High School Stereotypes Essay

Growing up a girl, you tend to notice a couple things. I am associated with the color pink, being chatty, emotional, and soft. These words are commonly used to describe my gender. Strong isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Assumptions like these can lead to messes called stereotypes. Along with stereotypes, stereotype threats often follow. It is these stereotypes that negatively affect performance, and at high schools stereotypes are found. This is critical in a place where performance matters most of all. Stereotype threats or self fulfilling stereotypes are a big issue and are important to address at campuses like ours with a high number of Latinos in our community. In the article, “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance” Sociologist Min-Suing Huang finds in his research that African Americans and Latinos about their race or telling them that the tests are measures of innate intelligence, can hurt their performance. When
The issue of role models, or lack thereof, is leading children to assume gender roles and gender-biased jobs instead of equality. According to the article, “Fairytales and Gender Stereotypes” by Samara Green, a common theme observed in fairytales and movies is the “damsel in distress”. Women are not seen as independent. Though there are some stories such as Mulan which give power to women, it is not as easily recognised. If not changed, the prospect of these cultural beliefs do not look good for women and their self esteem. Times are changing and the stories we grow up hearing need to catch up. Strong female roles need to be given a chance so children can be inspired and have good role models to look up to. Through this, we will help get rid of stereotypes and their threats because we all want to be able to reach our full potential. These judgements, however, are not often seen as problems that can lead to