Stereotypes
The concept of stereotyping exists already in the present as a part of the sociological realm based mainly on the individualistic and unique characteristic of each person. Custom essay writing service represent this factor or problem. For many is mainly rooted on the characteristic of the people in the social community particularly their differences in terms of gender, perception, social roles, and the condition of the environment they exist within. In this aspect, stereotyping comes from the unique and different perception of each individual creating discrepancies in the normative standard in the social ground. However, though, stereotyping still in the present, resides as a form of social discrimination based on the pre existing social norm which has already significantly influenced the development of the general society.
Professional essay writers put down the aim on this paper of realizing the present manifestation and influence of stereotyping, the authors established an understanding based on correlating the existence of the said social concept in the past and in the present. Indeed, the relationship between the existence of stereotyping in the past in the present are significantly different due to the circumstantial differences in the situation. However, based on the understanding of this study, certain similarities still exist in the manifestation of this discriminative behavior.
Indeed, stereotyping is an influential concept in the sociological perspective based on two dominant factors: (one) the unique characteristic of each individual and social groups, (two) the individualistic differences as well as the views and perception of the people regarding the characteristics of each person resulting to a contrasting opinion weighed upon a general social standard. The topic was open responsively by the best essay writing service, full version you can read below.
Stereotypes exist whenever there are differing expectations for different members of the group, with similar capabilities, usually having the tendency to displace one for the other. Stereotyping is a social problem that occurs in all societies all over the world. Giving at a closer look at its etymology, the word stereotype comes from the conjunction of two Greek words; stereos meaning “solids,” and typos, meaning “a model” (Schneider 8). Stereotypes may be thought of as the expectations held by one group about the attributes of another group. These expectations can be positive, negative, or neutral. For example, “it has often been suggested that male traits are seen as more positive than female traits” (Schneider 441). To back up such ‘claim,’ traditional stereotypes assert that females are expected to abide by the testament thesis on women stating that they, being the ‘mere’ helpmate of her spouse, have less power in most career fields… thus, making this pigeonhole a problem for both men and women.
Historically, we have found out that women can also play a crucial role in the society, same with what men have done and are doing, hence providing equitable sharing in terms of rights, opportunities, wealth, and the like. Riane Eisler, in her book The Chalice and The Blade, says that during the Neolithic Age, feminine presentation played a central part in the society and male dominance is not a norm. In fact, Neolithic Art shows the absence of imagery idealizing armed might, cruelty and violence-based power, and what were found were arrays of nature symbols and images of Goddesses (17). During the Bronze Age, the Minoan Culture in Greece revered the Goddesses (21). Eisler describes the Minoan culture as peaceful and having a spirit of harmony existing between men and women. The characteristics of the Minoan civilization are the following: equitable sharing of wealth, centralized government without autocratic rule and equal partnership between the two sexes. Hawkes, as cited by Eisler, even presumed that Minoan Kings may have been women. However, the high status of women in Crete was “peripheralized” and not given emphasis by scholars such as Plato. Eisler has symbolized the female sex as the Chalice representing the power of actualization while the male sex as the Blade, representing the power of domination. Through the passage of time, the situation began to reverse, from the chalice to blade. According to Eisler, at around 4,000 B.C., the steppe pastoralists brought their ideology and gods to the partnership society (44). These people included the Aryans in India, Hittites and Mittani in the Fertile Crescent, Luwians in Anatolia, Kurgans in Eastern Europe, and Achaens and Dorians in Greece. She describes this age in the word of Friedrich Engels, as “the world historical defeat of the female sex” that is linked to the use of metals in developing weapons of destruction (46). In relation to this, European pre-historian V. Gordon Childe stated that “early Europe was peaceful but gradually changed as warfare was introduced” (Riane 51).
“Alleged biological differences are either pretexts or justifications for other, often sinister reasons” (Cashmore & Troyna 4). Indeed, only people who have motives use these pretexts of biological differences to advance his own interests. In the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in Mrs. Smith’s case, this tends to be utterly outwitted. The movie reinforces women’s independence, which is blatant in the scene when the Mrs. Smith, played by Angelina Jolie, seemed to get annoyed with the idea of holding a baby. This only shows that if a woman decides and is oriented to be man-like, someone strong and masculine in character, she really can uphold such disposition. Lord William Whitelaw says “we all know that the principles of the fair and tolerant society, which we seek to uphold, will be undermined if individual fears are allowed to grow” (Cashmore & Troyna 5). If the society preempts a just nature and treatment of both sexes, then women must be empowered to live by such rights. If not, stereotyping will definitely be of existence.
As I contemplated on these radical changes in society, I remembered story that happened to me when I was 18 years old. My parents decided to send me to my sister’s home for a vacation because I did not want to travel with them at that time. My sister, who used to be a businesswoman, married someone who is ‘from the lower class’. Starting when they exchanged vows, a lot of things changed in her life including the way she perceives a family to be. From being a very independent woman, she began to shift her paradigm to motherhood. She began to think that it is motherhood that is the prime role of a woman. My sister’s husband asserts his authority as the family head in his daily dealings. At times during the vacation, I noticed that sometimes, my sister gets agitated with her new ‘job’ as a wife and as a mother to my 3-year old niece. It is not in a sense that she does not wan to become a wife and a mother, but I think it is the feeling of also wanting to pursue a career instead of simply being a housewife. She finds it hard to adjust with the new life, and her resort is to be assimilated by the new order. Her response to her condition is passive in order not to invite conflict. All these were influenced by the fusing together of different ideals from different backgrounds or social classes.
