After being at school today, I have realised how much teenage stereotypes dictate how we look at people around us. Who ever you are, when looking at someone, you can't help but get an idea about them from what they were, how they hold themselves, even down to their accent!
Teenagers are apparently the worst at stereotyping, and in many cases it turns into a form of bullying. I myself have earned myself a reputation as an emo, but without anything that would actually indicate I am, other than long dark hair and a certain lack of humour when it comes to Justin Bieber. But it's such a classic case of stereotyping. People get an idea about someone based on a certain characteristic or their appearance, and suddenly it dictates their entire opinion of them. Going back to what I said before, I expected adults to do it the most. As they are exposed to more people, both in the workplace, and socially, you would have expected that they would fit people into categories. Depending on the amount of different people you meet, I guess you would meet more people that do fit into stereotypes. This might be just by looks, or by their own personal traits. Either way, teenagers are the worst at it.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying every single person looks at a fat policeman and thinks"They MUST spend all day eating doughnuts and drinking coffee!" I'm just saying that anyone can get an idea about someone if they have a northern accent, or the fat policemen and doughnut thing. How many times have you made fun of celebrities by using their accents and saying something stupid? It's stereotyping. You don't know if they do actually say stupid things, so why say they do?
Is stereotyping bulling? That's a question always asked in high schools - apparently. I think it is. You can ruin someones life by telling them they are a certain type of person. Like I said I was stereotyped as an emo, it did make me question who I was. It made me think maybe I was just how I was because I was being told I was a certain type of person. And that hurt. No matter how many times you dye your hair blond, or tell people you are not an emo, people are still going to try to fit you into a category. It's human nature, I guess, but most commonly used in American TV and films... Anyway, rant over. I'm sure everyone has fun dressing up as different "types" of people; Dumb cheerleader, geeky person who wears glasses, or even our fat policemen friend and his doughnut! Beth x
