Stereotypes

Stereotypes. These are the common categories we use to cheat our way through the interpretation of a person's personality through their general appearance. Members of a social group or 'clique' are often slotted together under the same stereotype.

On a first impression we can make up our mind on how we perceive someone in just the first 3 minutes we meet them. This means what a person wears, what they say, how they hold themselves, their actions... all within only a snapshot of their lives. Quite often our initial assumptions about a person are wrong. So here we are, walking past a teenage girl with bright blonde hair, dressed in pink, holding a duffel bag in one hand and texting off her cellphone in the other. We take a look, absorb the scene, and then stereotype her as 'the dumb blonde'. Pretty, self absorbed, girl, materialistic... these are all connotations of her image that we see through the media is this dumb blonde stereotype. But this could be very wrong, there could be several reasons for how she presents her self and we don't know anything about her other than this appearance. So unfortunately we judge them based on this.

Why would we do this? Surely it has been drummed into us enough times that appearances aren't always what they seem? But unfortunately there is a conflicting message being  drummed even harder into us by the media. The media use stereotypes constantly to categorize the world into target markets and grouped audiences. This makes it easier for them to sell people products, ideas, films, opinions etc. It also works in the opposite way. Whenever a person wishes to read, watch, or purchase something produced by the media, they begin to subconsciously search for something that is then generally designed for their own 'stereotype'. Because we apply stereotypes to ourselves, and because it is so widely broad casted by the media, people begin to use stereotypes to categorize their own lives and, as I have mentioned earlier, 'cheat' their way through the interpretation of one's personality and our own personalities. With these generic personas formed in our minds, we feel we must conform to them and fulfill them even more. This means purchasing goods and services that help us live up to the stereotype or image we feel we fit.