Do you hate the word Stereotype.......?

Question

Do you hate the word Stereotype.......?

Answer 1

I hate that people do it, but I don't hate the word itself.

Answer 2

yes. i hate stereotypes. they can often lead to someone being misjudged.

Answer 3

YES! It's like allowing people to be prejudge others based on appearance!

Answer 4

I cherish and value words....as they provide us with language and visuals and explanations.  

The notion of stereotyping, thats very different.  And yes, its something that I don't like to see people do.  But then again, when a person stereotypes, its a clear indicator for me as to what kind of person they are....so it can be very valuable.

Answer 5

I don't like how negative stereotypes can get and how biased they almost always are. I don't like the things that people do with negative stereotypes and the things they don't do with positive stereotypes.

However, our brains can only store so many memories. Did you know that we learn stereotypes and discrimination as young children? Did you know that they are actually our brain's way of making "short cuts" so that we don't have to use up all of the space in our memories? Let's say that as a child, you learn that a 4 legged animal that is furry is a dog. Suddenly you're calling cats dogs as well because they are furry and have four legs. That is a stereotype. You assumed that the 4 legged animal was a dog, because that's what you knew. So now you have to learn to correct yourself. A four legged animal that meows and has fur is a cat and not a dog. Can you see how you can learn to change stereotypes? You learned that although dogs and cats are similar they are not the same. Humans can do the same things with other humans - with other humans being involved, our stereotypes can get corrected quite often and to our advantage.

One might meet a really cocky and mean jock. They assume that all jocks are just like the first person. They then decide they won't associate with any jocks, just because they made a generalization based on the first jock. Let's say said person meets a nice jock in the future - stereotype is updated and corrected. It's human nature to have biases, stereotypes and discrimination, especially if certain stereotypes are learned during our very sponge-like development as a child. What's important to remember and focus on, is that we can correct our negative stereotypes even if they are learned and deep within us. It just takes effort, effort which, unfortunately many people don't care to put in.