Things are not always as they appear. You may think someone is a certain way because of how they dress and carry themselves this is called stereotyping. Many people stereotype without even noticing that they are doing it. Everyone has his or her right to first impressions, but stereotyping is wrong. There are many examples of this topic in literature as well as in our society today. The main population accused of stereotyping is teenagers; they are seen as rude and judgmental. For example, in high school the people are divided into groups by how they dress and whom they hang out with.
There are the skaters, freaks, preps, snobs, cheerleaders, jocks and nerds. No one person set up these different groups, they came along as the years went by. It is not fair to automatically say someone is a prep or freak by just looking at them; the people in different groups have many of the same characteristics and the same friends. So, how can they be stereotyped if all the groups mingle anyways? Although the teenagers are usually accused of stereotyping, it occurs no matter what age you are.
For example, if an adult sees another one dressed in cheaper clothes, they might assume they are poor. Or if someone sees another with real expensive clothes, they assume they are rich. This is a false accusation, because one cannot tell if another is rich or poor by how they dress or what kind of house they live in. Some people like to save money and others like to spend it too much, it is hard to tell by looks. Stereotyping is also used in literature and films, sometimes to teach people a lesson or sometimes that is just the way the author feels about things.
An example of this is the play “Cyrano de Bergerac”. In the play Cyrano is in love with his cousin Roxane, but no body thinks that she will like him because he has a huge nose. They all judge him on his appearance and forget all about his well-rounded personality. So, he writes poetry and puts someone else’s name on it, at the end when Roxane finds out, she falls in love with him. That goes to show that appearance is not everything, regardless of what some may think. Stereotyping is also shown in a recent movie put out by Disney, called “You Wish”.
This boy wants to be popular and cool, but his friends know that it does not matter. He wishes his brother out of his life and everything changes, he becomes the star football player and his friends are different. When he tries to talk to the old ones, they are rude to him because they think he is just a conceited jock. In the end when he gets his old life back he learns to accept himself and love what he does have. Finally, places and hangouts are also stereotyped. It may not seem that it matters to stereotype a nonliving thing, but it does.
The different hangouts are said to be for different “groups”. For example, the preps are usually at the movies, the snobs at the mall, the skaters on the streets, etc. This is not right, because there is not only one group hanging out at each place, it is usually mixed; therefore, there is no reason to “assign” a group to a place. This also goes the same for adults. The rich adults are said to play golf and be found at rich club-organization, the promiscuous people at the clubs and the drunks at the bar.
This is not fair at all, not only rich people can play golf, and conservative people are allowed to go to clubs. And no one said that you were not allowed in a bar if you were not an alcoholic. In conclusion, stereotyping is wrong and will sometimes give one a false idea about how a person really is. If this continues to go on, many will miss out on that special person or friend, because they will think that they are something else. If this was solved there would be a lot less problems in the world and everyone would be a little happier.
