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…then what do you think about the people whose behavior reinforces those stereotypes?**
Me:
I tend to think that that person is doing a disservice to their group…
But a person has the right to behave anyway they want to (within the confines of the law), so who the hell am I to fault that?
Maybe stereotypes aren’t the evil I’ve been raised to think they are. Do stereotypes exist because of actual prevalent behavior amongst people who belong to a particular group?
I hate seeing all sides of an issue. I need your help.
What’s your answer to the question above?
Stereotypes aren’t bad. What’s bad is holding people to stereotypes, or making assumptions or value judgements on them based on stereotypes.
If I meet a Chinese man who wears thick glasses and runs a dry cleaning business, he’s not doing a disservice to his group. I’m doing a disservice to his group if I make a value judgement based on that. If I think he’s just like every other Chinese person, that’s bad. If I think that he should be doing something different so as not to fit in with the stereotype, that’s equally bad.
Stereotypes exist because people naturally divide everything – objects, ideas, animals, other people – into smaller, more easily-managed groups that have common aspects. So we look for those common aspects and assume that they apply to everyone of a certain group. That in itself isn’t “evil.”
Many stereotypes stem from culturally-based behavior. Thus, when someone from a culture with, say, very close extended families is plunked down in our culture, we tend to see this and think, “Well, these people are used to living twelve to a room” or some such stereotype.
I agree with SolGrundy, though, that it’s not necessarily bad to observe or recognize such stereotypes, as long as we don’t insist that everyone in that cultural or ethnic group hold to that standard, and as long as we don’t use the stereotypical behavior to make value judgments on those people.
And just consider: they may be seeing me and fitting me into their stereotype of a middle-aged, suburban white guy, a stereotype I actually fit fairly accurately.
It’s a stereotype (in that it’s a generalization) that women are sensitive people. Compared to men, I’d say this stereotype is pretty darned accurate.
Another stereotype is that women are nagging harpies who swap malicious gossip all day long. Um…this isn’t pretty darned accurate. And holding onto a stereotype like this one is more damaging than holding on to the one above it.
I can tell you that there are many stereotypes that I conform to. As a woman, I am sensitive. As a black person, I do like fried chicken. As a scientist, I am fashion impaired. These are stereotypes that I don’t mind fulfilling because 1) I think they are based on accurate generalizations and 2) I’m complex enough that for as many of these stereotypes I do fulfill, there are others that I don’t (for instance, I hate frilly clothes and watermelon, and I am not a Trekkie).
IMHO, stereotypes become problematic when they stray farther and farther from reality and become less value-neutral (women are irrational, blacks are illiterate, scientists are atheists). Also, it’s bad when people hold onto these beliefs when forming pre- and post-judgements about others. If I run a red light or show up to class late or burst into tears in public, I would hate for someone to use these blunders as evidence that women/blacks/scientists are all fill-in-the-blank. Likewise, I wouldn’t want someone to look at my non-stereotypical behavior and decide that I’m an exception to the rule.
In case anyone needed me to repeat my position on it, I’ve had it just about up to here with being told I’m somehow living up to a stereotype and that I should stop being femme/slutty/shrill for that reason.
No, honey, the stereotype is living up to me, and it’s not my responsibility to alter my behaviour so as not to conform to people’s ideas of gay people, any more than it’s a butch monogamous guy’s responsibility to alter his behaviour so as to conform with them.
Stereotypes that are seriously believed do a disservice to the group inasmuch as they keep you from perceiving the individuals in the group, but some stereotypes are more harmful than others (as a Quebecer, the notion I want all Anglos put in camps is probably more harmful than the notion that I eat pea soup at every meal, for example).
Stereotypes when not seriously believed are just a folk tradition, useful mainly for somewhat salty jokes that are mildly annoying to the group in question.
Just because someone has the right to do something – even within the legal confines – doesn’t make it justified. I condemn a great many things that are allowed by law (rudeness, lack of hygiene, laziness, willful ignorance and so forth). And no, I don’t feel guilty about doing so.
I don’t give it much thought but, then again, I’m not really familiar with many stereotypes other than the ones you’d expect to hear about in the South and those’re almost always variations on a theme instead of each group having their own unique stereotype. Is that more offensive? We don’t even care enough to fully malign you.
With that being said, there’re times I fully embrace and even play up just to perpetuate any ignorant ideas someone might have about me based on certain facets of my personality. It’s a little immature, maybe, but playing the perpetually offended liberal or the ignorant, prejudiced Southern can be fun… especially when the person I’m doing it for doesn’t understand that I’m mocking them.
On the other hand, I’m a total Trekkie stereotype and that doesn’t take any acting at all.
Damn, monstro, you just said almost everything I wanted to say. I’d also suggest that those stereotypes that are value-neutral (such as how Jewish Grandmothers behave.) tend to be the more accurate ones, and the ones that include serious value judgements tend to be less accurate as well. For myself, I have a great deal of difficulty disbelieving stereotypes in general - at least the value-neutral ones, based on my own Jewish Grandmother, who came straight from central casting.
