Why Must People Be Negative Stereotypes?Follow

Why can't they try to better themselves and not follow the stereotypical pattern for someone of their race/gender/hair colour?

Why are there so many blonde girls who are dumber than a rock?

Why are there so many black people who insist on being "Gangstas" and who do the things that stereotypical black people do?

Why are there so many natives who insist on spending their whole lives drunk off their asses?

Why are there so many guys who insist on being all "macho" and who are ******** because they think they need to be?


I started thinking about this when I was on the bus earlier with my friend. We're sitting there and suddenly this drunk native woman(late 30s early 40s) sits beside us and starts hitting on me and offering me cigarettes and stuff. This wouldn't have really made me start thinking much about this if there hadn't been three people passed out on the bus who had to be arrested and brought to the drunk tank by the police...all of them natives. Why would they want to spend their whole lives like this. I don't understand it. Why spend all your time drinking listerine(she reaked of listerine) and begging for change instead of doing well in school and trying not to end up yet another stereotype?

Am I the only one who actually thinks about this stuff? Or am I hoping for the impossible? Does anyone else have an example of someone reinforcing a negative stereotype?

/annoyed pseudorant off

blacks and mexicans should stop being poor, they should be richer and break the stereotype. Blondes should be smarter, choosing to have a low iq is a bad decision. Men should stop being so manly with testorone and phalli, grow a ****** for god's sake.

Sounds stupid right?

I'm going to say the obvious. People fit stereotypes because either they don't care, don't see it as a negative, or can't change it.

Edited, Mar 21st 2007 12:31am by Allegory

Okay, there's more than one way to look at this. One is to say that experience you encountered helped shape your reality. But the way you interpret the experience determines your reality much more than how the reality really is.

You are referring to the teenage/negative stereotype. But there are other helpful stereotypes too. Like for instance, doctors, lawyers, and other people in a professional business follow a social stereotype because following a set stereotype helps them deal with people from many walks of life equally.

As for the negative, derogatory stereotypes...people fit those stereotypes only in the stereotypes you've learned. There are other stereotypes that you don't know about. It varies depending which country you are from, or what your surrounding influences were while growing up. (For instance, a blonde could be seen as dumb, because it is general consensus that blonde girls are pretty and brunettes envy that...hence why it's a joke only non-blonde girls tell each other. Is that true? That's up to you in the end, but the general consensus says that is so. Wait...did I just say all non-blondes hate blondes? Nope. But that's the reasoning behind blonde jokes. Remember when all the anti-blonde jokes came out? They were directed to brunettes.)

Children aren't born learning blondes are dumb, and there are extremely intelligent poor people(so many movies about this: everything from Legally Blonde(I hated it, using it to make a point) to Finding Forrester/Stand and Deliver). Remember this, stereotypes begin and end in your own mind. You choose what to believe when it comes to stereotypes.

Even the good stereotypes are malliable. People who break a law may think the stereotypes of a policeman are "out to get them"...but the truth is policemen must act in a brazen way to control the way unlawful people behave. When policemen first start out, they learn how to do this by working in a small scale environment such as a jail. They learn how to deal with disorderly people before going out into the larger scale society. Granted there are abuses, but those are extremely rare cases - the majority of policemen learn that stereotype and live day-to-day by it. That's a stereotype they follow that helps protect innocent people.

I won't say that the people you met on the bus follow that negative stereotype because they just want to settle for what society gives them. That's a lie your mind is telling you. A bold-faced ugly like at that. Never believe that! As for me personally, being Carte Blanche in your mind is far more freeing and truthy way to live. I am free of worrying about what people think of me, what ratings I get at allakhazam, bad advice from friends...what have you. And I'm freer to enjoy those experiences of others around me.

What's wrong with being a Gangsta?


Don' be set-trippin' sideways down my block homey, that's how you get smoked *****.

You are asking the wrong question.

Stereotypes are social constructs and don't really exist, so the question is- why are you only capable of seeing others by means of a stereotype?

Maybe you're just a dumb blonde.

Well, the blonde thing is learned behavior on both sides. Pretty girls are rewarded for being vapid and agreeably passive, and blondes are idealized as the pinnacle of pretty. On the other side of the coin, the rest of us fall into the trap of looking down on blondes for being exactly what we reward them for being.

Yay!

Not everyone is forced to listen to Ann Coulter during those first few weeks.

Speaking of sterotypes, why does everyone think all bikers are just big, mean guys who chew nails and wear leather?

I was about to ask if someone just saw their first **** or whatthehell. This is the kind of 'deep introspection' most people tackle in the 8th grade.