Self Fulfilling Stereotypes Analysis

I believe that if a person from a different country was asked to give their own idea of an American white female, people would then begin to see how much of an effect this stereotype has. Another stereotype I hear a lot about is women in the military. Being a female in the military, I am consistently put into these certain stereotypes of weak, to emotional, and even being a whore. I don’t expect a civilian to understand exactly what this means but if a male, or even other female, were too be asked about this stereotype they would tell you about the same thing. I have no idea where this originated from, but I find it offensive.

Stereotypes are simple images or beliefs over the attributes assigned to a particular social group, are models of behavior that become schemes deeply rooted in our mentalities to the point that we adopt them as part of human naturalness. Stereotypes can be racial, religious, sexual and social. These could be the caused of a known incident or attitude years earlier, or simply the result of frequent rumors. Stereotypes can affect different spheres of society. These assumptions can filter into many aspects of life.

Every stereotype has its own mental picture that is thought of when mentioned or talked about. For example, every time someone thinks of a cowboy they usually think of someone that is fit and lives at the ranch. Also shown in a poll created by Jo Tweedy at the daily mail shows what race and ethnicity men and women found attractive. This shows how people picture how others look by their stereotype and misconceptions of their race and ethnicity. Many people usually create a negative setting for immigrant families such as Mexican immigrants.

In Sociology, stereotypes are described as "pictures in our heads" that we do not acquire through personal experience. I believe that stereotypes are a mental tool that enforces racial segregation and self-hate. As well justification for dehumanizing minorities. Such as Black women are "Mammy", "Welfare Mothers", "Uneducated", " Inferior", and "Poor". White women are "Pure", "Desirable", "Affluent" and "Superior".

Despite the pressure to fit the societal mold of a perfect woman, some women fought stereotype by expanding the reach of their nurturing

Annotated Bibliography Introduction: Examine different kinds of advertisements and the problem at hand with how they perpetuate stereotypes, such as; gender, race, and religion. Thesis: The problem in society today is in the industry of social media. In efforts to attract the eye of the general population, advertising companies create billboards, commercials, flyers and other ads with stereotypes that are accepted in today’s society. Because of the nations’ cultural expectation for all different types of people, advertisement businesses follow and portray exactly what and how each specific gender, race, or religion should be.

All Asians are good at math, all blondes are dumb, all Muslims are terrorists - these are all common stereotypes. Without even realizing it, stereotypes have undeniably played an enormous role in individual lives. Minds seem to already set a certain image in them based on the people they encounter. People judge others by their skin tone, ethnicity, and physical appearance unconsciously, and this have been proven by many social experiments. Of course, though these stereotypes might be accurate at times, there are situations where they are completely defied.

In a society that is heavily influenced by mass media, women are repeatedly compartmentalized into unrealistic, and often degrading standards of appearance and sexuality. Doris Bazzini’s research on magazines and Caroline Heldman’s blog explores themes related to a woman’s appearance, while Jessica Valenti elaborates on the concept of virginity in her essay titled, “The Purity Myth”. Despite the diversity in scope when it comes to womanhood, there is a numerous set of expectations that a female must fit in order to be “ideal”. However, this checklist is so specific and debasing that it renders the criteria useless. The three main pre-requisites in being the ideal woman include physical attractiveness, sexual accessibility, and purity.

Everybody has their own misconceptions of others, but how did stereotypes turn out to create false images for certain groups of people? Misconceptions are views or opinions that appear to be incorrect about a person. The misconceptions that are talked about these days often are from movies and tv shows that are watched everyday by millennials. They create a false image of particular people or things which get believed by young adults and kids. Stereotypes also have an effect on the generations of today because they are general characteristics that people believe represent a particular person or group.

In today’s society, individuals and groups are labeled with either positive or negative stereotypes. People encounter stereotypes everyday and everywhere. It is the picture people paint in their minds when approaching a group or individual when in fact it may be different in reality. Stereotypes affect a person’s way of living and thinking either in a negative or positive way. Stereotypes are based on truth but in an exaggerated way, while misconceptions are formed from having stereotypes.

Over the past week, I was tasked to choose between one of two articles that all of the incoming freshman at Union County College in preparation for the up and coming school year. This decision will forever change the way the incoming students will do before stereotyping a certain race, religion, or sexual preference. One of the articles I had to choose from was called, “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments” By Robert L. Heilbroner, while the other one was called, “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples. Both articles were somewhat similar in the fact that they both talk about how the typical person, in most situations, stereotype people in a bad or even a good way. The articles also talk and teach that stereotyping is bad and

The media portrays these unrealistic standards to men and women of how women should look, which suggests that their natural face is not good enough. Unrealistic standards for beauty created by the media is detrimental to girls’ self-esteem because it makes women feel constant external pressure to achieve the “ideal look”, which indicates that their natural appearance is inadequate. There has been an increasing number of women that are dissatisfied with themselves due to constant external pressure to look perfect. YWCA’s “Beauty at Any Cost” discusses this in their article saying that, “The pressure to achieve unrealistic physical beauty is an undercurrent in the lives of virtually all women in the United States, and its steady drumbeat is wreaking havoc on women in ways that far exceed the bounds of their physical selves” (YWCA).

According to Lippmann, “stereotypes are ‘pictures in our heads’ that we use to apprehend the world around us” (16). Stereotypes can be formed due to effects of media, as Wood describes media as pervasive, powerful and influential (31). Hence, stereotypes can be defined as inaccurate perceptions towards a group of people or community that is strongly influenced by the media. Whether positive or negative, stereotypes are usually false as they are formed based on personal judgments, which are biased or exaggerated. When stereotypes are consistently portrayed in media platforms, they subconsciously form and maintain assumed identities for the stereotyped groups.

Gender profiling, cultural, race, groups of individuals, religion and so on. Common examples of stereotypes are: girls are bad at sports. Men get better jobs than women. Women aren’t as smart as men. All Arabs and Muslims are terrorists.

Throughout history, many gender roles have been placed upon women. Women are told to be wives and mothers and to take care of the home. Women are shown to be nurturing and are told to be “good” girls or else they would be punished. All of these, plus others like, being inferior, passive, less intelligent, emotional, weak, and maintaining a lower social position are all stereotypes. By definition a stereotype ”is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of