Stereotype


Diversity and Discrimination - Concepts
Class - 6th Foundation NTSE Subjects
 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Stereotype

Creating stereotypes:-all of us are familiar with gender differences. What does it mean to be a boy or a girl? Many of you would say, “We are born as boys and girls. It is a given. As children grow up they start believing that boys do not cry so that even if a boy feels like crying he stops himself from doing so. He also believes that crying is a sign of weakness. So, even though both boys and girls sometimes want to cry, especially if they are angry or in pain, as they grow older boys learn or teach themselves not to cry. If a grown boy cries, then he feels that other will either tease him or laugh at him, and so he stops himself from doing so in front of others this is the way boys and this is how girls are: these are statements we hear constantly and accept without even thinking, and we start believing that each one of us must behave accordingly. When we fix people into one image we create a stereotype. When people say that those who belong to a particular country, religion, sex, race or economic background are “stingy”, “lazy”, “criminal” or “dumb”, they are using stereotypes. Stereotypes stop us from looking at each person as a unique individual with his or her own special qualities and skills that are different from others. They fit large numbers of people into only one pattern or type. Stereotypes affect all of us as they prevent us from doing certain things that we might otherwise be good at.

 
 


Students / Parents Reviews [10]