Stereotyping

Stereotypes are a part of everyday life, whether we realize it or not. People subconsciously make conceptions about others based on race, gender, or even style. It’s just the way our minds have become programmed over the years. Being a teenage girl, I’m sure there have been times that I have been stereotyped in situation where I didn’t even realize it. There are several examples, however, of times when people close to me have been stereotyped for various reasons.
There are a lot of stereotypes about older people. People think they can’t hear, they aren’t capable of doing things for themselves, and basically, that they are incompetent. My Nana is 72 years old, and there have been many times when I was with her that people would treat her differently, especially at stores. I found that when my grandma would ask the clerks questions about certain items, they would suddenly start talking at a very slow pace. They would repeat things several times, and put things in very childish terms. My Nana would just wink at me while they were talking, because she knew what they were doing. I think that a lot of times, people are just used to seeing the older people that have a hard time hearing and comprehending things, so they automatically think they are all like that. I must say, I am probably guilty of doing the same. When I worked fast food, I had a lot of older people that couldn’t hear what I was saying, so I started talking to them like they were children. It’s just become normal to think that way about older people.
Another example of stereotyping would be my friend from middle school, Justus. He was mixed, and adopted, and had a great family. At school, people always just figured he was like the rest of the black guys. They figured he smoked, drank, and walked the streets. He also lived in Howell Park, which is considered a “rough” neighborhood. He was very different from the other guys at school though. He rapped, but not the type of rap everyone thought. Justus is a proud Christian, and he was in a Christian rap group with his brothers. I never knew any of this until later. I always kind of put him in the “black guy” stereotype like everyone else. I was at a Christian concert my freshman year, and I walked outside to see Justus handing out cds. I thought it was odd that he was outside of a Christian concert handing out rap cds, but I took one anyways. When I put it in my cd player, the lyrics were extremely positive and uplifting. I was surprised, and I also felt pretty bad that I always stereotyped Justus to be a bad kid when he really wasn’t.
My boyfriend has also been stereotyped many times because of his appearance. There is a group of guys around town that have gauges, tattoos, and they play in a band. Generally, they are considered to be bad. People think that they all drink, smoke pot, and party all of the time. While it is true that a lot of them do, they aren’t all like that. My boyfriend is “above the influence”. He has never drank alcohol or smoked a cigarette in his life, and he prides himself on that. People are always surprised to hear that Jake doesn’t participate in that type of lifestyle. They see his tattoos and gauges and automatically stereotype him as a partying lowlife when, really, he is the exact opposite.
Another stereotype I have witnessed is about a girl I went to high school with. She had been dating the same guy for about six years, and he was in the army. As soon as she graduated, they got married and she moved in with him. Several months later, she announced that she was pregnant. Even though her baby was conceived a couple months after she married, she still dealt with people thinking that she conceived her baby out of wedlock. She was gossiped about a lot among people in our grade. Even when girls get pregnant outside of marriage, they are given the stereotype of being a whore, even if that is not necessarily the case. I know several girls that had babies in high school with the same person they lost their virginities to, and a lot of them are still with those people today.
Whether it be concerning race, gender, age, or circumstances, stereotyping is something most people do everyday. Subconsciously, you make judgments about people before you really know them. Is it right? Of course not, but it’s life. Stereotyping is part of everyday life.