Stereotypes: Effects and Impacts

Why are some stereotypes so cruel?

Stereotypes are used to label and group people based off of one mere characteristic, whether it be their gender, status, racial identity, and more. There are many stereotypes, with some stereotypes that still stand today and some stereotypes that have died down through the ages.

The stereotypes that still exist today still affect the people that are being stereotyped. One of the main, yet more minor effects include making those who are stereotyped feel annoyed. The feeling may come from the frustration of people not making an effort to get to know them first before commenting on their personality, looks, etc. This is because people don't want to known just by one detail of their identity, they want to be known for being their own person and not "the smart girl" or "the quiet guy".

This can result in another, more major effect, where people change their attitudes because they don't want to be associated with that particular stereotype since most stereotypes have negative connotations.

Along with affecting people, stereotypes can also impact people. 

There are different stereotypes that can impact people in different ways. However, the stereotypes with the biggest impact are the stereotypes that are based on something the individual cannot change about themselves, such as sexual identity and race.
For instance, when a queer male gets stereotyped and called 'disgusting', it impacts him in a negative way because his sexual identity isn't really something that he can change about himself. In turn, this makes him feel bad about being himself.

Although these stereotypes are just words, they still carry meaning nonetheless. Stereotypes can make people feel bad about being themselves, and that's what makes certain stereotypes all the more impactful. Stereotypes have negative connotations that can affect people in different ways, and it can go as far as changing an individual's attitude because of how much they don't want to be associated with the stereotype, even if they don't want to change.

That's why stereotypes are cruel.

Comments

  1. Mr ThompsonAugust 7, 2018 at 6:30 PM

    I appreciate your understanding of the range of impact that stereotypes have. However, which stereotypes do you think have the largest impact?

    ReplyDelete

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