Thursday, May 29, 2014

Stereotypes everywhere!

Nowadays one of the most important things that we have to consider is the influence of the stereotypes in our society. There is a tendency to generalize all people from a certain group, considering them all to be identical, omitting diversity. 

"The stereotype is a term that refers to generalizations about the members of a group. Generalizations can be positive, but in the majority of cases are negative and resistant to change. Unfortunately stereotypes facilitate prejudice and discrimination for those people."(Droguett, 2010, pg. 89)

We are surrounded by keys that interfere with our thoughts. The simple fact of watching the television stereotypes that governs it, gives us an idealistic thought that many times is discriminatory.


One study of stereotypes revealed that Americans are generally considered to be friendly, generous, and tolerant, but also arrogant, impatient, and domineering.  Asians, on the other hand, were expected to be astute and alert, but reserved. But everybody have to be sure that  not all Americans are friendly and generous; and not all Asians are shrewd. 
If you assume you know what a person is like, and don't look at each person as an individual, you are likely to make errors in your estimates of a person's character.
Here you have is a list of the most common stereotypes in world.


1. Asians have high IQs. They are smarter than most in Math and Science. These people are more likely to succeed in school. (Positive stereotype)

3. African Americans can dance. (Positive stereotype)

4. Caucasians can't dance. (Negative stereotype)

5. French are romantic. (Positive stereotype)

6.Irish are alcoholics. (Negative stereotype)

7. Italians are good lovers. (Positive stereotype)

When somebody does a prejudice is because they tried to imagine what kind of person he or she is, but the problem was that sometimes they really didn’t know much about it and just talk.  They have nothing to base their judgments on, except for stereotypes.
I think in Chile exist a big list of stereotypes, the majority of the time those are harsh. But we are the responsible to change them. We must integrate all people, not giving importance where they are from or how is their body. I think the best way to fix the problem is through education. Society and mainly schools need to teach children to repel stereotypes.
Here I show you a video of Asians stereotypes, enjoy it

Do you know another common stereotype? Have you ever said it? 
And finally, do you know another way to finish with stereotypes?



6 comments:

  1. I agree with you when you talk about teaching children to not stereotype the other people at school. But also they have to be educated at home to not used them, so if parents tend to stereotype people, it would be more difficult to change their children, but not impossible.
    The other day I heard somebody saying that all Brazilian people have AIDS So I said to her that she has a prejudice about those people, that that statement is a stereotype but she said that even in the tv were saying the same and she kept saying that the Brazilian have AIDS, she was so stubborn about it... It was harsh to keep patient. So I finally gave up. It was useless to maintain arguing about it.
    Good post!

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  2. It is a very interesting entry, but I don't agree with you when you wrote that there is good and bad stereotypes, I think that all stereotypes are bad, independent if they say something 'positive', because you would be generalizing, each person is different.

    The video is very fun, made the entry more interesting. :D !

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    Replies
    1. I agree with you, because every stereotype can be accepted or not, it depends the point of view you see it. Thanks for your opinion.

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  3. I really enjoy your post. Is good to remember not to stereotype.
    Some times we don´t think in the words we are using or what they can produce in others. We forget that words have weight and that they are the ones that most hurt people.
    I believe that we must be empathic and treat others like we would like to be treated.
    Thanks for reminding this with your post.
    By the way, the video was really good, i enjoyed a lot seeing it.
    Regards.

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  4. Some stereotypes can be good though not because they say pretty things or whatever, but because they help you to have a better idea of what you'll find in regards to an unknown thing. Of course, you can't either take them just as they come; you have to be critical about their meaning, deciding whether they're right or wrong, partially. And yeah, no generalizations and all that stuff.

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  5. I think that we must teach how to avoid stereotypes because when we are children we listen about so much stereotypes but in Chile for example with things that a teacher shows us in a history lesson that increase our stereotypes about Peruvians ( pacific war). things like this can´t happen.
    posisitive stereotypes are good, but the majority of them are negative.

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