Stereotypes

 

Stereotypes are something I felt that has been plaguing me my whole life. I mean don´t get me wrong, I love joking about stereotypes. It is interesting to see how wrong people can be about others. It is also interesting to see how right some stereotypes are and how ridiculous they may sound. However, you have no idea how annoying it is to hear those stereotypes over and over again even though that stereotype cannot be further from the truth and is slightly offensive. Hearing a stereotype once or twice is somewhat funny and you can joke about it but after the thousandth time, it gets on your nerves.

Personally, I find stereotypes a bit offensive when people expect me to be like the stereotypical person  since it just feels as if random strangers are trying to fit you into a box or squeeze you into a mould that is clearly not suited for you. However, right now, I am being a bit biased; therefore, I want to look at both sides of stereotypes in this article.

Before I get into the arguments, I wanted to lay out the definitions for a stereotype. A stereotype is “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” In other words, a stereotype is “a set idea that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong.” There are different types of stereotypes but the most common ones are the racial and the gender stereotypes.

An example of racial stereotype is saying that Americans are obese and simple-minded, Asians are good at math but have tiny ding-dongs or Germans are constantly drinking beer and are celebrating drunk in their sandals with socks. Honestly, I can go on and on but I am going to assume that you know what I mean since these stereotypes are widespread even though I can also confirm that those are mostly false. Examples of gender stereotypes are also quite common especially when they paint men as strong and brave and women as small and fragile.

I have been to many countries and I can say that racial stereotypes only apply to you if you are a minority. When you are in the majority, you don´t even know that the rest of the world is judging your whole race and you also will not know what is unique to others, since you don´t know what is different in the first place. (How things change when you are suddenly a minority.) When you are a minority, it just feels as if you don´t conform to those stereotypes you are going to be singled out and people will start judging.

I had my fair share of criticism when I did not conform to a certain stereotype forced upon me. When people point out that I don’t conform to a stereotype, I will only smile and tell them that I love being unique. To a certain extent, that statement is true since being different for me is more fun than being in a group. However, what annoys me is the fact that random strangers I do not know passively are trying to tell me how to act. Let me just say I hate being told what to do by strangers I do not know.

Not saying that I am not proud of my race but I did not choose to be the ambassador for my race the moment I decided to step into another country. When I stepped onto a plane, I thought that I was going on a nice vacation or move to a new home in a different country. However, suddenly, the image of my whole race is dependent on my behaviour in another country. I am either on a vacation to relax or living in peace. I am living to ruin the foreign perception of my race. Constantly keeping the guard up is just exhausting.

Stereotypes just feel so belittling. You want to be so much more than the stereotype you were assigned but people just can´t see past the stereotype to see the real you. Maybe I am just being overly sensitive but constantly being under scrutiny for something as silly and pointless as a stereotype can really damage your self-esteem.

As a person, you are trying to break through as an individual, trying to find out who you are. However, when people are pitting you against a stereotype, it just feels as if you can´t escape that destiny no matter what. I felt like a disappointment when people found out that I was not as great as the stereotype. I felt annoyed when people just expected me to behave like another person because I belong to that race. You can say that I should pay those simple-minded morons no mind but I was young and opinions mattered to me back then.

What´s funny is the fact that people do measure you up against a stereotype but do not expect you to be in that race. For example, people believe that an Asian looking people are good at math but they would never believe that person when they say that they could speak mandarin as well. The offender already believes that the person is an Asian. Why did the offender not assume that the Asian looking person could also speak an Asian language? Don´t say that the offender did not want to seem racist, since that line was already crossed the moment that person assumed that the Asian looking person is good at math. Why did the offender not expect the person to be an actual Asian when the offender already pit that person against the Asian stereotype? In other words, since they are already being racist, might as well go all the way.

I understand that there are a wide variety of Asians out there and being put together in a box is an insult to all the different cultures we have. They took something beautifully unique and made it dull and understandable for foreigners. Honestly, it is a bit offensive.

Let me talk candidly here. When I accidentally mess up Lithuania and Latvia, suddenly I am the bad stupid person. However, when someone else messes up Korean and Chinese, it is all right? Talk about a double standard. The population of Lithuania and Latvia combined does not even make up a quarter of the Korean population and do not get me started on the Chinese´s population.

I do not understand why stereotypes are still a thing. I understand it is easier to understand a new culture if one could just narrow it down to a few bullet points. However, constantly pitting people against the stereotype is just rude. Maybe stereotypes help people to judge another person quicker, so that person can decide if they should approach or not. However, maybe instead of pitting people against a stereotype, why don´t we judge everyone based on the same standard? We are at the end of the day all human.

I understand that it is easier to categorize cultures and helps people remember information about other people. Stereotypes also enable us to respond and react appropriately towards others and provide us with a sense of belonging to a group. However, stereotypes also lead us to make assumptions towards people we do not know which leads to prejudice and discriminatory ideas. Stereotypes also affect the way we remember people and lead us to bully others and make rude jokes.

It is true that some stereotypes apply to some people. However, stereotypes do not apply to everyone. The definition says that stereotypes are fixed. There is so much that has changed over time. Maybe it is time to update stereotypes. Stereotypes are also oversimplified, which means some great parts have been looked past. Even the definition says that stereotypes are mostly wrong. So can anyone tell me why we still have those?

In all honesty, I understand people who assume that another race is a completely different species. Many people I have met in Germany talk about Asia, Africa or America as this exotic land where the humans are completely different and in no way related to them. There is some parts of the Asian, African or American culture that may seem unique to outsiders but the truth is we are not that different. There are tons of similarity and if one can see past the stereotypes, one can even see how different yet similar we all are.   

I am just a bit torn about this topic since it affects me personally to a certain extent but it is also so hilarious. I love making fun of myself (not because of self-doubt or anything but making fun of myself can make people laugh and I find that powerful). I also love making fun of my friends who know how to take a joke and who will tell me if I overdone it but when others who don´t know me or my friends make a slightly stereotypically offensive joke, I will get defensive. When it comes to stereotypes, I guess, it is dependent on the appropriate timing and people otherwise the people telling those jokes may come across as rude.

Recently, I found a TedEd video that helps me understand this topic so much better so I would recommend checking it out.