Stereotypes: Obscuring Lenses in Society

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Stephen Bonnycastle in his criticism, In Search of Authority, explains stereotypes as, "The system (sometimes known as “the patriarchal order”) that causes the majority of men and women to take on these different roles ... hidden, like the rules of grammar in a language."(10). When a stereotype is introduced into a situation for a extended period of time, it is psychologically proven that it will become an expectation. Stereotypes prove to act as an obscuring lens into which most people view the world. When a person is unaware of a culture, race, gender they mainly use the stereotypes to judge them against. Stereotypes are not just a generalization of a group of people, "stereotypes warrant a closer analysis, because they powerfully shape the reality of gender differences..."(Brody 396). The effects of stereotypes go deeper than just male and female, race against race, "everyone is vulnerable to stereotype threat, at least in some circumstances"(reducingstereotypethreat.org). Stereotypes overall cause negative side effects, some fatal. These side effects are psychological as well as physical. People who …show more content…

As put by Holy Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany 's, "Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot."(Capote). When a positive stereotype is introduced and one lives up to it or works toward it the results can be progressive. Generally positive stereotypes increase and improve performance in individuals when introduced. An interesting experiment showed that when tested, "Each group performed better on the task they believe the opposite gender underperformed on"(Krendl, Gainsburg, Nalini). When the group believed they would do better, they did indeed. Positive stereotypes encourage people to do better and to be better. In this case, stereotypes give confidence instead of taking it away showing that sometimes stereotypes can be

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