I recently read a great post about stereotyping over at Ordinary Days and it got me to thinking. You know how when you are planning a party in the ballroom of your estate, but you get sidetracked because there is a great game of lawns darts going on in the east garden and Jeeves is asking you if he can take time off to travel back to England to visit his dying mum, all along you are getting sidetracked from planing the great gala? Well, me neither. But I do know that I have been thinking a lot lately about stereotyping and why, as humans, we do it but I never got around to posting. Well, here is to getting around to it...
To stereotype. It has a such negative connotation. Well, I am here to make the point that it's not inherently a bad practice. Yes, it can cause people to misjudge others but what is the cost of not using stereotypes?
Let's hypothesize for a moment. In this hypothetical situation, you are a female (okay, this is easier for some of you to own it than others) and you are driving down a dark lonely country road. Up ahead you see a tall figure walking along the side of the road dressed in a dark trench coat. In one hand he is carrying a long silvery object and he is using the other to hitch a ride. Do you stop to pick him up? Okay folks, the resounding hell no was quite deafening.
What if I were to tell you that this man wasn't wearing a trench coat but rather he was wearing rain gear and the silvery object in his hand was a turbine blade for his plow that had broken down several hundred yards off of the side of the road in the 40 acres of farmland that he owns on both sides of this road that you are on? And you wouldn't know any of this because you just drove on by. And quite frankly, I don't blame you because he also looked like he could have been a homicidal maniac!
As grade schoolers, we were all taught the processes of categorization and inductive reasoning. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, well then, your science teacher will tell you, it must be a duck. Of course, it could be a platypus.
In trying to ascertain the difference between categorization & inductive reasoning versus stereotyping, I came across this interesting commentary by Steven J. Sherman of Indiana University on an article written on the subject by Robin Fox. Does it answer the question? Hell no, but it let's me know that it is being pondered by greater minds than mine.
So I ask you, is it wrong to stereotype?
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3 comments:
I don't know whether it's right or wrong to stereotype but it does make for some funny jokes. We were watching a commercial for Comedy Central - Steve Byrne, and he said something like "Asian female...hot....Asian male...tech support" (I hope I delivered that ok) Of course, I found this funny because I'm an Asian female. Lon cracked up also.
Well, as a female (and a mom) I can tell you that I would not stop because you only get one chance and if it's a homicidal maniac, you can't say "Whoops! Sorry! Get out!" you're just dead (if you're lucky).
However, if I drove by and it appeared that person needed help but I still wasn't comfortable to stop, I do have a cell phone and would call for help to come back to where that person was.
You unfortunately, can't be too safe.
I think it is human nature to stereotype, but we must evolve beyond and see the real person underneath. But the trenchcoat person? Um... no. I have no interest in seeing what's underneath. Pun intended.
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