In a project I have undertaken, I was required to make learn about cultural stereotypes and my personal experiences with them. This is what I learned:
A stereotype, according to the Oxford dictionary, is a noun. It is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Stereotype is just a word. Often, though, we assign meaning or bias to that word. And most often that meaning is skewed towards the negative. I was asked what stereotypes do I identify with. This made me think and the first thing I do when I need to think is research. And in my research, I made some interesting discoveries.
First, I asked my daughter, fresh out of academia. When I told her that I was working on identifying cultural stereotypes and my personal experience with them, she suggested that this topic was forcing me to use the white feminist cultural identity. I told her that I was uncomfortable talking about my experience as a white woman in suburban Canada when I live in a resplendently diverse country. She asked me if I ever felt that I was the subject of a stereotype. I might be naive, but my answer was “no”. I couldn’t think of a time that I was ostracized, bullied or attacked because of who I was. I am lucky. Privileged.
I next turned to Google for help. I typed in stereotype stories and the first page of Google was all about gender identity. Not gender identity for me as a woman. Gender identity for those questioning whether the world will accept them with the gender identity they chose. I identify as a woman. I do not question my identity and the recent gender challenges haven’t caused me any issues. I know which box to check on a survey.
Then, I turned to TED. TED gives us a wonderful array of personal stories and ideas. When I typed in stereotype, thirty talks come up. The first one on the list, I assume because it actually used the word stereotype in its description is a talk to help remove my stereotype against organic chemistry. Honestly, I didn’t know I have one. And after I watched the video, I realized I did have the bias that organic chemistry is hard.
There were other TED talks that introduced me to stereotypes and beliefs that I might hold: Millenials are lazy, entitled avocado toast lovers; women go crazy just before their period; ageism is a prejudice against your future self; many superheroes are straight white guys. What I discovered was that stereotypes are sometimes simple ideas that swirl around us, whether we realize it or not.
The most fascinating discovery I made was the origin of the word stereotype. It comes from French printmaking. A stereotype is a mould from an object that can be used to make more of that object. The stereotype makes exact duplicates of an object.
When a mould is made everything can remain the same. This can be useful when printing books or making plates. The mold or stereotype can be limiting when it is used with people.
Today we are more aware than ever the stereotypes that dog us everyday everywhere.
As with a mould, we have two opportunities when dealing with stereotypes: We can break them or we can use them to show up and paint them with our own design.