Stereotyping…

The evil that walks the halls of high school

by Kasie Hebert

Definition: Stereotype n. a standardized conception or image of a person or specific group or objects. Popular Culture: An Introductory Text, by Jack Nachbar and Kevin Laus

Have you ever referred to the people who seem like they may have a lot of confidence, outgoing, social, or dressed to the highest potential as “preps”?

Have you ever thought of the people who wear black ensembles to be “freaks”?

Have you considered people who wear Wrangler jeans with rodeo belt buckles as the people who are “country”?

Have you recently referred to the people who are so called naïve and unfamiliar with the social and intellectual life on campus as “stupid freshmen?”

Take a look around you and think about it; is there anyone in your class that you stereotypically judge because they don't have the same interests as you?

Nothing to be alarmed about, because stereotyping is often a natural function of the human species and its cultural mind. On the other hand, the culture we live in is only endorsed upon the beliefs that we have as free-willed human beings.

Of course you have a positive stereotype and a negative stereotype. Unfortunately, in high school, we are surrounded by more negative than positive ones.

So often, this stereotyping at the adolescent level can cause frustration and unhappiness to its victims if we consider the characteristic to be unacceptable among the population.

The bottom line is that stereotyping simplifies the traits that make people so unique.

A stereotype only covers minimal aspects of a person's life and does not delve into who a person actually is.

So what if you don't like to do the same things as someone else...you can't judge a person until you really get to know them.

So the next time you're sitting next to someone that doesn't like, or do the same things as you, strike up a conversation with them because you never know just what you might have in common.