As a person who was not born in the U.S, observing and learning a whole new culture was very shocking to me. Coming from a country where the majority of the population consists of one race or background, the stereotypes were very limited in existence.
Along with my assimilation to the American culture and the significance of race, I got to learn more about the existence of stereotypes. It is rather shocking how quickly I got used to the certain stereotypes in America.
People often say that stereotypes exist because they are true to a certain degree. While that statement may have some legitimacy, does that make reinforcement of stereotype justifiable?
The thing about stereotypes is that they are not limited to just race, but also extends to sexuality, religious beliefs, body features as well as socioeconomic backgrounds and more. In most cases, stereotypes are used to separate a certain group from the rest based on their socially constructed characteristics.
As Richard Dyer quotes a part of his article, 'Stereotyping', "stereotypes refer to things outside one's social world, whereas social types refer to things with which one is familiar; stereotypes tend to be conceived as functionless or dysfunctional (or, if functional, serving prejudice and conflict mainly), whereas social types serve the structure of society at main points" (p 355).
As pointed out in the statement above, stereotypes carry a level of judgement on those who are not in the same social circle or community, whether they are completely accurate or not. In many cases, the usage of stereotypes tend to bring negative lights to those who are the subjects of stereotyping as well as to those who are stereotyping against certain groups despite the lack of qualification for making such judgment.
Whether stereotypes have the tendency to being true or not, that does not make the usage of such characterization justifiable.
I agree that stereotypes, for the most part can have the tendency to reflect on that specific group even if it lacks the truth. Now that the Internet is so largely used it helps play a significant role in how stereotypes configure and progress in becoming something much larger. Social media platforms allow individuals to poke fun at stereotypes and take them to a whole new level. BuzzFeed is very well known for these outrageous stereotypes that are suppose to be funny (and sometimes they are). I came across the stereotypes of who attends Lollapalooza and sure there is some truth to the statements, but these stereotypes do not fit everyone that attends. Stereotypes tend to categorize a large group of people when instead only 1% of the group actually pertains to that stereotype and that is the real issue.
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