Heres my speech on stereotypes I wrote for speech class. Nothing special, just something to get the ball rolling on here though.
Stereotypes have always been around, sense the fall of man till now and we will never be able to get rid of it. Our human minds are programmed to put things in categories weather its food, class work, music or even people. We have been given a label by the way we look, act, or think on a day-to-day basis. Right now I would like to take a deeper look in this common day pandemic.
People have stereotyped us because of the way we look. When I was in 7th grade, I went to summer camp; I dressed in darker clothes that week, and didn't talk much to the other girls because I didn't know them. Apparently, they thought I hated them the whole week until the last day, they started talking to me and we became friends. I learned at an early age that people would either accept us or deny us by the way we look rather than on our personality.That story leads me on to the way we act effecting how we're stereotyped.
People have stereotyped us because of the way we act. We tend to observe people from afar and if we think the way they're acting isn't to threatening to our personality we will have a positive outcome of the person. On the other end of that, if the person seems intimidating we choose not to interact with them. If their actions are threatening and uncomfortable towards us, we will avoid them. So, without even having any kind of contact with a person, we can envision the outcome, thus stereotyping the person. This can even aid you in stereotyping the way people think.
People have stereotyped us because of the way we think. Everyone has his or her own way of thinking. If someone listens to rap music, it doesnt mean that they agree with the lifestyle that the rappers live. The thing is, we don't know what that person is thinking. They might just like the different beats in the music, and that's it. Why not ask? What the worst that could happen?
People stereotype people. Why? Like I said before we like to put things in categories. We all have preconceived ideas of people based on the way they look, act, or think. We are all different, we all look, act, or think differently from on another, so why put us in categories? The only category I know I fit in is Cassie.
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I agree with you, it seems people feel the need to catagorize things we want order. And if something dosnt fit in to our nice little boxes of sterotypes we just seem to ingnore it or place it in a box anyways. Sterotypes arnt fun but there just the way things are and they wont be going away anytime soon.
It's nice to see someone doing what they can to help refute stereotypes and labels. Nothing makes me angrier than to hear people classify all blondes as cheerleaders or use phrases like "All Germans were Nazis," because not all blondes are cheerleaders and not all Germans were Nazis. It's unfair to classify all people of one race or characteristic by one incident caused by one person.
Keep dissing labels!
-K. Schmidt