Stereotypes Of Assumptions

1085 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Discrimination Against Disabled People essay

How they hurt. An assumption is something we manipulate, making it into the “truth.” Looking at a girl and proposing that she can’t do certain things, or she isn’t strong enough because she is not a man, is an assumption or stereotype that is forced upon women every day. It’s disheartening, not only when we are actually given the right to do what we want and love, but then to have it suddenly ripped away from us when we are told, “You can’t do that because you’re a woman.” Assumptions blind our reasoning, inducing us to conform to what society says is true about a particular group of people. Assumptions are the reason why people are racist, sexist, or flat out mean, and it is those types of discourteous people who don’t have any excuse …show more content…

Snow suit or no snow suit, I worry that the people I meet don’t actually like me, and just act like it for the time being. They make assumptions about me that aren’t true. I’ve been told that I look like close-minded jerk that doesn’t care because I often just melt into the background, letting other people do all the talking. People perceive me as a “girly-girl” and that I would never do half of the things that I do. I love a long day at a lake and having my legs sink thigh deep into the muck which consumes the murky lake water. When I tell people I help with farming they would have never expected that I am okay with being covered in cow poop and don’t mind getting down and dirty. I have also been told that I have a bright face, and bubbly personality which always has a story to tell, along with a plethora of warm laughter to follow. These were all assumptions which people made before they advanced to know who I really was inside and out. I don’t know why I have an anxiety of meeting new people. I know assumptions are almost as false as a weather man in Michigan. The assumptions casted on me range from completely opposite aspects of different personalities, so how could they be true? People don’t understand that judging a book by its cover can hurt, not just individually but to an entire group of people …show more content…

Common assumptions are made about racial backgrounds, religion, culture, gender, economic practices and people’s appearance. Black people are often labeled criminals, just because of their skin color, people who live in trailer parks are labeled poor, and disabled people are labeled mentally challenged and aren’t able to do anything just because they may have a mental or physical impairment. It’s saddening that all victims of these things are cast with these stereotypes which lead to people making assumptions about a certain group of people. Sometimes we make assumptions without knowing we are, such as a first impression. When a person walks into a public place, their body language, facial expressions and appearance are seen by others and people instantly start making their assumptions about that person. First impressions are misleading and once you get to know a person your assumptions change

Show More
Related

  • Stereotyping in The Way We Lie by Stephanie Ericsson

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the essay The Way We Lie, Stephanie Ericsson writes that “All the ‘isms’-racism, sexism, ageism, et al.-are founded on and fueled by the stereotype and the cliché, which are lies of exaggeration, omission, and ignorance. They are always dangerous. They take a single tree and make it a landscape.” This quote is important due to the fact that stereotypes play a major role in many aspects of our society. In American society we have a tendency to pass judgment on people just because of a pre-existing stereotype that our society has formed on particular groups over the years. American Society tends to create stereotypes because of the simplicity it adds to our lives, but stereotypes can cause us to oversimplify the characteristics of others, encourage prejudice, and can even create many more severe dangers.

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling by Police

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a perfect world, everyone WOULD be judged based on the content of their character. But we do not live in a perfect world and humans have always pre-judged others based on physical and cultural differences. These are the first things we notice about a stranger, and first impressions are hard to forget. Racism and prejudice have caused us to make dire mistakes in the past, but we have learned from these mistakes and have bettered our society. However, society today is filled with stereotypes and prejudices about people of certain races. It is evident in all aspects of our lives, including media, culture, and even the legal system.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes

    481 Words  | 1 Pages

    RaStereotyping is a way of thinking about groups of people. It ignores the differences of the group, while emphasizing its similarity. One belief, that is a stereotype, is that red-haired people are hot tempered. Another belief is that Scottish people are stingy. Such thinking ignores many even-tempered redheads and generous Scottish people. Stereotyping emphasizes many differences between groups while ignoring their similarities to other people. It ignores that many blond and brown-haired people also lose their tempers. Stereotyping overlooks the fact that many American, Brazilians and French people are stingy.

    Read More

  • Stereotyping and Racial Profiling

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stereotypes can be defined as sweeping generalizations about members of a certain race, religion, gender, nationality, or other group. They are made everyday in almost every society. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Quite often, we develop these ideas about people who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact. Stereotyping usually leads to unfair results, such as discrimination, racial profiling, and unnecessary violence, all behaviors which need to be stopped.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Stereotypes In Law Enforcement

    1689 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stereotypes are influence by the prejudice or “evaluation and/or feelings towards a group” (lecture, 6/3) that you hold, and they lead to discrimination, which is “differential treatement due to group membership” (lecture, 6/3). Although some stereotypes have been proven to be correct and positive, most are false and are extremely negative. Stereotypes are extremely hard to fight in our society because they can be both implicit and explicit. Explicit stereotypes are those that are more recent and controlled (lecture, 6/3). People who are openly racist towards African Americans have explicit stereotypes. Implicit stereotypes are those that are based off of emotion, early experience and emotion (lecture 6/3). These are especially tricky because we may not be completely aware that they exist in our minds, which means they are extra difficult to change. Stereotypes can also be dangerous because they affect the way we think and behave. For example, they affect our attributions or our “explanations for behavior” (lecture 10/15/14). There are many errors associated with attributions, the ultimate of these errors being stereotype driven attributions. This error involves being “particularly likely to ignore situational information when thinking about negative behaviors from outgroup members” (lecture 10/15/14). This means that when faced with a problem

