwhelming effect especially on the people they are directed towards. Studying stereotypes helps in understanding the factors leading to discrimination of certain people and not others. This is because stereotypes are depictive of opinions that are often passed from one generation to another within a particular culture. Mass media such as television and newspapers form a common source of opinions in the contemporary society (Kotter & Hess, 2012). The media presents messages in steady, repetitive, and compelling manner, making them believable to almost everybody. Stereotyping opinion and depictions from the media can thus have detrimental effects on the