All stereotypes are harmful - Essay Example

All Stereotypes are Harmful Stereotypes can be defined as an idea that is held against the members of a particular group. Stereotypes are mostly perceived as negative or prejudicial and are used to justify a certain discriminatory behaviour. Stereotypes can be stated as a form of representation by the media, through which members of a particular social or cultural cast/group can be differentiated instantly by their specific characteristics, which identify them. Stereotyping is a blind categorization of people in a group, which we believe have the same traits or characteristics; due to this it leads to false assumptions, discrimination, hostility, misunderstanding and conflicts etc.

Stereotypes come in forms either having a positive or a negative string attached to it. A neutral stereotype would never be found since then it won't be neutral, but the real thing. This means that stereotypes can create wrong impression about others which are usually harmful. The effects of stereotyping and even positive stereotyping are mostly perceived as negative or are negative. Stereotyping is not only about racism but it can be about sexual preferences or religion or even about gender, which have some standards that are placed upon them.

When stereotyping is observed all kinds of communication finishes or closes down between people. If for example there were a conflict between two individuals, both the parties would believe that the other party is hostile, aggressive, two-faced or even dishonest. Even one of the individual believes that the other is hostile or dishonest then he/she may tend to act the same way. Both the parties will believe that of each other and create an image about one another and then a negative stereotype will be created and all kinds of communications will deteriorate between them.

Another example of stereotyping would be the way people perceive the East Asians. According to Europeans and Americans, Asians are unusual, intelligent, friendly but unsociable and have a nag of getting into trouble. European people tend to think that White Americans are arrogant, tense, over weight and lazy aka 'couch potatoes'. British people on the other hand are thought of as being snobbish in general and unfriendly towards foreigners. Another stereotype that is being used all over the world is that Muslims are terrorists.

The problems faced by people who are called stereotypes would be the minorities who are called by slang nicknames for example the Mexicans are called Spic' or African-Americans are called Niggers. These nicknames create distances and are quite harmful in terms of building relationships. The majority of the society believes that they all have negative traits; that these people are prone to violence that in the case of African-Americans. Media plays a vital role in as far as stereotyping is concerned and it is sometimes considered as a promoter of stereotyping.

For example in television or movies; a high school stereotypes are often projected as a typical American high school with football games, cheerleading or fashion etc and not at all concerned about studies. Another form of stereotyping in media would be that when they promote beauty and body image for women. The standard, which defines beauty; both in present and past, has created damaging effects for women by persuading them to do damage to their bodies either by smoking or losing unhealthy amount of weight to get the perfect body image.

When women see the celebrities on the television or models on the cover of magazines, these celebrities leave a very strong influence especially on the young women who then want to attain the perfect body image. Therefore in the end we can say that stereotyping leaves a negative impression on the general public. Stereotyping creates a lot of problems for the people who are victimized because a false picture is stuck to somebody's personality. Work Cited 1. Cocchiara, Faye K. and Campbell Quick, James.

The Negative effects of positive stereotypes. Arlington, Texas: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. 2. Consortium, Conflict Research. Stereotypes. 1998. . 3. Grobman, Gary M. Stereotypes and Prejudices. 1990. . 4. Macrae, C. Neil, Charles Stangor and Miles Hewstone. Stereotypes and Stereotyping. 1st Edition. New York: The Guilford Press, 1996. 5. MAN. Media Stereotyping-Introduction. 2008. 4 April 2008 .