Grishma Shrestha

Stereotypes are part of our everyday life. Every person, young or old, is labeled with either positive or negative stereotype. A stereotype is a belief about culture, race, or a person that has no logic or evidence to support their negative thoughts. Everyone in their lifetime has stereotyped others and has been a vision of stereotype. People tend to presume a lot about how or what other people are. They create false thinking based on what they see instead of who they actually are which can hurt people’s feeling and can also affect the society. Everyone has stereotyped others and they have also been the victim of stereotype.
Stereotype creates a misconception of how people are and how they live in other cultures, religions, or countries. This misconception could cause problem such as discrimination among people which can hurt their feelings. Some examples for it are: All Jews are greedy; girls are not good at sports; women aren’t as smart as men; and guys are messy and unclean. And stereotype also creates misconception like all Muslims are terrorists. So, people are scared of Muslims thinking that they are directly or indirectly related to terrorist groups.
Stereotype can lead to bullying from young age. It can create problems in kids and the problems can affect children in many ways. There are many stereotypical names that are created in high schools. These are labels given to individuals generally during high school years, to categorise them. They range from preps, bimbos, geeks, nerds, jocks, townies, grungers, emos, Goths, punks and the infamous chavs. It is commonly used today particularly in the UK.
Stereotype is encouraging bullying behaviour that children carry into adulthood. Some children can take dangerous steps as they cannot bear what is going on at their schools and colleges. It can make the children perform poorly in their academies. In school, when a kid is stereotyped as black, it makes him feel bad and hates himself being black.
Stereotype leads to negativity. Being judged as a specific type of person is hurtful. If we are Asians then we have to be smart; people say that our parents will beat us with stick whenever we make mistakes; and that Asians are not athletic. Same with Africans and Americans; mainly Columbians always carry drugs or they are drug dealers. Some take stereotype as fun but for some it is very serious. People do not pursue their dreams because of common or uncommon stereotypes.
Stereotype in society is something that creates a struggle for people’s different types of freedom. As there is a stereotype that girls cannot go outside when it is getting dark but boys can go out whenever they wish to and can return home at any time. Most people think that men with beard are gangsters. So, people do not want to sit next to them because they are afraid. Stereotype can damage self-esteem. People do not want to get out of their house because they think that they will be criticised about what they wear, how they act, and how they look.
As this is the 21st century, the current generation should do something to avoid the problem of stereotype. We can start changing our perceptions of stereotype. We should learn to respect and understand other cultures, religions, and countries. This could avoid many problems such as discrimination and bullying. Our world will be more powerful without stereotypes.