Fighting Stereotypes

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Recommended: Concepts of stereotypes

A stereotype is defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. There are multitudes of stereotypes in our society today ranging from the physical attributes of a person or groups of people to the behaviors of a person or groups of people. According to An Introduction to Logic, “Often the fallacy of hasty generalization can lead to damaging stereotypes made on the basis of just a few examples. Stereotypes about women, religious groups, minorities, ethnic groups, and so forth are often based on this type of reasoning” (Mosser, Ch. 4, pg. 13). Insufficient evidence is often the cause of inaccurate stereotypes and can be detrimental for everyone involved. Throughout my life, I have been placed into three stereotyped categories for example: being a redhead and hot-tempered, being a Christian that hates gays and finally, being married to a black man and will inevitably end up divorced because of the differences within the black and white cultures, these are fallacies that do not have any validity.

The first stereotype, a hot-tempered redhead, has been following me my entire life. As a child, I heard most people refer to redheads as the hot-tempered or fiery tempered person. Being short tempered and having a short fuse has been a stereotype for redheads for a long time. Many people behave differently when dealing with a redhead because of the fear of how the redhead will react. A typical argument can look like this:

P: All redheads are hot-tempered.

P: Debbie has red hair.

C: Debbie is hot-tempered.

Looking back on this stereotype makes me laugh now because I was always a very shy and introverted as a child. I am still pretty even keeled and have a great deal o...

... middle of paper ...

...going through struggles in life is from Martin Luther King Jr., “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Traveling through these life’s trials has been one of the true challenges in my life to show that the typical stereotypes are just that; a stereotype.

Works Cited

Intelecom. (n.d.). How pre-existing beliefs distort logical reasoning [Video]. Retrieved

from http://www.intelecomonline.net

Kemick, A. (2010, April 12). Stereotyping has lasting negative impact: Prejudice has

lingering effects, study shows. U.S. News. Retrieved from

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/08/12/stereotyping-has-lasting-negative-impact

Mosser, K. (2011). An introduction to logic. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

(https://content.ashford.edu)

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