WHAT ARE STEREOTYPES?

Hello everyone! Welcome back. Today's blog post will be about stereotypes. What are stereotypes? The google definition of a stereotype is “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” You may be asking yourself what is wrong with stereotyping people? I think it leads to discrimination because because a stereotype is almost never a good thing.

Now, what does this mean? It means that some people judge others based on their ethnicity, gender, race, religion, or nationality. For example some people think that all Asians are very good at math, or another one is that boys are better at science and girls are better at sewing and cooking. My mother for example was born and raised in Italy and when people hear her accent and find out that she's Italian, they assume that she is very good at cooking, and she eats pasta all the time or that she is somehow associated with criminal organizations like the Mafia. Everybody has some sort of stereotypes towards someone else and uses simplifications to categorize people. You might not do it intentionally, but one good way to get rid of them is to learn about other cultures or about people who don't have the same background as you. People enjoy talking about who they are, and will most likely love to tell you about themselves. Stereotypes are dangerous because society assumes that just because people are from a certain place, or are part of a religion, or are a certain gender, etc., are all the same which isn’t true. Different stereotypes can lead to racism, homophobia, sexism, and more. Here is a link for an article where you can learn more about stereotypes! https://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html ​