The Myriad Forms of Social Stereotypes
English 111
Justin Greene
Ratanak Kheou
February 26, 2013
The Myriad Forms of Social Stereotypes Have you ever experienced the load of judgment from society? Everywhere we go, we cannot deny those judgments. It is a natural fact that people mentally tend to judge others’ appearances as being either poor, rich, successful, or productive without knowing their personalities at all. This is stereotyping. However, social stereotypes are not just limited to personal appearance, but also include a combination of religious and gender beliefs. Such combinations can put labels on people and lead to stereotyping. Social Stereotypes are an assumptions or generalizations that people make in their daily life. It starts to become a common occurrence that people stereotype a certain social group or type of people. “Almost every culture or race has a stereotype, including Jewish people, African American People, Irish people, and Polish people, among others” (“Stereotype Example”). Besides the cultural or racist stereotyping, there are many alternative forms of stereotype such as individual belief, and sexual stereotype. As a result, social stereotype shaped into many difference forms.
In our society today, appearance plays a fundamental role in everything. People will tend to generalize and make an assumption about the look of others. For instance, if a man wears woman’s clothes, the first impression to most people is that he is gay, when in fact he might not be. It is one form of people’s stereotyping. In addition, the color of the skin is another people stereotype. African Americans are being stereotyped as a past generation of slavery. Even though the civil rights movement has succeeded for many years, people will never let go of the fact that African American people used to be slaves. To some people, they do no treat them the same way. Zora Neale Hurston, the African American author of the book called “The Norton Anthology of African Amerian Literature,” expresses
Justin Greene
Ratanak Kheou
February 26, 2013
The Myriad Forms of Social Stereotypes Have you ever experienced the load of judgment from society? Everywhere we go, we cannot deny those judgments. It is a natural fact that people mentally tend to judge others’ appearances as being either poor, rich, successful, or productive without knowing their personalities at all. This is stereotyping. However, social stereotypes are not just limited to personal appearance, but also include a combination of religious and gender beliefs. Such combinations can put labels on people and lead to stereotyping. Social Stereotypes are an assumptions or generalizations that people make in their daily life. It starts to become a common occurrence that people stereotype a certain social group or type of people. “Almost every culture or race has a stereotype, including Jewish people, African American People, Irish people, and Polish people, among others” (“Stereotype Example”). Besides the cultural or racist stereotyping, there are many alternative forms of stereotype such as individual belief, and sexual stereotype. As a result, social stereotype shaped into many difference forms.
In our society today, appearance plays a fundamental role in everything. People will tend to generalize and make an assumption about the look of others. For instance, if a man wears woman’s clothes, the first impression to most people is that he is gay, when in fact he might not be. It is one form of people’s stereotyping. In addition, the color of the skin is another people stereotype. African Americans are being stereotyped as a past generation of slavery. Even though the civil rights movement has succeeded for many years, people will never let go of the fact that African American people used to be slaves. To some people, they do no treat them the same way. Zora Neale Hurston, the African American author of the book called “The Norton Anthology of African Amerian Literature,” expresses
Cited: "Stereotype Examples." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow, n.d Web. 20 February 2013. <http://examples.yourdictionary.com/stereotype-examples.html> Katrina, Marier. “Defying the Stereotype”. Katrinamarier. WordPress, n.d. Web. 20 February 2013. <http://katrinamarier.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/a-definition-essay-defying-the-stereotype/> Zora, Hurston. “How it Feels to Be Colored Me”. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. Mckay. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 1008-11. Print