Stereotypes “Dumb jocks”, “Women don’t belong in a professional setting,
they belong in the kitchen”, “He must be a Jew, just look at his nose.”
Our society is based solely on face values where we tend to place someone in a
category because of his or her actions. Prejudicial notations used to define
members of a social or ethnic group are called stereotypes. We stereotype
various groups of people, but none like women, different ethnic groups, and
athletes. We typically stereotype women on the job. Women normally are
associated with jobs such as nurses, secretaries, and tailors. These are jobs in
which most people would label as a tender loving care job, which requires a
woman’s touch. Women are rarely associated with the titles of a Doctor,
Lawyer, or CEO of a company. On occasion, when women are given positions of
power, they are viewed as being power hungry and male bashers. Male co-workers
would be constantly put down by their superior, who in this case would be a
woman, because the woman had to struggle through life trying to make it in a
man’s world, or so the stereotype says. In the home, women have certain
household chores, that have been naturally assigned to them: washing dishes,
laundry, dusting and cleaning, and taking care of the kids just to name a few.
These chores and household duties have been deemed a woman’s job since the
beginning of time; the man would go out and hunt dinner and it would be the
woman’s duty to cook and prepare dinner. So, after all these years, it is
still assumed that the same duties have carried through generations. It is a
stereotype that cooking, cleaning, and raising children are women’s work. The
most common stereotypes are those that are aimed towards different racial or
ethnic groups. We often stereotype young black males as being involved in a gang
because of the use of “ghetto” slang terms and the particular style and
presentation of their clothes. The media constantly portrays most gang activity
as a result from the inner city black community; however, they seldom discuss
white and Asian gang activity. We also believe that most of the African
Americans make up the largest group of people on welfare, when in reality; it is
whites that are the largest group requiring public assistance. Caucasian
athletes have stereotyped blacks as being a superior athlete and competitor.
African Americans supposedly can jump higher and run faster then their fellow
athletes. The viewing public would agree with the previous statement, because it
seems like it is true when watching sporting competitions on television, but it
is, nonetheless due to stereotypes. Professional Basketball, Football, and
Baseball players have been the victims of some harsh stereotypes in the past few
years. Hearing the public stereotype professional athletes as being dumb is not
uncommon. It is a misconception, to many people, that athletes are uneducated.
The majority of professional athletes have been educated at well-known colleges
and universities, before they ever made it into the professional teams. A
popular misconception is that the educations they did earn were majors in areas
such as Liberal Arts, or other general fields of study which would not have
challenge an athlete’s mental abilities. Another stereotype is that pro
athletes received special treatment while in college; if an athlete needed a
certain grade to remain eligible to play sports, then the faculty graded him or
her easier than the rest of the class. Recently, possibly due to the media, the
public viewed many professional athletes as being immune to rules, laws, and
regulations. There have been incidents where athletes were let off the hook with
a slap on the wrist, when a normal American citizen would have been locked up
and given a stiff sentence for the same crime. We say that it is because of the
athletes fame and fortune that they were allowed to walk free, meanwhile, we
forget that this may have been the individuals first offense. Stereotypes are
products of our own individual insecurities. They make us feel better about
ourselves because we can point a finger at a person or a group. Because of
stereotypes, we have become narrow minded and less willing to be friendly to
people different from us. Stereotypes are just another product of our society,
which focuses more on the insecurities of an individual instead of who a person
really is. Sadly enough, stereotypes will be a part of modern society for many
years to come. Athletes, women, and various ethnic groups will continue to
suffer.