My mother’s story of a forty-year old woman led me to ponder on another thing. This woman works as a teacher and got divorced from her husband, not receiving any financial support from the latter to provide for the needs of their child. Naturally, she was heartbroken but because she saw the need of her child to be loved even more, she learned to assume both the maternal and paternal obligations single-handedly. Women who have similar conditions are tested with the big challenge of winning the ‘bread’ for their family, which is actually goes against the society’s traditional and conservative role of women.
When I got to talk to on of my friends in the United Arab Emirates, she told me a story that recently happened to her brother and her, indicating a very conservative belief, and otherwise. She came home late from her friend’s house and was seen by her brother that she had some make-up on, without the traditional sleek cloth cover in her face. Her brother loudly ordered her to not to go to her friends house with make-up on her face and without the cover, and if she wants to go, then she has to put on the cloth to cover her face. My friend always had these liberal views, responding that, by any means, she will put make-up on, without covering her face, even if her brother would see the need to kill her. This story may sound too shallow. But in a society such as the UAE, with their conservative perceptions, it would take one courageous move for a woman to swerve from their traditional beliefs and go for something more ‘liberal and modern.’ Yes, it is very possible that her society may condemn her for such ‘morally wrong’ act (in their own culture), but going beyond her fears and standing up for her right to ‘believe in something else’ may be another thing. Morality may have a different view of this matter, but the point is, especially in times of injustice, discrimination, and stereotypical treatments, women must always fight for their rights to be treated equally, with respect, as human beings. It may not be as easy as it sounds, especially since the society expects that women must ‘prove’ to be deserving of such treatment before equal acceptance in the community of male dominance.
According to Cashmore and Troyna, groups that have recognizable differences can ultimately take aside these differences when an external stimuli triggers new conflict or competition. “Put groups with physically recognizable or even inferred differences together and create conditions in which they all seek similar, limited resources (money, prestige, authority, etc.) and you raise conflict. But when a new threat strikes at all groups indiscriminately, differences that were once unmistakably important become invisible and irrelevant” (Cashmore and Troyna, 2). However, this does not exempt the male and female groups. While there is a looming struggle between the sexes as to who is superior and authoritative, Cashmore and Troyna says that groups with differences such as gender unconsciously let go of their differences when a new conflict emerges. “Integration could perhaps be replaced more appropriately with assimilation since the underlying theme of the campaign was that ethnic minorities should discard their ethnic character, forget the culture of their parents and become an indistinguishable, upwardly mobile part of a homogeneous British nation. Being British, in this version, is instead of, not as well as, being an ethnic minority group member. It is also one-way; acquisition involves loss. In response to the campaign’s assertion that there are ‘no “blacks”, no “whites”, just people’, it could still be argued that there are manifestly black and white people who want to regard themselves and be regarded by others in those terms without necessarily inviting conflict” (Cashmore and Troyna , 7).
True-to-life situations may indeed prove such claims of taking aside recognizable differences among people, even ordinary ones. Our thirty-eight year-old Asian housemaid had to work in this country to provide for the needs of her family because her husband is currently unemployed in her home country. She explained to me that although her husband was the one who planned to work in a foreign country, the high demand for women caregivers in our country resulted in her being the one who have to go abroad to become the domestic contract worker. This again proves that significant gender differences between a husband and wife can be taken aside when an external factor tries to threaten the interest of the two as parents.
According to Richard Petty, researchers found that negative stereotypes hurt the people who hold those stereotypes” (1). Petty, who is a professor in Psychology at Ohio University, explains that a study about race found that white students who were subtly primed to think about racial stereotypes of African Americans performed worse on a math test than did other white students who were not so primed to stereotypes (1). The results suggest that white people who are made aware of stereotypes that Blacks don’t do well in school may impair their own academic performance, at least in the short term. It sounds strange, but people who think about stereotypes of other groups may act in ways that are consistent with that stereotype even if they are not part of that stereotyped group.
The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, where the study by Petty appeared, indicates that among 157 non African-American college students who participated in the research, all were instructed to write an essay about a day in the life of a college student named either “Tyrone” or “Erik” Walker, and then take a math test after writing the essay. Tyrone is a stereotyped-African American name and Erik is a stereotyped-white student name. The research finds out that after writing the essay, students who wrote about “Tyrone” scored lower on the test than do students who write about “Erik.” The same may happen to someone who is exposed to gender stereotyping. Therefore, men also can be hurt from the women’s stereotype.
Being born as a man or woman without choice is not a curse. Discriminated women, and people from ethnic or minority groups must not be considered subordinated to men, and people from the Caucasian class. Society’s judgments are not absolute and people merely make them. It should never be a matter of physical factors: racial type, gender, or skin color. Rather, it should be a matter of humane decisions, upholding of truth for everyone’s welfare, and the advocacy to love life without putting others’ lives and dignity in jeopardy.
Works Cited:
Schneider, David J. The Psychology of Stereotyping. Guilford Press, 2004.
Cashmore, Ellis, and & Troyna. Introduction to Race Relations. New York:
The Falmer Press, 1990
Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and The Blade. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987.
Petty, Richard. Racial stereotypes hurt academic performance — in whites.
25 Mar 2001. eurekalert.org. 27 Mar 2008
<http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-03/OSU-Rsha-2503101.php>
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