Stereotypes Essay, Research Paper

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are things that everyone in this day in age has to deal with. Everywhere we look we find ideas that one thought to be typical of a certain race, ethnic group or age ranges. Pop-culture has its share of stereotypes. From mass media to published writings stereotypes find a way to rear up and present themselves to all audiences.

The movie Boy s Don t Cry is a depiction of the true story of a female, Tina Brandon, wanting to become a man, Brandon Tina. Although she doesn t make it to the surgery to physically become a man, she still takes on the role of what she thought was the stereotypical man. Going for a ride on the back of a pick up truck was one of the things she did to ensure her friends that she was a man. She also felt that the stereotypical man drank beer all day and did drugs, so in turn she began to do the same. There were also the sexual relations she had with females, which were part of what she thought was being a man also the fact that she confused about her sexual identity.

Another example of stereotypes in popular culture is seen in the film Merchants of Cool. To make the big bucks, companies try to target and analyze the stereotypical teenager. The teenagers they target are the ones that always go for the spot light, for what is trendy, and the teens that go for whatever is popular. These teens are a gold mine for retailers today. MTV spent some time and money with a few kids in order to find out exactly what it was that was popular, and what it was that they could make to get people to spend millions of dollars on.

In the essay Give Her a Pattern by D. H. Lawrence, female stereotypes are extremely criticized. His main objective is that most if not all women unceasingly try to adapt themselves to what men think women should be or act like. He feels that women are afraid to be anything different then what men want them to be, maybe for the fear of rejection, or unappreciation. She also points out that prostitution is the eternal secret ideal of men (Lawrence, Pg. 213). The women who dress and act slutty, and hang out on street corners are branded with this stereotype simply because that s what men want. Even if these skin showing females are just minding their own business and are not looking to make some money, they are still stereotyped as prostitutes. If you were to picture a female standing out on the street in a mini skirt, and a shirt that exposed most of their stomach, you can imagine the thoughts of people both men and women that pass by.

The Stereotype by Germaine Greer, deals with the idea that women should be dressed in the finest clothes, and have all the riches they want. Greer gives the idea that the woman is a showcase for her mate. The man gets to buy her things and make her more and more beautiful, then she goes out and shows it all off. Another stereotypical idea that is portrayed in this writing is that men are the ones to go off to work all day while the woman wonders the streets, and the finest stores, and hotels, with her husbands money, buys whatever she wants and then has enough time to come home, greet her mate from a hard days work, and have dinner ready on the table. In my opinion this stereotype is more present in today s society than some people would like to believe. Women would like to believe that they are exactly equal to men, that they can do whatever a man can do, and just like a man can go to work everyday. This is true to some extent, there are things that women cannot do that men can do, I think football is the only sport that women haven t tried to take over. Although women want to portray to all this idea that they are unstoppable, they have to come to realize that its ok to be different than a man, and that they are not always going to be the ones making differences.

Stereotypes don t stop at the home, and with teens, they go all the way to widely sponsored events such as the Miss U.S.A. Pageant. Studs Terkel has a writing called Miss USA, this is a personal experience essay where the writer had her time in the spot light as Miss U.S.A. She didn t totally regret the idea of becoming this beauty queen but regretted deeply the ideas that went along with it. She said that when people speak about beauty queens, there are certain images that the women are labeled with. One popular image for this situation she refers to as t and a, tits and ass (Terkel, Pg. 332). The stereotypical beauty queen is to have a beautiful body and beautiful features. Talent goes as far as a five minute rehearsed skit that is designed to make the contestant seem somewhat intelligent. Then the stereotype story goes on as if the beauty queen has no say in anything. Paraded around to be shown off then to have her place taken by another beauty.

I don t think we will ever live in a world without stereotypes. People are just to accustom to them. They use them for financial gain, to gain a perspective on, or to judge someone they first meet, and unfortunately to mock others to gain acceptance by those with the same views. Though people may be against stereotyping I am pretty sure that everyone somewhere along the line has taken part in this cruel way of thinking.