    Read More

  • Stereotypes In Recitatif

    629 Words  | 2 Pages

    Toni Morrison’s short story “Recitatif” deals with the reader's perspective on stereotypes. It allows the reader’s mind to be creative and question who is the African American women and who is the Caucasian women. The short fiction is based on two main characters; Roberta and Twyla. Neither women’s race is discussed in the story but they are, in fact, different. The setting took place in St. Bonny's shelter where both had no other choice but to be placed together. Roberta and Twyla were not fully considered “orphans” because their parents were not dead; one was sick and one was a dancer. Being that they are not actual orphans, many of the others did not want to hangout with them. “Recitatif” was also filled with stereotypical references to

    Read More

  • Appearance Deceives In Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many people’s assumptions are driven by appearance but in some cases the appearance can be

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Seeing By Annie Dillard

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Assumptions influence our perceptions because when assumptions are made, it is often the case that there is not enough information for the assumptions to be accurate. Dillard gives an example that relates to this in her essay when she says, “[We] see what [we] expect” (Dillard 20). When an assumption is formed about a person or situation, then things that agree with that assumption is what is looked for, so that is what will be perceived. This may create inaccurate impressions. Another problem with making assumptions is that it is assumed that there is consistency to others’ behavior and often the focus on negative things about others. When it is assumed that there is consistency to others’ behavior, it is assumed that after seeing them act one way once or twice, they will always act like that. (Beebe 77). These examples relate to another idea that Dillard talks about in her essay. Dillard says, “Peeping through my keyhole I see within the range of only about thirty percent of light that comes from the sun…” (21). This agrees with an idea that people tend to ignore information when making perceptions and only looking at a small portion of the big picture and make perceptions based off of that. An example that relates to all of these would be if someone expects a person to be rude, then whenever those two people interact, rude behavior will be all that is looked for and all that is given any thought. People often form perceptions off of assumptions and small pieces of the big picture which oftentimes makes those perceptions that a person might have

    Read More

  • Language, Gender, and Culture in Society

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is being perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate. Some hardly even apply to the particular group people it claims to. It is true that how people are perceived has a big impact on how other individuals interact with them; however, people are not perceiving these groups correctly.

    Read More

  • Self Fulfilling Stereotypes

    297 Words  | 1 Pages

    The article “How a Self Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Your down Performance” main’s concept is to show the common negative stereotypes and how they can affect you. The author Shankar Vedantam shows the concept by giving real life examples. Such as how if a man and women have the same SAT score, that the man is more likely to be chosen due to the greater success he may produce rather than the women. The author then goes to defend against these stereotypes with statistics that shut down the other side of argument. The author continues with this throughout the article

    Read More

  • The Importance of Female Characters in Susan Glaspell's 'Trifles'

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the Merriam -Webster Online Dictionary an assumption is a belief that something is true or a fact or statement that is taken for granted. Susan Glaspell wrote "Trifles" to demonstrate the male assumption that women are insignificant members in a male dominated society. Because the men underestimate them, the women are able to prove they are not insignificant. The improper assumptions by men toward women can have dire consequences, as demonstrated in Glaspell's world. Combating these narcissistic assumptions displayed by men can result in a unity among women that can overcome any male caused disrespect and oppression.

    Read More

  • Racial Discrimination In Society

    1483 Words  | 3 Pages

    As Hodson and Victoria (p.344) note, human beings are not born prejudiced. They develop prejudice through socialization process. The role of family, media, and education is crucial in the prejudice in individuals. Stereotyping involves the construction of unfounded ideas and thoughts concerning an individual. Stereotyping involves the construction of unfounded ideas and thought concerning an individual in the same social context (Farley, p.21). The development of stereotypes revolves around the association of individuals with particular labels of identity. The truth is such ideas and propositions cannot be proven in most situations (Brown, p.68). Hence, the individuals who uphold stereotypes in society become prejudiced toward the victims. The difficulty associated with changing stereotypes is connected to the length of time required for internalization. Individuals in particular classes of society are exposed to stereotypes in their social environment for a considerable amount of time. In consideration of the Emmanuel Church shooting, the perpetrator expressed stereotypical idealization of the African American community. He expressed biased attitude through the sole target of African

    Read More

  • Cultural and Racial Stereotyping

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most people find stereotypes to be obnoxious, especially when they have to do with sensitive subjects like gender or race. “Stereotyping is a generalization about a group or category of people that can have a powerful influence on how we perceive others and their communication behaviors” (Floyd, 61). Because they underestimate the differences among individuals in a group, stereotyping can lead to inaccurate and offensive perceptions of other people. Although stereotypes are prevalent in almost every society, becoming aware of our perceptions of others, as well as differentiating between both positive and negative stereotypes can help us overcome those stereotypes.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Chinese Film 'Beijing Bicycle'

    1505 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hook: Two men walk into a store. One is dressed in a three-quarter black business suit; his hair is gelled back and he stands in a confident pose as he stares ahead. While the other man looks downward, his hands in his baggy gray sweatshirt and he smells of alcohol. How people portray themselves can cause stereotypes and judgments to be formed within a blink of an eye. A person may read in the newspaper the next day on how a store was robbed and instantly think it was the suspicious looking man, the one with the baggy clothes. Why is this? Humans and people, in general, have always based their perceptions on people for what they look like. This all has to do with the media and social influences on how an image is made to be relevant.

    Read More

  • Essay On Social Perception

    2382 Words  | 5 Pages

    With regards to human behavior, studies show that social perceptions are formed as a mixture of experience and expectations of how a individuals defining physical or overriding characteristics will impact how we imagine that person to be for instance through their ethnicity, nationality, religion, class or if they are living with a disability. These assumptions are often deep-rooted and formed in childhood.

    Read More

More about Stereotypes Of Assumptions

Open Document