Stereotypes, The Black and White Truth

This week in class we read "Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men?" by Matthias R. Mehl. This article was published to display the results of the experiment that Mehl and his team conducted to see if the stereotype of women being more talkative than men was true or not. Turns out, it isn't true, yet a lot of people assume it's true without second thought.

Stereotypes are just oversimplified labels given to people that society believes to be accurate representations of the people in question. Think about it, how many times have you applied stereotypes to people without realizing it? Have you ever been able to tell how smart someone is just by looking at them? Ever labelled someone as a jock or nerd based on their physique or the number of books they read? Ever seen someone read comics and think they don't care about school? Felt like all guys play video games or that girls never do? Even age groups have stereotypes, but do all teens rebel?

Labeling of any kind, whether it's truthful or not, never helps anyone. It teaches someone that they have certain expectations that they have to live up to because of their race, gender, hobbies, age, or other characteristics that they don't necessarily have any control over. If they can't reach those expectations, they are excluded by society and the people in it. Often, they feel constraints and boundaries that they are not allowed to cross. Sometimes it gets really tough for teens, even adults to cope with. Yet we still continue thinking in stereotypes and raising children to fit them. I mean, how twisted does one have to be to tell a kid to be smart just because they were born into a certain race, or to tell a child that they're a nerd because they read, or dumb because they don't, or that they should or shouldn't play video games because of their gender.